Pricing for beads that are not perfect?

noora · July 27, 2011, 08:45:12 AM

I've been asked if I would sell some of the storm beads that I displayed yesterday in the gallery. The problem with these is that none of them are as perfect as I'd like them to be. The storm dots are either different sizes or quite unevenly spaced. I explained this to the person who asked about them but she said she likes things that are not symmetrical or perfect (and I know she does, she wouldn't lie just to be polite)...

Well, if she really likes them (I'll take a few more photos of them so that she can see what the problem is, you can't see it in the photo I took yesterday) I wouldn't mind her having them, but how much can I charge for them? I don't want to charge full price for something I don't consider worth full price, but if she doesn't see (or mind) the difference I'd feel like I'm dumping the prices for neat and proper storm beads if I charge less $:-\$ I might even rather give them away so that she knows I'm "giving them away", but what if she tells people I gave these away and others start expecting freebies too? That would be the price dump of the century

Holding on the beads and not selling them at all seems cheap too. If someone really wants them I'd be happier if she has them than if they're sitting useless in my oddities jar.

What would you guys do?

Kaz · July 27, 2011, 08:49:32 AM

I usually sell things that I am not 100% happy with at a lower price. I make it clear to the customer that those imperfections are reflected in the price so that means I can sell similar items at a higher price in future. I would discount to around maybe 75% of the full price - they have taken you the same amount of time, used the same amount of materials and the customer really wants them - sounds like a win:win to me!
Kazx

The Tartan Trout · July 27, 2011, 08:50:41 AM

Work out the price if they were 'perfect' and then knock a wee bit off. Your customer obviously wants them

I thought they looked fab...storming and I havn't got to grips with each other yet $:-\$

JaySpangles · July 27, 2011, 09:42:33 AM

I'm with Trout and Kaz. If you knock 20% off your regular price and tell her it is because you consider them to be slightly less than your normal standards of perfection she will be dead chuffed at getting a bargain for something she wanted anyway.

Steampunkglass · July 27, 2011, 10:09:17 AM

Quote from: JaySpangles on July 27, 2011, 09:42:33 AM
I'm with Trout and Kaz. If you knock 20% off your regular price and tell her it is because you consider them to be slightly less than your normal standards of perfection she will be dead chuffed at getting a bargain for something she wanted anyway.

Sounds like good advice to me too!

Also bear in mind that as the maker you will be looking for the flaws; I am sure I am not alone when I say I can pick up any of my 'best' pieces and find ten things wrong with it, the amount of times I've shown marbles to my OH pointing out what I think is a serious flaw, with ten minutes of her turning it around saying, 'Where? Where? I can't see that!' before finally finding what I see as a glaringly obvious defects!

Are your beads really that flawed? Or are you being very critical?

I think I've finally reaslised the public don't look at glass in the same way that we do; lately I've noticed people enthusiatically buying some of what I think are my worst, more boring, pendants that I only put on the stall to fill up space. Either my standards are too high, their expectations are too low, or I need to start making more awful pendants!

noora · July 27, 2011, 11:58:01 AM

As much as 75%? Wow, I was thinking perhaps 50%... I'll have to think about it a bit more

Thank you for your input!

Oddly enough I don't even think twice before selling fugly fused dichroic cabochons at 50% or even less. Maybe that's because I still sell most of my cabochons at 100%, while I wouldn't considering charging full price for more than a handful of my beads so far. Also I'm the only one who tries to sell dichroic cabochons like that around here, so I don't have to consider others. If a cab doesn't sell att 100% I'm better off getting 50% or even 25% than nothing at all.

Lotti · July 27, 2011, 12:00:47 PM

Interestingly I got feedback yesterday from the market organisers that perhaps i could have a little pot with my 'not good enough for me beads', I hadn't wanted to do it, but I did have little girls oggling my sets yesterday, but of course their mums wouldn't buy them for them as too expensive, so a pot of 'not perfects' would have had interest yesterday. Thanks for the post Noora, helped me with this too!

Steampunkglass · July 27, 2011, 12:46:27 PM

Quote from: Lotti on July 27, 2011, 12:00:47 PM
Interestingly I got feedback yesterday from the market organisers that perhaps i could have a little pot with my 'not good enough for me beads', I hadn't wanted to do it, but I did have little girls oggling my sets yesterday, but of course their mums wouldn't buy them for them as too expensive, so a pot of 'not perfects' would have had interest yesterday. Thanks for the post Noora, helped me with this too!

Deffinetly do it! Appart from making a few pounds (I think of it as my tea buying money!) for stuff that would just sit in a draw or box, I noticed I was selling more higher priced marbles when I put out a 'seconds and rejects' pot - not really sure why, maybe it helps re-enforce that what you do really is handmade?

noora · July 27, 2011, 01:13:03 PM

Maybe the seconds jar also shows that it isn't trivial to make each bead perfect. They get to see the failures and understand which parts take a lot of skill to make.

What kind of beads do you put in the seconds pot? Where do you draw the line for not selling at all? Chipped holes and cracked beads obviously go directly in the landfill bin, but then? For example, i have a fairly decent floral that unfortunately got a few sooty streaks in the clear encasing. Would you try to sell something like that at all?