Thread: hand made goods

Ah that is indeed a different thing. I perfectly understand why a pen can cost 20, 200 or 2000$ (there are different reasons for each threshold).

Originally Posted by jballs918

well i would like to pose this to you all. why when you make something by hand its is so hard to get any money out of it. for example, i turn pens. i use high end figured wood with a mirror finish on them. but pretty much for me to make anything off them i would have to charge about 20 bucks for one. all said and done the supplies run me about 11 bucks for a nice kit and he wood and finishing materials. well when you tell a person that you would like 20 dollars for a pen they scoof at the idea of that. i enjoy what i do but when you cant recoup your cost sometimes and try to pass on a nice product it is a bit discouraging. well this is just my 2 cents. anyone else got any thoughts on this one

Sounds like you need a new target audience.

IMO, $20 is not expensive for a pen.

Originally Posted by Whiskers

Sounds like you need a new target audience.

IMO, $20 is not expensive for a pen.

I actually think your pricing is some of the problem.. For instance people who are familiar with Cross, Parker, etc may look at a $20 pen and assume that, while it looks nice, perhaps it is not high quality or for some other reason think it's inferior.

One of my personal weaknesses is that I really love "nice stuff". I can come across something I have no need for, that is way too expensive and REALLY want it for no other reason than being able to tell it was made by someone who cares. I always liked the term "heirloom quality". And the people who know me well also know that this kind of thing makes a great gift for me. For instance my dad found somewhere, gold plated collar stays. Now for the life of me I can't understand why anyone cares that their collar stays are gold plated, but I still think they're cool, and if I'm getting really dressed up I've got gold in my collar!

Likewise, I have a tendancy to want to do thing myself... usually this results in a greater appreciation for those who are true artists.

So here's my POV on this one. I'm a pen collector as well as razors and while I know that the craftsmanship on your pens are great, they lack something...but that's not your fault. The item missing is the metal bits. The kits you can buy are cheaply made Chinese stuff that the collectors don't want, but the price is too high for the casual user. I hope that makes sense...the collector wants something entirely crafted by hand and doesn't care what the price is and the casual user will almost scoff at the price no matter what.