When you are selling a craft…?
I read a standard for setting a price is 3 times the cost of materials.
I have two questions on that.
1.) If you buy the items on sale would the three times be on the regular price or the sale price?
2.) Would you count the cost of things you already own, such as for crochet would you charge three times for the hook or just the yarn?
I hope those questions made sense…
thanks for reading
sore another question.
If you had left over yarn from a skeen would you do 1/2 cost times 3. full cost times 3 or just eat the cost of that skeen?
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I think you don’t need to be so worried about it; one thing to think about is that your buyers will not know the cost of your materials.
But the single most important idea is that people who want to buy handmade will not buy it if they think the price is unfair – so basically, if someone buys your work at the price you set, then it is a fair enough price for you and the buyer both.
I’d say, base the cost of an item on the cost of the materials it would normally take to make it. If one particular scarf or something was made with yarn on sale, don’t worry about including that. And unless you need a specialty tool to make something, then I wouldn’t include its cost.
3 Times the cost of your material. That should cover your labor and the tools used to produce your product.
i would count my labor, time spent, the cost of materials including yarn, packing and handling charges etc.,then comeup with a price depending on teh competition and availability. HTH
Usually I don’t charge by cost of materials, that is a factor but I charge according to complexity of the design first and foremost.
If I’m crocheting a baby sweater that cost me $3 in yarn and it takes me 4 hours, then I’ll charge $10 (3X cost of yarn; $15 if I include hat, mitts and booties) it would be what I call a “mindless project” something extremely easy and I can do half asleep or heavily distracted by everything around me. If I’m knitting a baby sweater, and it’s lacy and takes me a week of hiding in my bedroom where it’s quiet an no one can talk to me so I don’t lose my spot, I’ll charge $25-30, even though it still only cost me $3 to make. People will pay more for a nicer looking product.
If I find something on sale, that’s good for me, I don’t pass that savings onto the customer because then they want to know why everything isn’t cheaper! Unless…I’m knitting a lot of something for someone else to sell for me. I do dog sweaters in the Fall that are sold at a Dog Groomers. I make my prices to her extremely low, and pass on savings I get in supplies, so she is still able to sell them and make a profit herself.
I don’t count the cost of tools. If I didn’t already have it, I should have. That’s the way I look at it. I will pay for it out of pocket, and then it’s in my collection ready to be used any other time I need it. The first person to request something with a special hook or size needle shouldn’t have to eat the cost of that themselves.
In the case of having or using leftover yarn, if I have leftover yarn I still price as if I used the whole thing, unless I hardly touched it. I usually have enough to make a few baby hats or booties to donate to the NICU at my local Children’s Hospital, not much.
Sometimes, I’ll ask the person if they want extra accessories, an extra mitt in case one gets lost, a baby hat in a size larger for when the baby grows a little…etc. No extra charge for those things.
I don’t ever eat the cost of a skein. If I don’t include it in the cost of something because I used so little of it, I’ll make something else with it, and sell it to someone else, or donate it. Children’s Hospitals aren’t the only place to donate things, if the yarn isn’t baby friendly I’ll make winter wear and donate them to the homeless shelter in the city. They need things like that.