selling cards in shops

[Pilipala]

Does anyone know, if you sell your cards in the shop do you have to provide the stand with the cards and do the owners buy the cards from you or do you get money when they sell.

Any helpful tips and advice would be most appreciated

thanks

Emma

[Seahorse]

Hmm, Im not to sure but the more you can provide the better re stands.Maybe have a chat with the owner and see if they have room of their own to display your cards.

I think shops do differnt things.Some may buy all the stock from you or whichever ones they are interested in(think about what kind of shop you want to sell them in.If yuo sell them in a toyshop then maybe kiddy themed cards would sell more than cards for grown ups with older themes).Then they sell them to customers at a profit.

Some may take them all, and take a profit out of what is sold, then return whichever cards they dont sell after a certain amount of time.I think thats called 'sale and return'.

I dont think it will hurt if you approach a craft shop with friendly staff/boss and ask what kind of things sell,whats popular, what do they need.You may be able to provide cards for an age range/market that isnt catered for.
Maybe even ask if th eshop owner could give out a questionaire related to cards each time a customer buys an already existing card.Ask questions like 'what made you buy the card,what appealed to you, was it a good price'etc

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Seahorse]

Or like me, Im greedy and want all the money I can get from my hard work(this is what I plan when i actually have something to sell).
Cut out the middleman/shop owner and try and sell them direct from yourself.

[stillscrapping]

Agree with seahorse here. Shops will vary in what way they sell your cards. Some will sell them and take 50p or so per card; others will buy what they want and sell them on at a higher price. In this case you have to be careful as you may not get what you want for the card as the shop owner will want to make some profit as well.

You will make more if you can sell them yourself but there is a lot of competition these days.

Julie

[Pilipalacrafts]

feedback

Just realised that i had an old username so pilipala and pilipalacrafts are the same person!!!!

i did approach a couple of shops and they said that they preferred buying in bulk stock from a factory that they could make the most profit on!!! So much for supporting local crafters!

oh well, i took your advice and having had a huge crafting session following a serious car accident and being stuck at home, my hubby has put a website together for me to sell my stuff which is now up and running :-) see what you think

http://www.pilipala-crafts.co.uk/shop/

Emma

[Seahorse]

Well done to you!!
Did yuo make those little figures form Fimo yourself?
Love the stormtrooper.

[Pilipalacrafts]

Yes, I make all the card toppers, it was something i started after playing with my toddler with plastecine etc, i would make figures etc and my husband said they were good so it went from there really

[Seahorse]

I dint see all your site, have you tried flowers?

Also if you roll out some fimo and imprint a rubber stamp image into it it can look quite good.Works well with transparent as it catches the shadow and light.

[Pilipalacrafts]

i've not looked at using rubber stamps - I will have a look next time i get out of the house to see what sort of stamps are on offer.

the next thing i'd like to try doing is making my own fimo fun beads for jewellery. I've found doing all this so therapeutic while i've been off work after the accident, i think i might have gone bonkers otherwise, there's only so much tv you can watch.

:-)

[Seahorse]

Im at work, its so quiet(as Im sure ive mentioned on here before)that I sit here and do crafty stuff.

Ive made wooden frames today and stained them.

Good luck with the beads.Are they the multi-layered beads with patterns in them?!!Your brave if they are.

[Pilipalacrafts]

I haven't started on the fimo beads yet, i'm still in the looking into stage to figure out how to go about it, i suspect first attempts will be a disasterous but going to give it a go.

have you any pictures of your frames, be interested to see them

best wishes

Em

[Seahorse]

I went to a craft village at the weekend just to check out any competition.

There was a shop full of hand made cards.One was so simple, plain beige coloured card, with 1 simple stamp of a womans face stuck on on foam pads, with a couple of tear drops falling down it.

I couldnt belive it when I saw it was £4.50!!No wonder it was still there!!
Sorry to be nasty but I think £3 would be tops for something like that.