Cheap Pens

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KenB259

KenB259

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Michigan
These will be my cheap pens for an upcoming show. I quickly learned you need to offer pens for different budgets. These are editor pens, sourced from Exotic Blanks, less than $4.00 dollars each. I'll price them at $20.00. This assortment has burls, segmented and hybrids. Ladies seem to like these for purse pens as they are smallish, yet they still take a Parker refill. They also have snap caps. Some of these are gun metal and some are antique brass.
 

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I have mixed feelings when doing this. You sort of degrade your other work especially if the kits look similar or the blanks used on those other kits are similar. I have been selling for over 40 years with my scrollsaw stuff and then added pens. yes I have different price ranges but they are different in other ways too such as computer blanks as a group and segmented and cast watch parts another group. My real highend stuff is blanks that are extreme rare such as the Opus stuff and other Italian materials. So many times it is the kit that can increase prices too. But I try to let the blanks determine prices. My scrollsaw work many times is determined by sizes and woods used. I found this also helped me over the years to keep a sort of consistent price ranges. Not always an easy sell when doing shows. Just some thoughts. Good luck with sales.
 
Great looking collection. I have a few of those Editor kits, but I haven't turned a single one yet. Your collection may inspire me to pull a few of them out and give it a go. - Dave
 
jttheclockman said:
I have mixed feelings when doing this. You sort of degrade your other work especially if the kits look similar or the blanks used on those other kits are similar. I have been selling for over 40 years with my scrollsaw stuff and then added pens. yes I have different price ranges but they are different in other ways too such as computer blanks as a group and segmented and cast watch parts another group. My real highend stuff is blanks that are extreme rare such as the Opus stuff and other Italian materials. So many times it is the kit that can increase prices too. But I try to let the blanks determine prices. My scrollsaw work many times is determined by sizes and woods used. I found this also helped me over the years to keep a sort of consistent price ranges. Not always an easy sell when doing shows. Just some thoughts. Good luck with sales.
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I don't think it degrades my other pens. People understand prices vary due to type of platings, pen components themselves. I don't do a lesser quality job on cheaper pens. They cost me less so they cost the buyer less.
 
These are nice little pens, they will go fast, women love them because they are easy to carry in their purses. They make great gifts too. You can also use a little longer tube and easily make them into roller ball pens.
 
KenB259 said:
I don't think it degrades my other pens. People understand prices vary due to type of platings, pen components themselves. I don't do a lesser quality job on cheaper pens. They cost me less so they cost the buyer less.
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You give people too much credit. As I said it was just my thought process when devising price lists. People have no idea what a kit cost. No reason you could not charge $50 for those pens. Anyway good luck.
 
I do something very similar. I pair the single-barrel, snap-cap, Editor kit with Lignum Vitae wood. I burnish, but put NO finish on the wood. This keeps the user in touch with the aromatic timber, and saves me loads of time making them. The wood is very oily and durable. I display in a candy dish and am quite happy to sell these for $18.
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Looking at my picture some look severely under turned. They are not. No idea why the picture looks that way.
 
Nice pens and a bargain. We are all aware that the motor vehicle market covers the gamut from $20K to $500K or more. Guess which sells the most.
My grandson turned a pen for his father. Lignum vita was drilling tool steel! Guy at Woodcraft said it was used for submarine bearings!
 
1080Wayne said:
Just the shadows in the slots that make the light coloured ones look that way . But I do feel that ultimately you downgrade the market your high end pens with that pricing .
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High end pens?? These are $3.65 pens, blanks maybe 1-2 dollars. At 20 dollars I'm at 300% markup.
 
I, for one, really like your idea of charging an "entry level" price for the pens that don't cost you much to make. I can well remember the days when I couldn't afford much, and to be able to buy a hand-made pen would have meant the world to me. You get people started on collecting pens and they recognize why different pens have different prices, but at least you got them started collecting pens. It's a nice thought to enable everyone to participate in enjoying our craft.
 
I feel like Ken is being put a bit on the defensive for selling a $20 product.

Someone is getting a good value from Ken buying one of these, because the blanks aren't labor free—Dyed stabilized burl, segmenting, and hybrids. Maybe he has gotten his labor cost on the sale of the main item and these Editors are just slimmimg down his cuttoff bin. Maybe these were experiments that weren't, in his opinion, good enough to put on a $100 pen. Without a doubt, they're more than adequate for a $20 item. So use them up and make a sale.

I don't think it diminishes his brand to have these as part of his display.
 
Todd in PA said:
I feel like Ken is being put a bit on the defensive for selling a $20 product.

Someone is getting a good value from Ken buying one of these, because the blanks aren't labor free—Dyed stabilized burl, segmenting, and hybrids. Maybe he has gotten his labor cost on the sale of the main item and these Editors are just slimmimg down his cuttoff bin. Maybe these were experiments that weren't, in his opinion, good enough to put on a $100 pen. Without a doubt, they're more than adequate for a $20 item. So use them up and make a sale.

I don't think it diminishes his brand to have these as part of his display.
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I agree and this is not my intention. It was a conversation starter. Many reasons to have different price points when selling and if it works well then good job. Every person is different when it comes to selling. You see this alot on Etsy and other selling platforms people selling pens at different prices and we all know they basically are the same kits and platings but it is what they feel comfortable doing. I for one wish him well and hope he sells out and gets other sales from it.
 
KenB259 said:
High end pens?? These are $3.65 pens, blanks maybe 1-2 dollars. At 20 dollars I'm at 300% markup.
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Whether you're selling as a business or as a hobbyist, your time is still worth something. At ~$5 cost, that means you're paying yourself $15 per pen. I don't know how long it takes you, but it generally takes me about an hour for a single-barrel pen (assuming the blank isn't finicky, I don't make any mistakes, the stars are aligned, etc.). So $15 per hour. If you're comfortable with that, then I say great.

I do agree with others who have said you could sell those for more. I think it's important to find a balance between just covering labor and materials and charging whatever the market will bear. I would probably sell your pens for $45, but no more, even if I thought I could get more. As you said, the materials don't justify a higher price.

But take everything I say with a grain of salt. I've sold a number of pens online, but none in person. I'm doing my first show later this summer, so we'll see if people will actually pay what I think is fair.
 
RunnerVince said:
Whether you're selling as a business or as a hobbyist, your time is still worth something. At ~$5 cost, that means you're paying yourself $15 per pen. I don't know how long it takes you, but it generally takes me about an hour for a single-barrel pen (assuming the blank isn't finicky, I don't make any mistakes, the stars are aligned, etc.). So $15 per hour. If you're comfortable with that, then I say great.

I do agree with others who have said you could sell those for more. I think it's important to find a balance between just covering labor and materials and charging whatever the market will bear. I would probably sell your pens for $45, but no more, even if I thought I could get more. As you said, the materials don't justify a higher price.

But take everything I say with a grain of salt. I've sold a number of pens online, but none in person. I'm doing my first show later this summer, so we'll see if people will actually pay what I think is fair.
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When I did my first show selling my pens, I took everyone's advice on how to price my pens. You know how many I sold? Zero. Second show, same venue, more reasonable prices, I sold $1500 dollars worth. They're not worth much setting in a case unsold.
 
Todd in PA said:
I feel like Ken is being put a bit on the defensive for selling a $20 product.
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I think I was the first to make a comment about the value of some of the blanks.
It wasn't to put Ken on the defensive. It wasn't related to any material cost—the amount of wood in a typical pen is often negligible compared to boxes, tables, cabinets, and other woodwork.
It was to acknowledge the value of time, effort, and expertise required to create the segmented blanks exceeds the selling price.

In the final analysis, the selling price is always the seller's decision.
 
Hmm. I was in a craft shop in a touristy town several years ago. The pens on display were grossly overpriced as I knew the cost of the kit, estimated the blank cost and time to turn and finish. I was in the store several times and there were the same pens! The owner tried to tell me that they were turned by XXXX. Guess that justified the cost? I asked here how many customers knew the turner' name. Zero.
 
Woodchipper said:
Hmm. I was in a craft shop in a touristy town several years ago. The pens on display were grossly overpriced as I knew the cost of the kit, estimated the blank cost and time to turn and finish. I was in the store several times and there were the same pens! The owner tried to tell me that they were turned by XXXX. Guess that justified the cost? I asked here how many customers knew the turner' name. Zero.
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Selling our wares is always a tough situation and there are many theories on how to go about it. There are so called experts that can tell you ways and tricks to better your sales and they are just all ideas. No one idea is suited for each person and their position. The main factors when it comes to selling pens and or anything is location, location location. Then you have quality of product, type of product, advertising, promotion of artist and their following and a few others. One old adage that is used and can apply to sale of pens is if they are not selling, raise the price. I have seen this work. Bottom line is the seller is the one who has to be comfortable with the price they sell at and I would say we all underestimate our worth. It takes talent to make but it also takes talent to sell. How you go about it in each aspect will determine how successful you will be. This topic has been brought up here many times. I think the conversation starter here was OP title when he said "cheap pens."
 
KenB259 said:
When I did my first show selling my pens, I took everyone's advice on how to price my pens. You know how many I sold? Zero. Second show, same venue, more reasonable prices, I sold $1500 dollars worth. They're not worth much setting in a case unsold.
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Indeed. If all you can get for them in your market is $20, there's nothing else to do about it. You could choose to exit the market, but where's the fun in that, right? :)

I've been preparing for my first farmer's market and agonizing over pricing. There's a lot of pride involved. For me, there's a certain price point at which I'd rather just make the pens as gifts and hand them out to people I meet/like than telegraph to people that my work is worth only $XX. But that price point it different for everyone, and I respect that. I also don't feel comfortable charging extremely high prices for something that cost me $10 and an hour of my time. As much as I think my time is worth more than $15/hour, I don't think it's worth, for example, $300/hour. So it's about finding that balance, and that may not be possible in all markets if people don't recognize the value of the labor involved.
 
Woodchipper said:
Cheap is a relative term. What are the parameters of high prided and low pried?
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I think cheap isn't the proper term—IMHO, cheap is a term describing quality.
Ch*t from temu is cheap!
Whatever the selling price, these aren't cheap pens.
Inexpensive, low priced, extremely reasonable, and other terms, ok. Cheap, no.

When I sold my pens in the open market, I included about $40/hr for my time invested.
I would rather gift it than sell for what I considered too little.

I also used to run ServicePens here—it was similar to Freedom Pens albeit on a smaller scale. Over the course of about 5 years, the members here, including myself, created and presented roughly 5,000 pens to our Service men and women.
 
Knowing the labor that goes into making those blanks, methinks the pens are grossly underpriced for how nice and well executed they appear to be, but that's not really what I want to address. I encourage the OP to revisit how HE thinks about his pens. Those are not "cheap pens." A "cheap pen" is found in the dollar store at 5 to a pack and is just as likely to leak all over your pocket as it is to actually write without tearing through the paper. They are inexpensive pens. "Cheap" carries connotations far beyond just price. This revisiting isn't about changing the PRICING of his pens, but rather how he will consciously AND subconsciously present them to potential buyers.

Good luck selling them, although I doubt you'll need much luck to move those along to new homes.
 
I do the same with a huge batch of Slimline/Funline pens. Not everyone can afford a $60+ Parker so I offer them a pen they can. I'd rather make a $20 sale with $15 in the pocket than no sale at all. And when Christmas or another event comes around or they have more to spend the next year at the event, I've got a repeat customer.

I also took a whole bunch of my short ends that weren't big enough for single tubes and turned them into 7mm slimline halves. I put them all into box and let people pick and choose two ends, then press a pen for them on the spot form their own choices. $20 bucks for a $2 kit and leftovers I may never use and happy people to spread my name around. I usually sell about 5 of these at an event so that's $100, I have a net of about $90 bucks I didn't have before and a happy (and hopefully return) customer.
 
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