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One of the more difficult aspects of being a handmade artisan is knowing how much people are willing to pay for your handmade goods.
One of the quickest ways to find out how much you can sell your items for is to do some market research and find out how much similar items are selling for. While I can’t tell you what you should charge for a particular item I can give you a list of several websites I use to do research and compare prices.
Etsy treasuries are a great place to go to see some of the more popular items on Etsy. Clicking around at some of the items listed will give you an idea of what similar work might sell for.
I use Craft Count to see who the top sellers on Etsy are in various categories. If you click on the seller’s link it will take you to their store. Looking at their pricing can give you a really good idea of what you can get for your items. It stands to reason that if a shop is a top seller they’ve pretty well figured out the pricing game.
Artful Home is a great site if you are looking to sell to interior designers. Especially if you create high end products.
Of course, there is always eBay too. If you go to the categories and find “Home, Outdoors & Decor” then “Crafts” then “Handcrafted and Finished Pieces” and finally at the top of the center column click on “Completed Listings”. You can then sort them by price. This will give you and idea of the products that are actually selling and the number of bids a product received. And of course, you can see what people paid for the items.
If you have a membership with Wholesale Crafts (a site that lists items for sale to wholesale buyers) you can see what other artisans are charging for their work. Who knows, you may also decide to list your work here too!
Of course there is always Amazon which most of us don’t think about going to for handmade items (I didn’t until recently). Just go to the site and type in HANDMADE and make sure you are looking in “All Departments”. Then in the left hand column you can further sort your search results. You can sort your listings by popularity and average customer reviews to get an idea of what’s selling.
Finally, don’t forget places like QVC. Type in the name of a craft item you are making and see what comes up. Or just type in the word “handmade”. Note where the item IS handmade (maybe not the US) and how much it is listed for. QVC has a reputation for buying items that sell so, hopefully, you can find helpful information there.
I hope that that list of 6 sites will give you a good place to begin researching what similar items to yours sell for and how well they sell. If you’ve done your research you will know how much you need to sell your item for to make a profit. By doing this research you will be able to determine (I hope) whether you can sell your items for enough to make a profit.
What other sites do you use to help you determine how much to sell your handmade items for?
By: Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess
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i read where someone priced their paintings by the size but could not find the formula. any suggestions? this seems like an easy way of doing this and be fairly consistent. I live in a small town in WV and want to price my paintings and crochet that will be appealing to the clientele.
Many years ago I had an artist friend who worked in acrylic and sold beautiful paintings of all sizes. She set her prices at so much per square inch. This seemed to work quite well for her.
This post is worth everyone’s attention. Good work.
Hi,
I went to the http://www.craftcount.com site but there is an error. I just want to sell my items at craft fairs and other little places. I have a website but I don’t think my crafts are professional quality yet. Etsy is a good reference but there are too many people there. Please let me know if you heard of any other sites to check prices.