I need help pricing

[Austin Ferraiuolo]

This week I made a camp tripod and I have posted it on craigslist and many swap and shop pages on facebook for multiple prices and can't get anyone to buy it what would you sell this for? What's the best way to sell things.

[Kozzy]

The problem is you are working with a very small market and an item which one can buy comparable (in usage) for 25 bucks on Amazon.  There are some higher priced versions but again, the small market bites you a bit.  Absolutely nothing wrong with your offering and a lot of things right--don't get me wrong here.  People just need a MUCH more compelling reason to plonk down the extra cash it takes to make your offering a profitable product.  YOU have to give them that compelling reason as they NEVER come up with it on their own.

You'll never compete with the Chinese cheap or generic market on an item like this:  The trick will be to incorporate some improvement which makes a buyer desire yours over the other offerings to the point of paying what it's actually worth--and explain that to them without them knowing you are explaining that to them.  Remember, it's about "selling the sizzle and not the steak" so when you create an object, you need to think about what builds that desire and not simply rote function.  Desire is driven by emotion so you also need to bump that end of the equation.  Sell the historical aspect of "cook like the chuckwagons of the past" for example so there is some emotionally driven reason to desire the piece.  Another trick to enhance desire is tell a more complete "story".  For example, buy a $ 10 camp cooking book (I have seen some that focus on tripod dutch oven cooking), raise your price by $ 15, and include the book in the deal (with some sizzle marketing, of course).  "Your grandkids can learn how Great Great Great Grandma did it while she crossed the plains in that covered wagon" (you can do a lot better with some thought and knowledge of the buyers in your area)

Almost everyone hates learning about the marketing aspect of goods but there really are a ton of good "tricks of the trade" to be had with a little marketing education.  It's actually a more complex field than it sounds like at first and really worth a little time for anyone making products that need to be sold.  Sales/marketing is a craft that takes as much education as banging iron to be skilled at.  Don't underestimate that aspect of your business education if you want to build a viable business.

[ThomasPowers]

I've been picking up old cast iron skillets and granite ware "cowboy" coffee pots and then sell the "set" at The Day of the Cowboy or Old Fort days.

I once made a range of open fire cooking tools as prizes for an "seige cooking" contest---all the winners wanted the tripod so I made several more at that event.

[Frosty]

I'm afraid that's not very marketable as it sits. As mentioned they're dirt cheap online. Yours doesn't reconfigure into a spit for rotisserie goodies. There's no artistry at all, not even hammer marks. Sure the S hook and chain work but folk looking for hand forged want a trammel and hand forged chain, not plated Home Depot chain. Take a look at camp cook gear, tripods are just the start with the same 3 legs.

I'm not looking to be critical but you need to be realistic about marketing your work. Do some research and see if the product is available already, what it looks like, costs and how you can produce the same for significantly less or something significantly more desirable. I don't say significantly accidentally if you can't beat the competition in some significant manner you'll find yourself spending money to work.

Frosty The Lucky.

[VaughnT]

Can't get people to buy it?  Honestly, that's no surprise.  Not only are you competing against mass-produced stuff, but you have to build your clientele.  The types of people that buy the cheaper options aren't the kind of people that you should be marketing to.  You need to create a story that people want to buy into.

And, you have to have a ton of products for customers to choose from.  Would you spend long in a store that only had one thing on the shelves?  You've got to give the customers options.  The person that doesn't want a tripod might want a squirrel cooker or trivet.

I've had items sitting around for years before they sold.  It takes time to find the customer that wants it, and until that happens, it collects dust.  

[ThomasPowers]

The best way is to get off the internet!  Better to sell such things person to person and preferably in a venue where they are being used.  Got a local campground?  Have you shown it to the local SCA group?  Rendezvous'ers ?  ACW reenactors?   Once folks associate your name with well made stuff then it's time to do the web sales thing.

[rockstar.esq]

I have a few suggestions on the product itself.  Cooking with a fire seems similar BBQ, but it doesn't take long for people to realize how truly uncomfortable most of the "historical" set ups really are.  Trying to place a piece of food on that grille would require squatting, and fairly precise fiddling to work the food between the tripod legs.  Once loaded, any imbalance in the weight on that grille is going to spill everything into the fire.  You might correct that by making adjustable hangers on each leg that would let the user lock the grille in place.

Moving past the actual food holding part, the cook's going to struggle with all their implements.  Tongs or forks to move the food have nowhere to go.  Squatting is particularly uncomfortable for a lot of people so they're not going to want to run back and forth between a table to get their necessary utensils and serving dishes.

It's awfully annoying to stoke a fire that's covered in obstructions too.  Uneven cooking temperatures won't endear the design to a cook either.

There are some round fire-pit/ charcoal grilles on the market with rotating platforms mounted on pivots around the circumference of the pit.  That makes it possible to rotate grilles of varying heights over the fire to control the heat and the fire.  The platforms also give the cook somewhere to set things down.  Building the whole shebang so the grilling surface doesn't require stooping makes it a whole lot more attractive.

 

 

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Look up the German schwenker grill.