it’s never too early to teach children about the devaluation of labor!
(from an American Girls book)
Babie’s first entitled commissioner
As a fiber artist, it BREAKS MY HEART when creators post in one of the fiber art Facebook groups I’m in that “I made this, I’m charging X, is that too much?” and the picture will be a stunning queen size afghan and the price they’re worried is too high is 50$. i just want to shout “PRICE OF MATERIALS + TIME IT TOOK TO MAKE @ MINIMUM WAGE” at the minimum.
people undervalue art so drastically that artists end up undervaluing their hard work.
ok. :(
I have been struggling with this as someone who sells at craft fairs sometimes.
Whenever I notice that the price I’ve put on something is so low that it’s not really even worth making and selling at that price, and I consider raising the price to something more reasonable… there is a part of me that protests, saying something like
“but I’m afraid people won’t pay the higher price at all! …Sure, some people buy it at the current price, but there’s other people already saying that’s too expensive!”
and… YES, it is a real problem that some people do not understand they have to pay more for locally ethically handmade stuff than they’d pay for mass-produced stuff at WalMart. And YEAH it is a real problem that many people genuinely cannot afford to pay prices that would be fair. And there are gonna be times when this comes up, for any independent maker.
BUT at those moments I try to remind myself:
the people who are already saying it costs too much? They aren’t gonna buy it anyway! Not unless you LOWER the price until you’re literally selling it at a loss. And as someone who needs a profit to keep going as a business, you can’t afford to do that.
The people who are already paying your current price? They likely think they are getting a great deal! If you raise the price til it’s truly fair, THAT sort of customer will very likely still pay it!
In fact, SOME customers, if they realize how low your prices are for the amount of work you put in, will react by thinking, “There must be something wrong with it, if it’s that cheap!” or “I would feel legitimately guilty buying it for that cheap!” So, SOME customers will actually be MORE likely to buy it if you raise the prices!
