All Replies on Selling cutting boards and pens

I would imagine ebay might be a decent choice for you. You can still post items at your leisure and you can price whatever you want. This options doesn’t take a lot of effort and could be a quick jump into selling items.

I’ve heard craft shows can be a bit of an investment, but I would imagine they’d be a great place to sell such things.

-jeremy

-- Easy to use end grain cutting board designer: http://www.1024studios.com/cuttingboard.html

At 25$ for a table for the day, I think it’s worth a shot. What would be a good price point for pens and cutting boards? I’m not looking to get rich, I just want to unload some stuff so I don’t have a house full of cutting boards and pens everywhere. My wife will likely just buy more pen making supplies and lathe tooling with the money anyway.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Let me start with the following disclosure. I have recently began to look at craft shows for myself to sell some items I make. I have not reached a decision yet on if they are for me or not and how many I want to do. While I do not have any direct experience with selling at craft shows if someone is able to get knowledable about craft shows by reading and research then I am fairly knowledable about them.

All the following information is from western PA and western NY. I do not know how things are there in MA.

Edge grain cutting boards (having looked at the picture and description on the provided link) sell for as little as $30 and as much as $80 at craft fairs. It really depends on the fair and type of crowd that attends. I seen very few end grain cutting boards for sale and those that I did were not overly well made and were just a few of them in a booth with a real variety of wood products so I have very little knowledge of those.

Turned pens are listed for sale for as little as $20 up through $60.

Everything I have read says you want to start with a small local fair to see what kind of pricing is received there and to keep your expenses down.

Some things you will need if this is an outdoor craft show is a tent to keep you dry. Some weights to keep your tent from blowing away if the wind picks up. Some tables to display your products on. Some sort of table covers to dress up your tables and to hide anything you need to store underneath. Depending on the hours and location you may need lighting.

If it is an indoor craft show you may not need the tent. But would you need lighting? All other items would be needed.

You need to decide what you are going to accept for payment. Cash only, checks and or credit cards. If checks how will you accept? Photo ID? Write down as much information from the photo ID as you can to help track them down if it bounces.

If this was my decision I would go for it. With an entry fee of $25 and a couple of tables and covers you would not have a high overhead and it would let you see if you like it and if it could work for you. Have a variety of cutting boards available. Priced with different ranges to see how the sales go. Maybe even start the day with them priced in the $70 – $90 range and adjust down later in the day if they are not going. Same thing with the pens. That will allow you to see how they are accepted with different pricing.

If you want to do this long term my suggestions would be to start now to get ready for next year. Search for tips on how to be successful. There is a lot of science behind setting up a booth – tent.

As a side note I met a man at a local art show. Interesting product line. Overall quality of the wood portion of the product I would rate as a 75%. Slightly above average is all. He was very informative. He does 50 shows a year. A bad weekend for him is grossing $1,500. He has a series of shows during the Christmas season where he will gross over $20,000 in a week. He loves it. I could never do his pricing as it was wierd what he does and how he does it. Looking at how he assembles his product I see it is designed to be fast and efficient. It was unique and inexpensive to make with high margins. It helped me to improve some of the items I am making just looking at how he did his process.

Ok, so I rambled on some. Good luck with your decision and let us know what you decide and how it works out.

Dusty

20$ for a pen?!? I was going to sell them for 5 to 15 depending on the wood/kit used.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

$20 was the cheapiest I saw and that includes the ones where it was not a very nice fair. Now that being said I cannot say how many they sold. One really nice fair I went to they were priced $20-$50. The individual was from Brooklyn, NY. He sold those and ornaments he turned. He said he would not be back because he was not making much over cost. We figured out his expenses were about $1,000 for the show (cost of booth, hotel, food, gas, etc). So he still sold a descent number of them to gross over $1,000.

Again, I would suggest setting some at $20 and going to $50-$60. Maybe have a show special the $10.

One other idea (I do not do pens so I don’t know if this is feasible) is to make acrylic pens with school colors and sell them. Many might want them for graduation gifts from college or even high school.

Dusty

PS: Don’t undersell your products. You have your time, the lathe, tools, etc that you also have to recover.

Oh yeah, $20 for a pen is not too much. Pen collectors pay much more than that for nice pens.

Not much help as far as selling prices except to say, do not underprice yourself. As stupid as it sounds I would be much more likely to pick up and consider a $20 pen than a $5 version. I would not expect a $5 pen to be nicely finished, made of a nice piece of wood or have nice fittings, so I would not even bother.

Here are a couple of hints from the kind of person who buys this sort of item.

1. Make little cards describing the product, what it is made of and how to care for it. If there is something special, make sure you note that too (14kt gold, end grain, what kind of wood). Tape it or tie it to the piece – you can also note the price on this card but do it in light pencil (so gift givers can erase it). Tell them where the wood is grown and if you know a story about it (“this is the same wood ancient Vikings used to build their ships”). Put your phone number and web address – they may want to contact you about special orders.

2. Put up a display card with photos of the process and a brief description of why you did it that way. This can be a stand up board or laminated page – it does not have to be big, just available. People will pay more if they understand the work you did.

3. If you want to, buy some really small plastic bottles and fill them with food grade mineral oil. Not required, but that is the kind of thing that makes customers remember you – and maybe come back to buy more.

4. Have small boxes for the pens and either tissue or butcher block paper to wrap the boards. Have bags in case the customer wants one. Kraft paper bags with handles are a good choice and can be pretty cheap (just make sure they are strong enough to carry the boards for an hour or two – you could always put a pice of package tape across the bottom of the bag to help that).

-- Kay - Just a girl who loves wood.

At 25 bucks for a table, what have you got to loose ? at the very least you get a day of entertainment, a day of meeting people and a lesson, be it good or bad that will not soon be forgotten. Do it.

Just some thoughts. You get a cheque for say 20 bucks and it bounces, comes back NSF. This affects YOUR bank account as the bank might just hold cheques, all cheques due to 1 single check bouncing……not fun. So now you take the info on the back of the check so you can track the purchaser down, hours, days, even weeks later the frustration mounts, all for a lousy 20 bucks, when had you spent the same amount of time, working, you might have a thousand bucks in your wallet………jus sayn

So you have one pen or a butcher block. Start adding up your time for EVERYTHING. the time it took to get the wood, to get the pen parts, the glue, the finish, add something in there to pay for your investment of your tools, your space. Add to that what ever wage you feel is fair. Then add up your time and money spent rounding up “pretty” bags and “handsome boxes”, add in your time to make nice little cards, the ink to print them, cut them etc. Load everything into the car and drive to the craft show. set it up

At the end of the day, do the math. I’m guessing it tell you how quickly money can go “Vamoosh” ….gone : ))

That said, I would do it anyway as there is no greater feeling then succeeding at what most say cant be done. At the very worst, like I said from the get go. You will learn a lot, be it good or be it bad.

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

It would be cash only. We could possibly look into doing credit cards with square, but we aren’t really serious about selling things. I agree that if you factor in all costs – especially time and tools, we come out really upside down. That’s ok with me because as I mentioned, we just really enjoy making this stuff. I don’t really care if any of it sells at a profit. Just enough money to buy some more wood and pen kits would be great, breaking even on supplies only (not time or tools) would be fine as well. We both really enjoy the process, the problem is we have more “end result” than we know what to do with.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Kookaburra, great tips there, some my wife already had in mind (containers for the oil, bags and info cards). I think we are going to give it a shot this weekend

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I think you answered your question. From your perspective, I think that any subsidy is better then none : ))

Do it, you will have fun.

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

There is no doubt, we are going to give it a shot, I was just wondering about basic pricing. I still find it quite astounding that someone would pay 20$ for a wooden pen, never mind any more than that. I guess that’s because I know what goes into it – about 4$ in supplies and about 30 minutes of my time. But then again it takes close to 600$ on the cheap side to make the pen (lathe, tooling, place for the lathe, cutting tools, sharpening method, etc), but those are fun toys for me anyway that I never planned on making money with or recouping the investment. We’ll start the pricing at 20$, but will take as low as 5$

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

You can always have one pen for $20 or two for $30 – people love a bargain! (I just saved $10 by buying two!)

-- Kay - Just a girl who loves wood.

I did a craft show once selling clocks. At the time (and maybe still now) PayPal offered a free service to run credit cards. They took a small percentage (about 3%) and you didn’t need a tax ID. There are API’s you can build into a web site or you can process them on the PayPal web site. I had someone at home ready to take my calls when I wanted to process a CC payment since there was no wifi back then. From my limited craft show experience accepting credit cards/debit cards is huge in making a sale. People just don’t walk around with cash anymore plus debit cards don’t bounce like checks do :-)

I also had a nice big “Visa/Mastercard” sign on my table too so I stood out.

Good luck! I think you should go for it.

Lumberjoe, I do craft and art shows full time. I used to do 40 a year but now have scaled it back to just 15.
I have paid up to $80 for a turned pen and I won’t look at one under $20, as I would consider it too cheap and not quality just based on the price.

Concerning your show, do not set your expectations too high. A $20 show is a very low end show, that attracts low end customers and not many at that. It would be a good one for getting your feet wet into the show scene. There are some great threads on here about doing shows. I would suggest reading some of them if you have the time.

Dusty2004: I consider a show bad if I do under $3k in a weekend. There are too many expenses plus my time to sit and make no sales. I could make more money at the shop by producing my in-house & wholesale orders.

-- Jim Beachler, Chief Puzzler, http://www.hollowwoodworks.com

The $20 and 2 for $30 is a great idea .. people do love a bargain! I think you can range your prices from $10 to $30 and see what sells. I forget the economic term for this, but there is a point where you set the price too low that a customer automatically thinks it’s bad and won’t consider buying it.

-jeremy

-- Easy to use end grain cutting board designer: http://www.1024studios.com/cuttingboard.html

$20 for Slim Line pens standard price may find some selling for less or more. One place to look for pricing is ESTY. http://www.esty.com

Think will find pages of wood turned pens & cutting boards.

You have lot of consumables so ask a decent price.

If decide to add variety to your wares would be nice if any money made helps offsets cost of supplies, equipment & tools.

Not saying should go on line to places like e-bay or ESTY does not hurt to look at what is being sold and for what. Craftfairs give you instant feedback folks either buy or not, may take months for items to move on-line.

-- Bill

It makes very good sense to get a square device for accepting credit cards. They give you the device for free and you only pay about 2.7% fee ONLY when you use it. You would be amazed at how convenient they are…not only at shows but in other situations. I sold a router on Craigslist recently and the purchaser was trying to talk my price down by saying he only had $25 less than the price I was selling it for…I asked if he had a credit card and ended up selling it using my square and iphone.
I started doing shows a couple of years ago. My wife and I have a lot of fun doing them and we have made a nice profit at each show… from the very first show.
My first show was local with a $200 booth fee…cheap by good show standards and we only do juried shows and have paid over $1000 for a booth on the high end…so $25 is well worth the experience you will learn from it.

There are some websites that offer excellent inffo if you are interested in craft shows… www.artfairinsiders.com

-- Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. http://www.FineArtBoxes.com

I looked into “square” and figured I have nothing to lose. I’ll give that a shot. My wife is super excited to build a nice table/display. I told here there’s about a 90% chance we won’t sell anything and she was OK with that. She said if one person liked her pens enough to pay anything for one, she would be ecstatic. We do go there every weekend as they have a farmers market and some great “junque” sometimes.She called today to reserve a spot and paid the 25$. She asked the guy about cutting boards and pens. He mentioned there was a couple from the Albany area that did very well there with similar goods (apparently bottle stoppers and wooden jewlery were big hits too), but they haven’t been back in 2 years due to illness It’s kind of a “hippie with money” environment. For those who do not know Western MA, it’s directly in the center of 3 ivy league schools – Smith College, Amherst College, and Mt Holyoke College. It’s also really close to Hampshire College and UMASS Amherst. There are some Hampshire college kids that sell Adirondack chairs there. They told me on an average day, they sell between 8 and 12 pairs at 170$ a pair.
That’s a lot for a painted pine construction lumber chair if you ask me.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Well, this all sounds like good news so far. I hope you sell a bunch of pens. Sounds like you don’t have much to lose. Since you’re going there more for the experience rather than the profit, you might have more stubborn customers at a higher price range. I agree that people will pay $20-$60 for a nice wooden pen. Selling them at $15 might push them out faster and also get people to appreciate them more seeing as how they would be thinking less about the price tag. That might also get rid of more product in one day which would mean you don’t have to spend more time trying to sell them and you can go back to having fun woodworking. The cutting boards could easily go for $50+. I think it would be a steal at $50 and you might be able to price them as high as $65-$75.

I’m kind of in the same situation as you. I’m going to try to build stuff to break even or even turn a little profit on my hobby.

Good luck!!

I have seen acrylic pens sell for over $400. I wouldnt sell a pen for under $20.

-- Chief Petty Officer USN(RET) 1991-2011

You can start with your pricing in the $20 – $30 range. If you aren’t selling, you can always offer a “Show Special” later. It is much easier to temporarily lower the price than it is to raise it.

-- Jim Beachler, Chief Puzzler, http://www.hollowwoodworks.com

$20 for a pen??? Remember you are now entering the world of manufacturing a product not giving gifts. #1 – what was the price of the pen kit + shipping #2 – how long does it take to make a pen #3 – What did the expendables cost – sandpaoer, finish materials etc. #4 – Now what is your time worth (And DON’T say minimum wage, you are a skilled craftsman) #5 – Now honestly think about your shoptime overhead

$20 for a pen? These aren’t gifts any more, DON’T GIVE THEM AWAY to people you don’t know SELL THEM FOR A PROPER PRICE!

It sounds like you could have a pretty good stock of items already, quite a bit of $$$$ tied up. $25 is a cheap price figuring if you sell 1 pen it didn’t cost you anything but fuel and your time meeting new people.

Oh well just my opinion.
MIKE

-- See pictures on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/44216106@N07/ And visit my Facebook page - facebook.com/MTEnterprises

I agree with Mike. Consider all your costs and the craftsmanship you put into the pens / cutting boards. I know you say you would just like someone to like and enjoy them. But consider this – if you make a little profit on them you can purchase some more tools and do even more good things.

Charge a fair price and see what happens.

Dusty

You said that you normally do not like to mix business with pleasure…well just look at it like it is a pleasure to make something and a pleasure to sell it also. I find alot of fun and passion in what I make and sell.

-- Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. http://www.FineArtBoxes.com

Thanks guys. I appreciate the tips. On a side note, my wife stopped into a new store that opened up down the street from our house. They advertise “Crafts from local artisans”. She showed them some pictures of pens and cutting boards we made, and they want to talk to me and see some samples. It is not consignment, they would purchase the goods and resell them, but they would need a consistent quantity if they were to carry the items, and want to talk about a fulfillment schedule after testing the waters. She said they have cutting boars there for sale, but they are plain and crappy compared to the ones we make (apparently 1” thick plain maple edge grain). I am not sure at all how I feel about this or if I even want to entertain the idea. Again, I really do not want to start a business. I do very well with my actual job and do not have a pressing need for additional income. I have a feeling once I am pressured to make a certain quantity of items in a certain time, it becomes work, not fun. I already ruined one of my passions (technology) like that.

Craft shows/flea markets is one thing. I show up with what I have and see how it does. I am fine with that. I do not want a schedule or deadlines. I have enough of those in my 10 to 15 hours a day I clock in to work for :)

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I can appreciate how you feel about not wanting to ruin a hobby by making it into a job/business.

You could try negotiating a low minimum with the store so that it doesn’t become “work” and will easily fall into what you are already doing.

-- "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

I would tell the guy at the store straight up that you don’t want to make an insane profit off of your pens. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind picking one up here and there so long as they’re really cheap. I used to work at a hobby like retail store and they would get someone that would come in every once in a while that would do the same thing. Never turned them down. I agree with you, business is one thing and pleasure is another.

Puzzleman, Back in the early 90s a friend did weekend shows (craft, art, flee market) and she had mentioned a newsletter that described upcoming shows, their cost, average sale price, number of attendees, etc. Basically, all of the demographics needed to pick and choose which shows to do.

Do you know of a current version of this newsletter? I am located in the Midwest.

Thanks,

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

Good news and bad news:
we went to the flea market and got all set up to sell stuff, made a nice display and got a lot of compliments on the quality of the goods from other sellers. People were REALLY impressed with the cutting boards. I didn’t think they were anything special but I am comparing them to the ones people post here that are much more talented than I am. I sold 2 to other sellers at asking price (one was 60$, a smaller one was 35$).
HOWEVER – we were not able to sell to the public. Apparently we need a tax ID to sell there, which we did not have. I guess I should have done a little more research.

Since I was home by 8am and had all the stuff prepared nicely, I stopped into that store I mentioned above. The owner is REALLY nice. She bought the remaining 4 cutting boards, 10 pens, 3 pencils, and 5 key chains. Apparently cutting boards are their biggest seller and they have no one that makes them anymore. Without knowing what I was asking for the boards, her offer was only about 20$ shy for the entire lot than I was going to make if I sold all of them at the show.

When time and tools are factored in, I definitely didn’t make much money. In fact, especially with tool costs, I am very in the hole. However on wood and glue (that’s all it takes for a cutting board) alone, I made about a 200% profit. That is awesome because that money is going right back to the lumber mill and the rest into the Laguna LT14SUV fund. Also on a personal note, I finally quit smoking and convinced my wife to do the same. A pack a day habit for 2 people in MA costs about 600$ a month. That also goes into the Laguna fund. It’s been two weeks and we are still going strong!

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Joe,
I am happy to hear that you found an outlet for your products.

However, I am ecstatic to hear that you and LOYL have quit smoking. I stopped over 30 years ago when my son was born. It gets a little easier every day and if you have made it 14 days, you can surely make it 15 days. Congratulations to both of you.

-- Art

It’s not as hard as I thought it would be and something I should have done long ago. The physical cravings have stopped for the most part, I still have trouble with the “something to do” aspect of smoking though.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I have done alot of show and I will tall you if you can make some at the show you will get a crowd and when they see you making your works more will buy have some thing at a low price it pays for your gas & your booth and mybe some thing to eat lol .
if you can make something under $5:00 or lass kids can get Mam & Dad to buy it moat of the time lol
You mite thank of offing class on what you are doing .
And above all talk a lot it sell your work .
Have fun

-- Nimkee** Joe

Lumberjoe, If the store will buy your products, sell to them. It is a lot easier than selling to the public. No tent, no tax id, no time in the weather, etc.

By the store buying them for almost what you would have got retail, tells you something. They believe that they will sell the items for about twice what they bought them for from you. That should be a strong indicator of what the true retail price that you should sell at, if you decide to sell directly to the consumer.

-- Jim Beachler, Chief Puzzler, http://www.hollowwoodworks.com

Thanks Jim. I went in with a good attitude I think. I told them I was not looking to get rich, and realize they also need to make a profit, but have a lot more overhead than I do. They also have something I don’t – a customer base. She (the store) paid about 15$ each for the slimline pens and pencils and 8$ each for keychains. That alone is about triple my material costs (the kits cost me about 3$ and the wood blanks were about 1$. CA glue and finish goes a long way). She paid about 48$ each for the cutting boards. My total lumber cost was around 100$ and I was able to get 9 decent sized (10 1/2” wide x 16” long x 1 1/4” thick) cutting boards out of it. Again, with labor, there is NO profit there. It takes me a solid day to make a cutting board. If I had a MUCH nicer planer or a drum sander and some nice Bessy or Jet parallel clamps instead of bar clamps, I could easily cut that down by 2/3’s. If I was supporting my family with this, I would be screwed.

She mentioned the pens will sell at about 25$ each and the cutting boards well sell at about 80$. I think that is pretty expensive, but she assured me that is what her customers generally pay for the plain old Maple edge grain boards of similar size she previously had. These have cherry, walnut and purple heart also.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I make 10 one day and sand the next day no time at all and I use bar clamps lol
I just plan them run the edge on the router table and start sanding from 100 to 280 Pile on one side and move to the other as I go and work like a mad man in the center lol
the pen’s is what I was saying to do at a show if you can

-- Nimkee** Joe

Nice work Joe, selling anything you make even for cost is a win IMO, since you’re having fun making the stuff and honing skills as you go. I see you’re also looking at the same BS I’ve got my eye on, although I am also considering the Rikons. And Jet parallel clamps… $$$ but man do they look nice!

-- John, BC, Canada

I was set to buy the Rikon but was talked out of it by the people that were going to sell it to me! The guys at my woodcraft hate that saw (and most Rikon stuff). Apparently it is low end machining/assembly/parts at a midrange price. The woodcraft guys said almost all the 30-325 models they have sold have come back or went out for service. Just to prove a point, we demo’d them in the store. They have the LT, Jet 14”, PM 14” and Rikon side by side. If you spin the wheels on the PM or the Laguna, those suckers don’t stop. It’s like a perpetual motion machine. The Jet is ok, but it is also a lot less money. The rikon wheel makes it about 4 revolutions. For me it came down to the PM or the Laguna. The PM needs a riser kit, the laguna does not. I’d rather not change the manufacturers geometry of the saw and be in for alignment/bearing issues down the road, so the LT14SUV it is.

Also there are a lot of complaints about Laguna customer service. If you by form woodcraft, you deal only with woodcraft. They have their fair share of laguna horror stories, but it is transparent to their customers.

Also I agree! Just breaking even with no profit at all would be fine for me. It’s like getting to do what I love for free.

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

I think the craft store would be a better move for you than the fair. My wife and I used to do a monthly craft fair and we’d always sell a few things, but if you have the same patrons everytime you aren’t necessarily getting a ton of new business. Also we found that typically people aren’t looking to spend more than $30 or so, so if your cutting boards have $30 in materials it might be tough to make much on them.

-- It's made of wood. Real sturdy.--Chubbs Peterson

Blue or Black? Many professions would prefer blue.

Black. I don’t know of any professions that would prefer blue. I made some cool teacher pens. They are blue on one side, red on the other

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Legal professionals will always tell you to fill out any form and to sign everything using a blue pen.

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

Really? my extent of legal dealings have been contractual agreements with large companies. Mostly regarding background checks, NDA’s, RFP’s and the like. Those are black ink only

-- http://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodCrafts

Some stares require blue on documents filed with the courts. That way you can tell the original from the black and white copies. I have no idea why color copiers have not screwed this up

Doctors like blue because when they check a box on those forms it visiually pops. But I have seen some use black.

Maybe some of each and see what sells better?
I mention it because nice pens like that are probably being bought by people who use pens for a living.