Advice on pricing a craft product

Hi everyone

I am seeking help from fellow crafters on pricing a particular craft product.

I have made a good quality felt quiet book/busy book for toddlers. When I shared images with my friends, everyone went wild about it and said I should sell it.

The thing is, I've read up a lot on pricing products and when I actually resort to the proper way of calculating costs, my price is coming up wayyyyy high than other competitors' products on, say, Etsy or Ebay.

What shall i do? should i just ridiculously undervalue my own labour and start out at a cheap price just to compete? It is a toddler toy after all ...

Please help ... i love making it and would love to earn something from it too.

A very difficult question to answer for lots of reasons, for example:

1. How are you defining a competitive product?

2. What is the price differential you are coming up with between you and your competitors?

3. What are you charging your labour at?

4. Are there any economy of scale benefits?

5. Is this your sole income or your hobby?

6. Is there any value in making your product 'limited addition'?

I'm sure there are more questions...but these are for a start

Please help ... i love making it and would love to earn something from it too.

If that is still clocking in substantially higher than the competition, then as correctly posited by Steve above, firstly make sure that you are comparing like-for-like (are these other items truly crafted, or series manufactured to look like craft) and be sure of what/where/who your market is.

For instance, from recent personal research, the market for "shabby chic" (I hate that expression) furniture is much more vast and multi-faceted than many would think, ranging from a £10 bit of furniture daubed in 20 minutes with a single coat of duck egg blue paint all over without bothering further (internals not even looked at) and selling for £150 to make a quick buck, to that same £10 bit of furniture fully restored, sanded, primed twice, coated twice, then hand oil-painted motifs/patterns/other surface decoration and sealed/lacquered and selling for substantially more.

The first is the "volume and poor quality work" market, the second is the "craft and high quality work" market and, starting from a same piece, respective costs and prices are in keeping with, and valid in their, respective markets.

Thank you for your replies,

In essence what I've seen is, those producing similar products at cheaper costs are either

a. in the EU or

b. not paying as much attention to detail as I am.

Those that truly are producing the stuff like mine have indeed listed it at an exponentially high price. I'm not sure if it is selling at that price though.

But doesn't it all boil down to customer needs? If a product is fulfilling the same 'need' i.e. a fabric activity book for toddlers, wouldn't customers go for the cheaper product, even if it is of poorer quality? If that is the case, I would hate to copy this approach because the beauty of my product lies in the detail. In which case, is it silly to even try selling it?

As to making my product 'limited addition'?

I would love to do this, but I haven't even started out yet and i dont' want to appear arrogant iykwim. How does one start to market a brand new product as 'up market' successfully? No clue.

Any input highly appreciated.

Have a look here:

The curse of the craft fair

It may give you an insight as to why some crafters charge more than others. Without trying to make a synopsis, there are issues such as public liability, H&S testing, etc.

But doesn't it all boil down to customer needs? If a product is fulfilling the same 'need' i.e. a fabric activity book for toddlers, wouldn't customers go for the cheaper product, even if it is of poorer quality? If that is the case, I would hate to copy this approach because the beauty of my product lies in the detail. In which case, is it silly to even try selling it?.

So, are you selling the Ferrari of busy books, or just another Mondeo?

Thank you all for your input once again.

Max, particularly for your link. Reading it leads me to a whole new issue and one that I would love to seek anyone's opinion on. It is about copyrights.

I had once bought official Disney fabric for a separate project, some of which was left over. So I was thinking of putting parts of that in my project. Apparently this little thing has opened a whole pandora's box of stuff related to copyright infringement. Word on the net mostly says that it is illegal to sell Disney merchandise without certain legal rights. Anyone who does so risks being sued by Disney.

On the other hand, I found this very interesting link:

According to it, something like this has happened in the US once and the court ruled in favour of the seller. And that Disney wouldn't want the public to know about it. So should i go ahead and applique Disney on my product? Or risk a potential lawsuit ?

(I feel like an ant right now)

So should i go ahead and applique Disney on my product?

Re. your link, what happens in the US is inconsequential: the UK is a distinct jurisdiction, a US precedent has no persuasive authority here.

What about safety issues? Do you have the relevant test/safety certs especially as the product is for toddlers/children? Product liability insurance may also be an issue. Don't mean to rain on your picnic but in this day and age, you've got to cover your @rse first and foremost

The biggest factor when making hand-crafted products is the time it takes to make them, often the cost of materials is fairly low. The problem is a lot of people don't appreciate the time and skills which goes into making handmade items. They just look at the end result not the process.

When I made wedding stationery even the simple designs could take a fair bit of time, then times that by 30, 50, 100 etc. Customers wanted all their stationery to look as similar as possible and it takes skill to do the same thing over and over again and as precisely as possible. Plus the ability not to get bored with the repetition.

In regards to Copyright - use your own designs, that way you won't risk being taken to court.

In regards to making money/covering your costs, perhaps try the personalisation route. Could you add the child's name to the book? Maybe add siblings and also favorite colours, animals etc? If you make then to order people are often willing to pay more. Not sure how much it would cost but could you look into get a photo of the child/family/etc printed onto fabric and then incorporate this?

The biggest factor when making hand-crafted products is the time it takes to make them, often the cost of materials is fairly low. The problem is a lot of people don't appreciate the time and skills which goes into making handmade items. They just look at the end result not the process.

In regards to making money/covering your costs, perhaps try the personalisation route. Could you add the child's name to the book? Maybe add siblings and also favorite colours, animals etc? If you make then to order people are often willing to pay more. Not sure how much it would cost but could you look into get a photo of the child/family/etc printed onto fabric and then incorporate this?

all depends on how many you expect to sell? scale is everything in a product of this type?