Replies

1. 
   Thorvald | Jan 14, 2009 06:08am | #1

   No, but I was a member of a cooperative gallery for a while.  Some of them have enough space for small furniture pieces. 

   The other thing I've considered for future work is renting a vacant store window for showing a piece.  If the place is empty, a landlord would probably like to make a few bucks on the window, or maybe would be willing to take a small percentage if you sold the piece.

   Verne

   If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to cut it up and make something with it . . . what a waste!

2. 
   cowtown | Aug 01, 2009 09:57am | #2

   Long time ago. And it was chopping boards in a kitchen store.

   It was a waste of time.

   The principle of retailing is to give folks a choice.

    

   They buy stock of one or two types from a wholesaler, yours are there for free until they are sold.

   I is ever so obvious that they will push to turnover the product they have paid for, yours only give their clients an alternative choice (and it ain't likely that they will push your product even if it is superior; they simply aint got anything invested in it. OTOH, they gotta "turn" the product that they paid for.

   Couple that perspective with "shrinkage"- or "theft/loss/whatever they wanna call it" and in this era of uncertain business futures, receivership/bankruptcy/whatever...well, it ain't uncommon.

    

    

   That happened to me, and it took a year of weekly phone calls to get return of my stuff and partial payment of whatever they had actually sold.

    

    There is a real cost to you for the time spent  servicing the client, wheras a straight forward sale wouldn't involve that.  These folks benifeted from having my stuff in their store, they emphasized their purchased product, and I had to absorb the ongoing costs when they went "teats up" What the heck do you do with a bunch of shop worn product?

   Go for the outright sale. Avoid consignment sales.

   Yer investment in their business is totally at the bottom end of their sales push,  and at ever so totally at risk should things go sour for them. You will lose bigtime. Real sales are the way to go, but you could do a deal like, for every hunnerd bucks in purchases, I will give you 10 in consignment sales.

   That's just my perspective.

    

   Eric in Cowtown

    

1. 
   mvflaim | Aug 02, 2009 04:46pm | #3

   A website that is growing in popularity is http://www.Etsy.com. It's sorta like a Ebay for crafters except it's not an auction. If you make things that are small enough and cheap enough to ship, you may want to consider setting up an account and listing your items. I believe you only have to pay Etsy when your item sells. This way you can sell your product direct to the consumer without having to deal with any middlemen.

   Mike

    

    

   http://www.mvflaim.com

   Edited 8/2/2009 9:48 am ET by mvflaim

1. 
   Shoemaker1 | Aug 04, 2009 12:22am | #4

   Thanks for the link.
   I checked it out and it looks pretty reasonable cost wise.Do you have any experiance with this site? Or do you know anyone who has used it?Eric, sorry to hear that you got hooped. For what it's worth how much did they charge as a commision? I was talking to a new gallery in town they want 38% other say 40% A wood worker friend thought 38 was way to high. especially if it was a $2,000.00 sale.Feedback anyone?? all appreciated.go Riders

1. 
   mvflaim | Aug 04, 2009 12:51am | #5

   I haven't sold or listed anything yet but I'm starting to get an itch to try. There was a girl at work who sold horseshoe wine bottle holders on Etsy but I don't know if she ever ran into any problems with buyers. I think the biggest obstacle is figuring out shipping if you sell something that needs to be freighted.

   Mike

    http://www.mvflaim.com

3. 
   RalphBarker | Aug 04, 2009 06:40pm | #6

   I think the viability of consignment depends on several factors, including what you are making and the nature of the consignment store (and its location, location, location ;-) ). For larger pieces, a co-op gallery might be better, for example, particularly if in an artsy-craftsy town visited by nearby tourists.

   But, I think Cowtown's assessment is correct if your work is competing against stock items imported from a wholesaler. The retailer will push that in which they have their own money invested.

   My impression is that a commission approaching 40% is fairly typical, since it is paying the retailer for their display space in their location (location, location), along with their effort in selling your piece. The economics have to work for both parties.