Austin Ferraiuolo Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 My town has a fair every fall and they have local crafts and vendors. My question is what would be a good list of items to have to sell that are fairly easy to make and can turn a good profit. How much extra should I take and should I if I can fire up my forge and let people watch me work. What has worked for you and what has not. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 The short and truthful answer is - under $20 and looks good in a double wide. There are several related posts concerning fairs , etc.. Look in the business category here on the forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSW Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Bottle openers, key fobs, split crosses, plant hangers ( look good on display with a colorful plant in them) , dinner triangles, horse shoe stuff... The list goes on and on. As mentioned there are any number of threads on this. I try to have a variety of items in the $5, $10, $15 and $20 range. As far as whether or not to fire up your forge, that can be a bit tougher to call. Keep in mind it's tough by yourself to both sell and forge. With two people it works better. It's too easy to get distracted and ruin a piece. In a small event I may not want to bother with all the gear needed to set up. Also if you use coal, you won't make many friends with those who are set up next to you if you end up with a lot of smoke. Having said that, I find that working at my forge brings people over to see what I'm doing when I demo at the Grange fair for a week every summer. I choose small quick projects to do when people are watching. Bottle openers, split crosses ( blanks preped in advance) leaf or feather key fobs, horse shoe hearts etc. I save bigger more time consuming projects for 1st thing in the day when there's almost no one around and I can just work. I have found that most times when I do a demo and make say a bottle opener, I'll have someone buy that one right on the spot. Having a few extras sitting on the table for those who want one, but don't want to wait helps. I take what I have, but make sure I have plenty of cards with my name and number on them so if I run out, people know how to contact me. I also bring a book of picts showing many of the things I've done in the past that might be a bit bigger than what I have on hand, say the grape leaf wine rack I made as a wedding gift last year. I also put some thought into how I display those items. Again plenty of threads here on that subject. Bring lots of money to make change with you. Nothing worse than having someone want an item and you can't break the $20 they have. Don't expect other vendors to help you out with this. They have the same problem you do. That's one of the reasons I price things in $5 increments. I'll bring a bunch of $5 bills and a few $10's to make change. Pricing things in dollar increments means you'll need a boat load of ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 For sales I would sign up with Square. That little device has made sales for friends of mine who are artists. Just plug it into your smartphone, and swipe the card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpankySmith Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 I've sold more split crosses and bow-tie hooks than anything else combined. Card reader is important, as Bigun mentioned. Square has one, Paypal has one, there are several out there for you to compare rates/policies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Put yourself in the buyers shoes, what would attract you to a booth, something different than the booth next to it, like maybe an anvil at work, take impulse buy items like mentioned above and under $20. Again ask yourself how much you would spent without thinking a lot about it? 16 hours ago, Austin Ferraiuolo said: what would be a good list of items to have to sell that are fairly easy to make and can turn a good profit. How much extra should I take These are the 6 million $ questions that has been around for 6 million yrs. esp. the good profit part. Are you going to have a tax number? Card swipe will leave tracks for the tax department to follow you home. Good luck sure to be fun and educational and be prepared as many people on this site have commented before for " MY Grandfather was a Blacksmith and he did or that" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yves Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Under 20$ is fine to cater to impulse buyers. However here, and markets are not alike, I also sell in the 40$ to 60$ dollar range, much less than the 20$ but still. And I also bring my best work, parts of a balustrade, a study of a handrail, expensive hardware. The expensive stuff is a window on what I can do. Every year, this more impressive stuff than a 5$ 3 inch s-hook will bring me one or two important commissions, people who see what you can do. Also, I bring a computer and show people pictures of what I have done. I do not put my business cards on the table. I keep them in my pocket. I hate to see people who make collections of business cards and do not even look at what you offer. I give them to people who ask for them. It is a good way to engage a conversation, to open a door. Or, as I have seen one do, he writes his prices of business cards and attaches them to his objects. You could do both. … In fact I think I'll do both next time. And do look into the "fair" subject here on IFI. This question of what one can make to bring to fairs has been answered umpteen times. Good stuff out there. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 I had a coal fire at a fair, and the other vendors complained of fly ash landing on their displays. I also had a couple of small items stolen. The robbers are quicker than a snake astrikin'. I therefore got a display case with a hinged plexiglass top. Have a lot of change so that you can make change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Yup I use a hole punch and make my business cards into price tags thatway you know folks who have them like your work and are willing to pay for it! A few extras, unpunched for handing out to folks on spec as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 5 hours ago, Frank Turley said: I had a coal fire at a fair, and the other vendors complained of fly ash landing on their displays. A good argument for using a portable gas forge for this kind of event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 A gas forge is a LOT more likely to get past the FD at a fair too. There are ways to disguise them for Ren fairs as well. Can't be getting on the wrong side of the "Period" police you know. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Thomas, Business cards as price tags, I had not thought of that. Do you mind if I pinch the idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 41 minutes ago, Wayne said: Thomas, Business cards as price tags, I had not thought of that. Do you mind if I pinch the idea? I'm sure he'll be okay with you using the idea, I don't even know if he asked when he adopted the idea. I sure didn't I just started doing it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 A friend who sells at fairs only hands out cards to buyers, and those that she feels are really interested. Instead she has them like her FB page and gets their email addresses. The day before the fair she does an email blast, and Facebook posts before, and during the fair. She gets better results, and sales that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 3 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said: A friend who sells at fairs only hands out cards to buyers, and those that she feels are really interested. Instead she has them like her FB page and gets their email addresses. The day before the fair she does an email blast, and Facebook posts before, and during the fair. She gets better results, and sales that way. More and more folk are using FB, it's too chaotic for me to keep straight in my head. I'm not really selling anything so it's no matter and my FB file isn't full of kids saying . . . kid things. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 She has a page for just her jewelry, and you can set it up so only certain people can post, reply, or none at all can post to it. With everyone so busy today, and the associated information overload, if you tell someone a week in advance they will forget. Tell them the day before, and the day of, and the show up. I have artist friends who use FB very effectively to sell their art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 14 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said: She has a page for just her jewelry, and you can set it up so only certain people can post, reply, or none at all can post to it. With everyone so busy today, and the associated information overload, if you tell someone a week in advance they will forget. Tell them the day before, and the day of, and the show up. I have artist friends who use FB very effectively to sell their art. I have a lot of friends who have almost completely changed over to FB for marketing. I just don't sell stuff so marketing isn't an issue. If you're marketing on FB, how do you take orders if it's a closed group? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 My friend who does the jewelery doesn't take orders. She only sells at fairs,and festivals, so she just let's people know where she will be. The customers come to her. One of my painter friends has an open page, and he has sold paintings before he was done with them. I have also seen him sell a few $300-$500 paintings within 15 minutes of posting it up as done. One way to filter the crap out of a page is to have it set where you have to review the post before it goes up. There are lots of options. Social media, be it FB, twitter, instagram, etc can be very effective when selling to the connected generation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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