I hate haggling! If a dealer can’t establish a price at the
outset, I feel as though I can’t trust him to be honest about the
value of his merchandise. I have friends who love the sport of
bargaining , and will try to ‘do a deal’ on just about anything.
As for me, it just makes me queasy. Perhaps if I were in a
country where haggling is the cultural norm for doing business,
I’d be taken for a sucker if I went for the first price given; but
here in the U.S.,we’ve come to expect the marked price to be the
established price.
I have battled this price showing/not showing thing for going on 8
years of shows now, from retail/wholesale jewelry shows either
regional or big wholesale ones, to fine art and craft shows.
Sometimes I show prices, and sometimes I don’t. I can’t figure out
the buying public. Some say they are glad to see prices on work.
Others don’t seem to care. If they like a design they will ask to
see it, whether the price is in front of them or not. I charge a
fair price, for the design, the materials, and the labor (of love)
that I put into it. I used to offer discounts to customers when I
did regional retail jewelry shows (like Intergem) because the
customers have a discount mentality there. They expect to get it
for much less that what it is marked for. I got tired of not
making any money on my work. So I started doing retail FineArt and
Craft shows. A much more refined customer base who appreciate art
and the labor that goes into it. In all the art shows I have done
over the past 3 years I have had only 1 customer ask “what is your
final price” on a piece. Needless to say he didn’t buy either. As
far as pricing the pieces what I do is write the price in black
felt pen on the back of the piece (comes off real easy with
fingernail polish remover). That way the price was always there
for the customer if they wanted to see it. It was always the same
for all customers that way. But, there were times when, even when
that price was there, I would change the price depending on the
attitude of the customer. There are customers out there that are
just so irritating that in all honesty I could not offer my work to
them at the marked price. I would jack it up and not feel bad at
all when they walked away in a huff. I would just say to myself
that this person could not appreciate my work enough for me to feel
comfortable selling it to them. Later I would kick myself for not
swallowing my pride enough to make an often much needed sale,
instead, losing it. I haven’t been able to win at this price thing
yet.
Barry
Hansen Designs
Corona, California
Hi,
I agree…hate haggling. As a matter of fact I just don’t do it.
The only time I consider giving discounts is for multiple
purchases…like a set, and usually only if they didn’t take an hour
of my time to decide what they want. There are alot of jewelers
out there who price their jewelry like they price thier houses, a
certain percentage over in order to make a deal. I don’t do this
and in some areas where I do shows it seems to be expected. When
someone gets insistent I figure they want it or they don’t and
usually say with a smile something like “I went to college 8 years
to learn my design and metalsmithing skills and have been practicing
professionally now for 10 years, if I sell that to you for what you
ask I will be making the wages of a gas station attendant, I
deserve more.” They are either offended or smile and pay up.
Sometimes they just want to see what you think you are worth.
Karen
in Northern Illinois where I have my first outdoor show
this Sunday, BRRR!
@karenworks1
All this about the Prices showing or not, brings another subject
to mind, and that is, speaking a foreign language, in front of a
customer. I don’t know about anyone else, but it drives me crazy
when I ask a stone dealer a price, and they ask their partner in a
language foreign to me, and continue on for what seems to be longer
than necessary for the question that I asked. This seems obvious
that they are playing some kind of game. 99% of the time I will
just walk away, in other words, I won’t play the game. I won’t play
Goodguy/Badguy with my customers, I don’t expect other’s to do it
with me. I like to see the prices, so I can turn away BEFORE I
laugh. 
(LOL)
Tim Goodwin
So, now that you've "vented;" what is your price range??? Just curious. I do small tags . . .mostly on strings. . . or I group like items/w like prices together and can avoid the clutter that way. I do not usually "reproduce" like crazy, mine are a variety of original designs . . . but, I try to price according to amount of silver used, stones used, and time. I find that people don't know anything about stones (I don't know much about those either, until I've purchased of few of whatever expensive kind.) But, I cannot explain the gathering nor the reason for the expensive price of whatever stone. . . I won't stoop to saying, "well, It cost me a lot WHOLESALE, so I have to charge you a lot more . . ." I can only hope they know what they are looking at and understand why the price is what it is.
Excuse me, I wasn’t venting. I was giving the reasons that work
for me and reasons I learned from others when I was first starting.
Just because I have a lot of pieces does not mean I “reproduce”
like crazy - ALL my pieces are my original one of a kind designs -
I just work a lot because I enjoy it and I build up stock during
off seasons. As to my price ranges, without pictures the prices
would mean little, but my booth is all glass cases with shelves and
is in shades of white, cream and beige. I also accent with plants
so it looks (hopefully) like a small shop. I started with tags,
but found keeping clean tags just too time consuming as well as
distracting from the look I wanted. As someone just said, any
system will work - you just have to find what works for you.
Nancy
ICQ # 9472643
Bacliff, Texas Gulf Coast USA
Just because the price isn’t obvious to a passerby, doesn’t mean
there isn’t a firm price for a piece. All of my work has a price
tag attached. People just can’t see them from the outside of the
cases.
Karen in sunny Colorado
But the real purpose of this note is to get some views on another matter that's been mentioned: haggling. I personally despise haggling.
I feel that haggling is an insult to the creator of the piece! I
won’t deal with that anymore! When I initially started selling
through shows, I found some that felt that my stuff wasn’t worth
what I had it priced at. (wow, what an example of awful sentence
structure!, oh well . . .) Anyway, point being made is: Do not
haggle! Unless you want to dump a really old piece that isn’t
selling anyway.
<snip> There are customers out there that are just so irritating that in all honesty I could not offer my work to them at the marked price. I would jack it up and not feel bad at all when they walked away in a huff. I would just say to myself that this person could not appreciate my work enough for me to feel comfortable selling it to them. Later I would kick myself for not swallowing my pride enough to make an often much needed sale, instead, losing it. I haven't been able to win at this price thing yet.
Yea Barry! I have wanted to do this with some irritating
customers but, I regret I haven’t found the guts (my prices are on
the back, too). I still think about one piece I sold to an
especially annoying customer several years ago. It was one of the
best designs I ever did (IMHO) and I know she didn’t appreciate it.
I’m not sure swallowing my pride and getting the money was worth
it even though at the time I needed the sale.
Nancy
ICQ # 9472643
Bacliff, Texas Gulf Coast USA
Hi, I would say that hangling in this country is a norm, in New
England I believe people think if they pay the price on the tag
they are getting ripped off!
I think its normal to say can you do a little better but after
that if the price doesn’t suit I say thank you and walk away and if
the price is fair to me in the first place I don’t even ask for a
better price.
Having an antique and Jewelry shop people here think that they
should pay tag sale prices for everything. We entertain a very
tough crowd here.
Have a good Weekend!
TTYS
Chris
http://www.tace.com/glitters
This seems obvious that they are playing some kind of game. 99% of the time I will just walk away, in other words, I won't play the game. I won't play Goodguy/Badguy with my customers, I don't expect other's to do it with me. I like to see the prices, so I can turn away BEFORE I laugh. :-) (LOL)
BOY, I hear ya. I got a lot of this while in Tucson the year
before last. I remember asking about a strand of rubies and the
two guys looked at me, laughed, talked, laughed, looked at me
again, then… told me the price. I got this same treatment from
many people at the big convention center show. Guess if you don’t
flash hundreds around, you don’t get the hundred $ treatment!
i had a freeform wire wrapped piece, i loved it. the thing went
together like a dream, everything worked, had no idea what my
fingers were doing, but they did it well. had it in the middle of
my case, i called it my oooooh piece. people would ask to see it,
say ooooh, politely give it back and i would put it back. this
went on for a year. yes i had the price on it. double what it
should have been, and i was a happy camper. we would start
discussing wire jewelry, and i would make other sales…untill the
dreaded day.
harmless looking woman came up and looked around and asked to see
it. i handed it over, we talked. she handed it back and as i was
putting it back in it’s rightfull place, she said, no, i’ll take
it. i said, escuse me? she answered, i’ll take it. it’s
lovely. are you ok? i gulped and said, ok, you’re sure…you
want it? she grinned and said, you know, you really shouldn’t
become emotionally attached to your jewelry…and she said she
would give it a good home.
couldn’t believe it. but i made another showstopper. this time i
tripled the price!
Dear Pat…
Lost a $600 sale last year for a similar reason…the buyer was
another artist and could tell I was sad to see it go, raised the
price for the next show.
Whenever I end up with one that I really want to keep I make myself
a deal…mark it so I can’t regret the sale and then decide if it
makes it to the fall/past christmas whatever, it’s mine. Somehow it
has made it easier to take.
Karen