Question on Selling at craft fair

[Mike Marmon]

Greetings All;

I am going to be participating in my first craft fair next weekend. The mental hurdle that I am trying to get over is, how do I mark the prices of individual items? I have thought about small tags on pens and bottle stoppers, but what about bowls and hollow forms? I don't like the idea of attaching stickey tags, but not sure what to do. I appreciate your response.

Mike

[Cody Colston]

I attach the small, sticky tags to the bottom of the vessel. Most people will immediately look at the bottom of a piece they are interested in and will see the price.

I've tried cards placed in holders with the price, type wood, etc. on it but it's a pita as people constantly misplace the cards and I have to keep re-arranging the display.

I have some tags with twine on them that I use for small items like pens...just tie them to the pen with a loop.

Hope this helps.

[Greg Just]

I getting ready to do a craft show myself. Bowls are tagged on the bottom with a "care card" taped inside the bowl. Ornament, wine stoppers, pens have string tags tided to them. I have a few toothpick holders and they are filled with toothpicks and then wrapped in a clear cellophane wrap with a prce tag on them

[Reed Gray]

For me, hollow forms, boxes, and vessels have stickers on the bottoms. My bowls are up on shelves with flat work (furniture) under. I have the bowls in stacks, and stickers on the shelves. I use a soft oil on the bowls so stickers won't stick to them, and hand out a care card with the sale. People do mess up the stacks though.

robo hippy

[Richard Madison]

I print names and prices on plain paper. My wife cuts them out, sticks them to the turnings with small pieces of the easy-to-remove masking tape. Crude but effective. The downside might be that it doesn't encourage folks to pick up the work (to look at price on the bottom).

[Jim Silva]

I've been having success with using scrapbooking repositionable tape.
This tape is available at Target, Walmart, etc where they have scrapbooking supplies and leaves no residue when removed.

I've been using my business cards which fold in half to write the item's description and pertinent info on and sticking it on the bottom of the piece with the afore-mentioned tape. Putting the price in one corner of the card will allow it to be clipped off should the buyer wish to give the piece and the card with it but not display the purchase price.

Jim

[Curt Fuller]

I haven't had a lot of experience with selling, but I also don't like the idea of sticky price tags on the wood. If you're manning your booth at the craft fair, you could do what the galleries do, make a small card with a description of the piece and the price. Either a flat card or some kind of folded tent card would work. But if the craft fair has a central check out that probably wouldn't work. In that case you might have to use some kind of sticky price tag that will stay with the piece.

[Ed Frie]

How about a big old staple gun. That'll work, won't it?

[Mark Hix]

I just did my third craft fair this past weekend. I am in the learning phase. I had one 6' table with pens, scoops, ornaments and a few bowls.

I had kind of a mixture of pricing methods. Bowls had small tags tapped to the bottoms, scoops were in a larger bowl w/ a sign, ornaments were on a 2.5' christmas tree clamped to the back corner of the table with a small sign against the trunk. The pens were grouped by price point except some high end ones that had individual string tags. The signs were printed on my computer to make them look uniform and neat.

It worked well, I almost sold out of ornaments and scoops and sold enough pens to feel like a success.

[Denis Puland]

Hi
I see an advantage of putting the price tags on the bottom of the piece to encourage the customer to pick up and feel it.

But!!!!!!!!.

I also see it as a huge problem when you as a customer are interested in various pieces. You have be constantly picking up pieces to compare prices.

Just visualize your self in a department or grocery store where there were no visible pricing of the different brands and you had to pick each piece up and look on the bottom.

I use card stock paper cut to 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 folded as a tent with the prices pre printed on them and some with a blank space to write in price numbers.

Almost all my stuff is priced in round figure increments of $5.00 and between $20.00 / $145.00 so I have theses tent cards pre printed, folded and stored in convenient partitioned containers. For prices other then these I leave the price part blank so as to write it in on the spot.

I also use the same method for a brief description of the woods I use but do not use a card for every piece as most times the woods are grouped.

I will some times use the same method for tags describing the piece and the uses it is suited for.

I recycle the price and description tags.

It really works good for what I sell and is very convenient when you want raise or lower your pricing, no peeling off and re sticking.

I have tried the removable label thing and found that I did not like it.

I can understand that this certainly will not work for everything you sell but does work for most of my stuff.

My 2 cents worth::))
Denis

[Rich Greinert]

+1 for Ed Frie!!!!!!!!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - haven't done the craft show thing yet - so can't offer any tips. I did want to wish you luck with your sales and to ask you to get back to us with what you found worked out for you as a means of marking your products.

[John King]

Here's what I do.

Bowl = price on easily removable sitcky tag on bottom; artist's signature and wood name on bottom; buyer gets business card with bowl care instructions on back

Ice Cream Scoop - price and wood name on string tag; buyer gets business card with scoop care instructions on back
Screwdriver - price and wood name on string tag
Peppermill - mills grouped by price; tent card with price for each group; buyer gets business card; buyer gets mill operating instructions and wood name on separate sheet of paper
Bottlestopper - price on tent card with bottle stoppers displayed in front of tent card; all stoppers priced same; buyer gets business card with stopper care instructions on back

Tent cards can be a problem. Prospective buyers may place item behind incorrect tent card after inspecting the item. If outside, wind can blow tent cards away. - John

[Mike Marmon]

I appreciate all the responses to this question. I have decided to go with the sticky tags on the bowls and Hollow forms, and string tags on the stoppers and pens. We will see how it goes on Saturday. This is a small craft fair at the local Elementary school, so I have my expectations calibrated accordingly. Although I am open to being completely surprised!

I will post an update next week.

Thanks again.

Mike

[Jess Wetherhold]

For what it's worth I write the prices on small stones and set them in front of the piece. They don't blow away.

[Paul Atkins]

You could do it like the farmers market and sell by the pound.