# What Sells The Best?



## Mean_Dean

Hey Guys!

I am wondering what woodworking products sell the best, in your experience. What in your experience are the most profitable items to sell?

I am thinking of building and selling adirondack chairs in the summer, and maybe smaller boxes for fall/Christmas season, but would greatly value your input on which items to work on. I'd like to launch my business soon, and get it off to a running start!

Thank you very much for any help you can give!


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## Doss

Wooden boats sell great in the summer. The bigger the better. Decks too… offer free shipping.

In the fall and winter, I like to build firewood. I can sell truckloads of it.

Seriously though, what kind of question is this? I mean, you're asking potential competitors (not that any of us really compete in our respective marketplaces even though there are thousands of us) what took them a while to learn and what may be their bread and butter… literally.

Build what makes you happy and what you is in your skillset and hope that the market wants to buy it.

Being that you build Adirondack chairs and boxes, I'm pretty certain both of those should sell well enough. Even the birdhouse you build should sell pretty easily. Maybe turn pens? Wooden toys? Tables? Chairs? Benches? Cabinets?


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## Loren

Well, gift items are not a bad niche to operate in. They tend
to be small, shippable and of course you can tweak your designs
to hit price points like under $50, $50-$100, $100-$200 and
so forth.


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## mojapitt

It can vary so much from show to show. I have had items I was going to discontinue all of a sudden sell out at a show. If there is anything of mine you like I would be glad to give instructions. More than anything try to be practical & unique. Does no good to sell the same items as everyone else.


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## Richforever

My suggestion: know what a specific market wants to buy. It is usually a feeling. For example, lawn furniture that you build might be the feeling of sharing summer evenings with the family. Folks who value family time together would pay a lot of money to get that feeling. Make it known to that market in places where they buy that same feeling. For example, family theme parks or camp grounds would be good places to advertise the selling of "family time together".

Hope this helps.


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## Puzzleman

I can tell you that I sell tons of puzzles. and I do. However, I have a passion for making puzzles, high quality work and a devoted customer base built through many years of shows, emails and websites.

What sells for me may not sell for you. Sell what you like and your passion will show through when you sell. 
Another tip is to find where your customers are. Not every show will be right for you as not every show is right for me.

The best answer to your question lies inside of you.


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## Puzzleman

I can tell you that I sell tons of puzzles. And I do. However, I have a passion for making puzzles, high quality work and a devoted customer base built through many years of shows, emails and websites.

What sells for me may not sell for you. Sell what you like and your passion will show through when you sell. 
Another tip is to find where your customers are. Not every show will be right for you as not every show is right for me.

The best answer to your question lies inside of you.


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## AKSteve

If you just want volume then small boxes, Canes, things like that will probably put some food on the table quick, but that is the market you might end up getting stuck in, if that is what you like then go for it.

I am going to open my own business but I am going to make it high end, I am making furniture with nothing but hand tools and I am coming up with my own designs, and then I am going to put completely ridiculous prices on them and sell them to very rich people. that way I can work on one project for a very long time and still have money to back me up.  
Yeah okay it's crazy but that is the plan, I will probably fall on my face but it will be awesome to try.


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## richgreer

Let me preface this by saying that I no longer do woodworking for money. I did at one time when my wife owned a flower shop. Her shop gave me a good place to market my goods and I did reasonably well.

I think the key question is not just "what sells" but rather, "what sells at a price that gives you a reasonable profit". In my experience, you need to be able to produce large quantities efficiently. I had good luck with pens. I made them in batches of 12. Once you get some skill you can make 12 pens in less than 3 hours. In general, I could use $6 - 12 in material, 10 - 20 minutes of labor and sell for $20 - 50. You eventually learn what sells and what does not.

I quickly learned that producing items on a mass production basis is something I don't like to do and, so, I don't do it any more.


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## Doss

*Rich*, you bring up a great point. There are many parts of the process that you have to consider when planning a business around woodworking (or anything in general). A lot of people find that they can't produce enough of a product to meet the expected prices of those products in today's market place or they can't find enough customers to pay for their higher priced (possibly higher quality), lower volume products.

An example: I asked a friend to produce a piece of furniture I designed. I wanted low volume (about 100 units) and his company already specializes in making similar items. When I told him what price point I wanted and how many I wanted to produce, he said it wasn't possible because I wasn't making enough of them to turn a profit for myself or his company even though the price of materials and labor was well below the selling point. He said the minimum quantity they'd start at just to make it worth our while would be 10,000.

Now, that highlights a common problem many of us face when building items: What the user is expecting to pay and what you can expect to charge. Will that even make enough money to do this for a living?


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## waho6o9

"I am going to open my own business but I am going to make it high end, I am making furniture with nothing but hand tools and I am coming up with my own designs, and then I am going to put completely ridiculous prices on them and sell them to very rich people. that way I can work on one project for a very long time and still have money to back me up.  
Yeah okay it's crazy but that is the plan, I will probably fall on my face but it will be awesome to try."

Very good Steve. May you have continued success and take any doubt you might have and
discard them. 
Positive thoughts equal positive results.


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## dbhost

I need to clean my glasses. When I first read the title to this thread I thought it said…

"What Smells The Best?"

Not from my own shop, but I have done some building for some fund raisers for the church's benevolence ministry with other men from my church. Napkin holders, paper towel holders, banana hangers, cutting boards, key boards, and scrolled Christmas ornaments have all sold out every time we put them out at the fund raiser sales.

Book stands, laptop desks, candle holders, and Bible boxes have been total dogs sales wise…

I think pricing / cost may have something to do with it, and of course YMMV…


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## CplSteel

The problem people are hinting around, but not spelling out directly is that you cannot compete toe to toe with a major manufacturer which you are not. To put it another way, 100 years ago people bought a table. One, and it cost a lot, it was well built and they took care of it. When my grandfather bought his house it took him 10 years to buy furniture for it. They had empty rooms for years because they could not afford furniture, that would never happen now. You cannot afford to make a dining set for anything close to what Sears, Ikea Macy's) charges for one. The links are to random dining room sets, consisting of a table and 6 chairs.

Sears and Ikea are around a $700 price point, Macy's (which some may consider high end) is around $2,000. At Room and Board chairs 6 chairs will run you at least $600, and more likely $1,800 while a table be $1,500. DWR can run you $6,000 easy. Some of those pieces are solid wood, but even at the higher margins you will find veneered OSB or perhaps torsion boxes on legs.

If a consumer looks at a $1,500 table and thinks "I can buy a dining room set for that" then they can't afford to buy anything from you. (Yes you can build boxes and pens but again, the volume you have to put out to make a living like that, as opposed to a hobby, is a tough road. Not that there is anything wrong with making some money as a hobby.)

You can't compete, even with the expensive end. You have to charge more then high end retailers if you want to make a living in this business. Now I am sure that there are some out there who can get buy without charging hundreds of dollars per chair. For the most part, customers, even high end customers, won't pay that much for custom furniture (they will for built ins, which is part of the reason cabinet makers are far more prevalent than furniture makers, mdf is another reason).

Lets say you can build and finish a table in a week and a half. Give yourself another week each month to cover marketing, bids, bills, taxes, maintenance etc… which means that you can build two tables a month. Call it $5,000 per table, 50% overhead in materials, supplies, tools amortization, rent, insurance, utilities, marketing, etc… and you are making about $60,000 per year, assuming you can find 24 people each year that want a $5,000 table. I am not saying it can't be done. Some do it, I know one or two of them, but it is not easy and you will need help, through networks of people that can find you business.

-That's enough from me.


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## Mean_Dean

Hi Guys,

Thank you all very much for your carefully considered responses!

I was just looking for some simple advice, and it's turned into quite a great discussion. I guess what I've learned is that there is no simple answer to this topic. I'm going to re-read each response, and soak up as much from each of them as I can.

Woodworking is my passion, and I've always believe you should follow your passion. Wishing us all success!


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## CplSteel

I apologize for my post above. I typed it on a new toy (iPad) and I am not thrilled with the results. Please forgive the errors that make it hard to read.

Mean_Dean - taking the time to come up with a plan and write it out is probably the best thing you can do. Don't be afraid to take a risk so long as it is a calculated risk. Good luck and let us know how it works out.


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## rum

My theory (yet to be fully proven ) is that as a craftsman you can sell things people WANT but not strictly things people NEED (don't confuse this with utilitarian vs non-utilitarian items, people can want things they use - they are just generally "rarer" or "more special" than things people need). The reasoning is that if its something people NEED (and that's the only reason they buy it) you're already out competed by the big boys who will simply bury you. If you can hit a niche of things people want that is currently poorly served (for whatever definition of "poorly" you choose to use) you may have a fighting chance.


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## mojapitt

I build both small and large items. This is going into my 4th year doing it. I believe i will turn profitable this year. Remember that you can't just build things you like, you have to find things customers like. I offer small items to bring people in and look. Many buy small items and leave a little money. Some buy furniture or place furniture orders for decent money. I live in an area where high-end is tough, but not impossible to sell. For me I have to offer variety to survive. If you have a larger population base you can actually narrow what you offer. When I do shows, my goal is to have the small items pay for the booth and sell enough furniture to make money. I hope to reach a point where i no longer need to do the shows. For now it's my way of getting people to know I exist.

That being said, dog food holders, mugs a simple jewelry boxes bring them in and pay booth rent for me.custom bedroom furniture is where I make money. I am starting to make dinning room and living room furniture as well. But at the show I want everyone to come in and at least leave a little money for me.


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## Finn

You asked what sells best and what is the most profitable to make and sell. I sell at about 25 street fairs and festivals a year. For me the most profitable thing to make and sell are toys and wall plaques with lettering. What I sell the most of are; cedar jewelery boxes with images inlayed into the lids. I have over 75 different patterns for these. I mass produce them and enjoy doing that. I also sell some intarsia at higher prices. I have sold small cedar trunks also, but transporting and displaying them to all those venues can be a problem.


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## Shaker

MD, I know this is a very old thread but unless I missed it look at craftcount.com. They have the top Etsy sellers in the woodworking category listed by shop. Custom wooden signs are far and away the biggest sellers.


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## redSLED

Hand carved tiny wood ballerinas that turn slowly on music boxes when you wind them up. There's none of these around anymore meaning huge pent-up demand and therefore truckloads of orders waiting to be taken. Or maybe expresso stained dining tables one level higher in overall appeal in some way over the big box store MDF/particle board offerings.


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## runswithscissors

Two suggested woodworkers to check out:

Greg Annes, a Bellingham woodworker, has made high end furniture for decades. He is renowned regionally (and perhaps further afield). His rocking chairs are especially prized. They run from a little over $1000 to at least $2750 (prices are in his online catalog). He has a website.

Another regional master craftsman is Al Rosen. Grizzly has featured him for years in their catalog (p. 56 in the 2013 catalog). He has a website too, but I couldn't find his prices.


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## jeffswildwood

My sales have been different. I'll build and sell something to someone then get orders from their friends, relatives neighbors ect and then not sell any of that item again. Example is my wagon planter. I made one for my wife, a co worker seen it, ordered one then I sold 8 or 9 more then orders vanished. My arch top box i made one for my sons girl friend then got swamped with orders, now they are tapering off. Bench got me 3 orders then nothing. I make what people ask for, tell them give me some time to design and make it then make items as ordered. I may try to pre-make items some day but my work schedule and finance won't allow me to do this. To me it's all about the learning and stress relief woodworking gives me.


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## lwllms

What sells and what's "profitable" to make are two different things. I've been making what I make for 17 years and every year the accountant looks at me with that same "are you crazy" look. I don't make a lot of money but I'm busy and will be for several years to come.


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## woodworkerforchrist

Good morning Ya'll! I realize this is an older post but just wanted to comment as I have the same questions and actually kind of in.the same boat. I have been making small simple scrollsawn items for many years giving most away but recently selling some. But its hard to make much money on these small wood items. So I too have decided to make keepsake and memorial boxes and also adirondack chairs. I am fine tuning both and really giving it a good try. But it seems hard to price. I agree with everthing everyone says on pricing, you need to charge enough to pay yourself, cover costs, and make a profit.The problem I see is no one will pay those prices and so you dont make a profit anyway. So not sure what to do. I am trying to sell my first adirondack chair for $125 (pine, I will be making most out of cedar and charging more) (materials were $30) but I am not getting any offers and I am posting on numerous facebook sites, word of mouth, etc etc. And that price is pretty low as it is. Looking for more advice


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## Finn

In the past and just recently, I have made and sold some simple yard art. Only one I have made is this one and it is a seasonal item.


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## unbob

Try a night stand with a hidden spring loaded drawer that will hold a Glock-that will sell.


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## Hard_as_Wood

Does anyone offer a warranty with their furniture/projects?

I think especially in outside furniture, etc. How long will a good Adirondack chair last that sits out in the cold and rain, etc?


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## ArtMann

By coincidence, I just traded my old jointer to a guy for a drum sander and he was making pressure treated Adirondack chairs for sale. He appeared to be doing pretty well with it but he didn't sell anything like enough chairs to make a living. He was retired and living off social security and savings. I make personalized wooden items to order with a CNC router and it is worth my time but I could never make a living at it.


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## AlaskaGuy

The cheap one you lose money on sell like hot cakes.


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## Puzzleman

I am currently making a living and have 7 employees that work full time by making personalized items for children and adults. I started out in my basement over 14 years ago doing it part time and have now been full time for 12 years. I am not old enough for retirement so I make all of my income from my woodworking.

The biggest things that I have learned are:
1. Quality in very important. People will spend a little more for better quality workmanship and quality customer service.

2. Becoming a sales person is very important. I learned to sell because I had to do it to support myself and family. I did many shows across the country trying to find the ones with the right mix of customers for my products. I learned to sell to wholesale accounts and they now are over 60% of my work. I only do a few shows a year but they are really good and big shows.

Making woodworking become profitable is all about COMMITMENT. I went in 100% and had no other choice but to become profitable.So I did WHATEVER I had to do to make sales. I went several years doing over 35 art/craft shows traveling up to 14 hours from home to do them. Sleeping in my van and cooking my own food while on the road in the beginning years as I had to keep expenses as low as possible to break even or not lose too much by the end of the year.

If you have no other plan to survive, you will do a lot of things to make it work. I had no disability payments, no retirement income, no wife working another job, still had 1 kid still at home and I had no other source of income.

Jim
HollowWoodworks.com


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## ArtMann

Good for you Jim! I have noticed in my lifetime that the people who have the most luck are usually the people who work the hardest. I looked at your web page and I do very similar work with my CNC router. I can get good enough prices to make it worthwhile but I don't have the drive to go out and market to a wide customer base like you. My problem is that I am retired and don't want a full time job but sometimes it winds up being that way during football season or near Christmas time.


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## HLF24Guy

I'm sure that I'm getting in on this really late but I myself am looking to do simple projects that are in style right now, things that can be made from less expensive stock and then focus on making the finish on them look really nice.
Thinking of things like farm style coffee and end tables that once you have plans drawn up and a cut list you could cut a bulk amount of material and then just have stock on hand to put together quickly and mainly just vary in finishes that are applied, does this sound like a reasonably profitable idea? Bare in mind this is just a side endeavor and mainly just want to make enough to pay for the hobby and make a little extra on the side since we have a baby on the way haha


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## Puzzleman

HLF23Guy, I like your idea of the tables and finishing them how the customer wants. The only suggestion that I have to your plan is to NOT cut a bulk of the material and have it laying around for the next order. This will sound counter-intuitive but only cut the wood when you have an order. I do agree that you should have all of the plans and jugs ready to go. But as for the actual cutting of wood, just do it when the order is made. That way you don't have piles of cut wood laying around to get damaged. The other benefit is that you won't have any money invested until another order comes through.


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## ArtMann

Other than carrying an inventory, there is another reason not to cut out pieces exactly ahead of time. Wood changes dimensions slightly with changes in humidity and temperature. You may saw out a part and put it on the shelf only to find it has changed dimensions on you at some later date. This is particularly true of solid wood width.


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## AlaskaGuy

Has anyone ever tried to see if oval shaker baskets have a market?


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## Finn

> Has anyone ever tried to see if oval shaker baskets have a market?
> 
> - AlaskaGuy


I found them hard to sell here in West Texas.


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## John Smith_inFL

I no longer make stuff for money (I am retired now - and just don't have the time).

what I have found over the years is trying to sell something at a crafts booth. . . . . .
you can hear the ladies telling their gentlemen as they walk past your booth.
"you can make that when we get home".
something that grabs the customers eye as completely different, difficult to make
for the average garage craftsman, cheap to make with high profit.

now that the 21st Century is upon us, check E-Bay and other public internet sales sites
to see what is selling and at what price…... then work around that.
once you see that rustic bird houses made out of old cedar fence panels sell for $5 each,
you can pretty much tell that item is not for you. (strategy like that).

I will share this one that made me a lot of money. (well, made my WIFE a lot of money - she sold them).
a simple river rock about 2-3" glued to a really nice wood base just a little larger than the rock. (no two alike).
a very good quality paper card with Bible verses printed on them 
and folded in the middle with a gold string around the rock.
many Bible verses that mention "throwing rocks" can be found.
and use your own imagination: "People that live in Glass Houses should not Throw Rocks".
if you can find a person that has really nice calligraphy skills to do the printing would be a bonus.
a nice gift box to fit the rock and base for presentation as a gift would also be a bonus.
(a nice Shaker style box for the rock would make a nice gift).










*good luck !!*

.


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## JackDuren

In the 80's I sold a lot of blanket chests. In the 90's I sold a lot of sport type shelves for trophies.bats,balls,gloves.etc. Today young couples like the cheaper made wine bottle/glass shelves…

You can make a lot of things with free pallet wood..

Today. ...Young couples


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## alittleoff

When you build an outdoor chair, all the people see is a couple of 2×4's worth about 5.00. They don't see the treated wood, screws, stain, paint, time and gas spent getting the materials and most of all no labor, tools or expertise to do the job. Just a couple old 2×4's.
Gerald


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## jeffswildwood

Dean, I have had a lot of luck with these. I get the doors for 10-15 dollars and on etsy and ebay the finished boxes sell for 60 dollars and up. At craft fairs I sell them for 40-50 and they literally jump off the table.


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## Kirk650

Years ago I went into a woodworking/sales shop north of Houston. The guy had fantastic furniture of all types. Just beautiful stuff, with really big prices. A year or two later I went into the same shop, and all the guy had was rough rustic stuff, like tables with a beat up wooden door for a top. Naturally I asked why the change, and he said he found that folks wanted the inexpensive rustic stuff rather than a $4000 armoire.

And a couple of years ago the wife and I were in Fredericksburg, TX, and decided to visit a distant relative that was a woodworker. He had great stuff at big prices. He had small side tables for $6000 each, and he said folks were buying them. It's a high dollar artsy town, so I guess he was moving things and making money though he wasn't rich by any measure.

I think the message here is to decide what your market is and build for it. And good luck to you.


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