We had an interesting discussion at our crop this weekend about the prices people charge for home made cards and invitations. A friend had seen £4.50 being charged for sloppily made "Save The Date" cards and said she made more intricate, neater cards and generally charge £2-3, which still covered her costs even after donating half to charity! It doesn't actually take much in the way of materials to make a card (mine are made with scraps from my scrapbooking) but making money from card-making does need you to do more than cover
time and materials. Maybe £4.50 is about right ... but you need to find your market: people prepared to pay that sort of sum for your hard work.
Which leads me into the
Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog's first challenge for the month: taking inspiration from another sort of market where you pay more for good quality items -
Farmers' Markets. As usual it's also the challenge being used for the Members' Blog Hop on June 24th: just e-mail them at the CKCB by June15th if you want to join in. For now, I took inspiration from the market stalls displaying boxes of healthy goodness to make a sunny card using some offcuts from my
June Counterfeit Kit.
It's good to have a few cards in hand in case you want to send someone a friendly greeting. I won't be entering the hand-made greeting card market any time soon; I prefer to make a few cards for myself and leave the marketing to others! Have you been successful making and selling your own cards? Do your prices cover costs, your time, make a proper profit? What sort of prices would you pay for a hand-made card?
15 comments:
beautiful card.
Personally I wouldn't make something to sell unless I knew I could cover my time as well as costs. How much is the national minimum wage? Someone who is self-employed should still be getting that.
Such a lovely card.
I think a lot of time and effort goes into card making, but we live in a world where everyone is trying to save money or get something for nothing, and we don't pay for people to make a proper living.
£4.50 does sound like a lot...one of the things I think it depends on is is you are able to sell them yourself or whether someone else is selling on commission for you. Years ago I made soft toys and sold them in a Craft Shop, but the shop wanted to take half of what they had sold them for. really all I was doing was getting back the cost of my materials, which meant free crafting for me but nothing else.
I sell a few cards to friends and family at £2 a time....I don't think this is a market value price....and if I was selling to the public would want to charge a bit more than that.
It always seems ridiculous to me that someone will pay £3ish in a shop for a mass produced card....but will turn their nose up at paying that much for a beautifully made handcrafted card!!
I think to make a profit from cardmaking you need to find an outlet where the buyers have the money to spend a reasonable amount.
That card is sunny and summery.
I have earned a living selling cards/ wedding invitations. Time is the big pricing factor for invites and you also need to remember that your market tend to not be crafters, so for them the thought of making cards/invites is terrifying. When I first started I would make ten the same and time myself. That gave me a gauge of the time it would take. If I couldn't make at least minimum wage I would make it. No one would work at Tesco without earning minimum wage so why should a crater get less?
It is always an interesting conversation to have :-) When I lived in Ireland I sold personalised 5x7 3D decoupage cards for special occasions for 9.95 euro. Here in Australia I don't sell individual cards anymore and have just stopped making invites for a living. I was shocked when I moved here as invites sell for upwards of $15 EACH! (the most expensive I came across was $40 a set!) Mine started at $8 and only something super complicated/expensive reached $15. Needless to say I was busy :-) But brides have driven me crazy and enough it enough and I have left that world behind.
I wish I had never started doing it as I very rarely make a card now and when I do I don't put alot of thought into it. The joy has gone from it.
Lovely card Jemma, even better IRL. I do make cards (although don't particularly enjoy it anymore) I am asked by my sister so it's even more awkward to put a price on them but generally around £2.50 to £3.00.
How funny to read your post tonight. I've spent the evening making cards with Puddle Duck. June is such a busy time for us - two birthdays and fathers day. So that's 4 male cards for her and 3 for me!
I've never considered making cards for sale. A friend tried it and she just couldn't make any money from it.
I sell my cards for next to nothing (about $1-$2) but am always happy to bring in something. I have such a huge inventory of paper, stamps, and completed cards that I figure anything I can recoup is good.
Rinda
We had this discussion (not just about cards) when pricing goods for the Craft Stall at the May Fayre....people don't realise how much time, effort and materials go into making 'handmade' items and don't want to pay what would be a true market price......lovely card, by the way Jemma!
Alison xx
What a smashing card! I was fascinated to read yours and everyone else's comments about card selling. I've tried all sorts of things to get a little bit of money in to feed my paper passion.......some people tell me I am undercharging and others will pick things up, see the price tag and take a sharp intake of breath! I can't be bothered anymore the general public are too weird, LOL I make cards for me and mine and that will do for me :0)
I rarely make cards, but should with the way my scrap drawer is looking these days. You've created a funny and cheery greeting sure to bring a smile to the recipient's face. Clever take on the prompt.
I make a lot of cards but only for myself. In the past I did try to sell them but really I think very few people are prepared to pay what you'd have to charge for time and materials as well as the fact that each is unique. I don't consider myself a card maker these days so it's just a fun way to use up some scraps. Your card is great and a super design for those scraps - really does sum up that market!
I love the clean and graphic look on your card, along with all the brightly coloured bits too . I 'd think you'd need to work out how many you can make in an hour, and add a good hourly rate onto the cost of the materials - plus a bit extra for marketing, taking to and for shops et c. All that is part of it too, I guess.
Pretty card. I have often thought of selling cards, but when it comes to actually making cards I find I have barely enough ideas to fill my own card sending needs.
I have a friend who makes them for a living - she says the time taken makes a huge difference to her pricing.
I make cards to give away but don't sell them.
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