Thread: Selling your work

Find a place, a business to sell your stuff. A local business supply
sells my clocks, they are the only place. Other than a few I sell
during the Motorcycle rally.

I sell my work through a couple of galleries in Sydney. Their mark-ups are high but it is all part of the game. I also do private commissions, like I am current making a Blackwood buffet for a lady. The work load is enough to keep me busy all year round but at a comfortable level. I treat the profit I make as a bonus, not an income and I am very happy with the way it goes.

Selling your good work on ebay was a big mistake in my opinion.

I'm with Wongo. A good gallery will sell your work well, and charge you for it, for private commissions, the profit's all yours, but so is the worry of finding and dealing with customers. That's not usually a problem, but can be occasionally. Word of mouth works well, it's the cheapest advertising around.

The worst is retailers who take stuff on consignment then fold and fade into the night. Do regular checks to make sure your stuff is well presented, and if payments aren't being made when they should be, treat it as a warning sign.

I have never found any method which I am happy with so I simply dont sell it anymore. Problem solved.


Ross

Originally Posted by Different

I have never found any method which I am happy with so I simply dont sell it anymore. Problem solved.


Ross

So you give all your woodwork away

Originally Posted by Wongo

I sell my work through a couple of galleries in Sydney. Their mark-ups are high but it is all part of the game. I also do private commissions, like I am current making a Blackwood buffet for a lady. The work load is enough to keep me busy all year round but at a comfortable level. I treat the profit I make as a bonus, not an income and I am very happy with the way it goes.

Selling your good work on ebay was a big mistake in my opinion.

Agree with Wongo. Selling work on eBay is a big mistake.

One of the things that I did learn in business in my teenage years was not to let any customer be more than one third of your business. That way if he doesn't pay or doesn't answer your phone calls your not up the creek without a paddle.

If one gallery is selling all your stuff and it folds, your left in a pretty bad situation.

Timberbits

There is a site called etsy. It specializes in handmade things. The quality and price is pretty variable. And most of the stuff is small scale. But could be a good string to ones bow. It is hard (if not imposible ) too tell if anyone actually sells anything on there. I have been thinking about trying it. Most of the site looks pretty "girly" but that is who does the most buying isn't it.

Originally Posted by tea lady

It specializes in handmade things.

Did you mean hand crafted things?

Originally Posted by Wongo

Did you mean hand crafted things?

Hand made, hand crafted. Some of the stuff looks a a bit "crafty" but as i say, the quality and price are a bit variable.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Hand made, hand crafted. Some of the stuff looks a a bit "crafty" but as i say, the quality and price are a bit variable.

Been looking at etsy. for 1/2 hour before I realized it is in USA.
Some of the wood toys are very cheap.I wouldnt sell for that price.

I sold a piece once.... Mostly I do WWing for fun, my bowls and boxes are on whims and are fun and gifts and just trying to complete an idea.

I do WWing for money but by request and special projects but the fun things I make are for love of the craft and I usually give them away.

You can't put a decent price on the things I produce. to get a per hour price on the goods is almost impossible as folks won't pay the price to cover the tools and expensies and time and cost of doing business. Realistic pricing cannot even touch the expenses and time,

Any China sweat shop can turn out some really neat looking things as well as my shop so how can you compete. I went to a Dollar Tree store and bought a set of wood boxes for a $ buck I bought several to put small screws into as I couldn't build them for that. Cost of the wood alone not to mention my labor.

I have some antique furniture I need to sell, (my Aunt's Estate) With today's economy who will pay the price they demand? Same goes for the fine WWing , where is the deep pockets to pay the price to please today's WWers. I have a Desk that is valued at $3500 that most likely cost less than a hundred when it was new. were it not refinished and in the same condition it would be in the tens of thousands of dollars...
Where is the bottom line or where is the common sense?

Originally Posted by AUSSIE

Been looking at etsy. for 1/2 hour before I realized it is in USA.
Some of the wood toys are very cheap.I wouldnt sell for that price.

There are australian sellers.

there is also http://dustteam.com/

and also- http://www.madeit.com.au/

Both of these seem to be jewelry and fabric dominated, (Well, exclusively actually.) even though the US etsy site did have some wood products.

Might I suggest that there is a definite gap in the market that an enterprising chap or chapette could fill. I would certainly like a decent web site to sell through.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Might I suggest that there is a definite gap in the market that an enterprising chap or chapette could fill. I would certainly like a decent web site to sell through.

Thing is, with wood, people always want to feel it, and often that's what makes the sale. Difficult to do on a web site.
Also, the photography has to be as high class as the work for a web site.

(I regret that mine isn't always)

Originally Posted by AlexS

Thing is, with wood, people always want to feel it, and often that's what makes the sale. Difficult to do on a web site.
Also, the photography has to be as high class as the work for a web site.

(I regret that mine isn't always)

All that is true, but also true for a lot of the things that are sold on the net. Even a central point of contact would be good. So people can find things. Like a wood workers directory.