Pricing

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Exactly what David said, especially that second line.

I will just add this. Don't sell yourself short. You're going to need the money to pay for the pen turning habit. :D
 
To comment on you price you would need to elaborate on the kit and blank you are using at the very least. For slims that good. Here is an example of why it wouldn't be. The other evening our club put turned items in display cases in the local mall for a month of viewing. The lady in charge, when she saw my fountain pen asked if it was for sale? She draws with them every night. I told her it wasn't but if it was it would be about $100Can. She was a bit taken a back but would tell her husband for gift ideas. Now the kit is a Cambridge and they are $46Can here at the LV store. So selling it in the $30 - $40 range would be unwise. General rule of thumb, intact and not table saw shortened, is triple all the costs to make it. Blank, kit, shop supplies, little for tools etc. That varies by your market and whether you want to make a little money or just get back some of the costs. No wrong or better answer.Just what works for you.
 
Depends on the pen and the buyer. The right price is one that makes both you and the buyer happy. I make pens because I enjoy making them. I could give them away, but then what is my time worth. So far people are willing to pay from $30 to $130 on one of my pens. That tells me that my efforts are appreciated. So I put a price on that makes me happy. If the pen finds the right buyer, then everyone is happy. In response to Curly's approach, I don't take the cost of materials into account. I base my pricing on the amount of work that goes into it. Currently most of my pens don't involve kits. Living where I do I get much of my wood for free, or cheap. If I sold pens for three times the kit and blank cost I'd be giving them away. I can spend a week making a pen, so that wouldn't make a lot of sense!
 
As you can surmise, this is not a new question. However, I was ready for the "usual" arguments about "how to" and I am (pleasantly) surprised at the common sense shown in the above posts. Well done, guys/gals!

One other thing - depends on your market. Seems folk in some locations tolerate a higher price point than others. Sounds like you're in the process of figuring that out already.

Congrats on the sales!
 
In addition to the good comments above , I would add that buyers like a story to go with the pen . That may translate into using local wood from trees familiar to the buyer from childhood , or for some , the appeal of wood from an overseas source is greater . A bit harder to have a story line for plastic , unless it is one that was used by pen manufacturers 50 -80 years ago .
 
I hate to say this but the pricing will depend largely upon your market. I have sold pens at cost and also at highly inflated pricing.
When I first started making pens and bottle stoppers I would price at 20 bucks. Then I got picked up in a gallery and the owner told me "Put a 1 in front of those prices". My pens were on display for 120-150 a piece and they were flying off the shelf. Mostly because the gallery was in downtown Waikiki and they catered to higher end clients. At craft sales, it would really depend on the audience. As a general rule, 3x the material plus your labor (whatever you feel that is worth) is a good starting point. If you are doing it just for fun, you can charge less and make more people happy!
 
Disclaimer, I don't sell pens anymore. But if they don't raise their eyebrows at least a little bit when they see the price, you're probably low.It's easy to subsidize this hobby, it's difficult to make money at it.
 
I think I have posted this before here, but I enjoy the story. I forget the lead up, but basically...

The owner of a general store was once asked how he knew if the prices on his merchandise were right. He said it was a simple process.

If a customer asked the price of something, complains it is too high and walks out the door, the price it too high.

If a customer asked the price of something, said nothing but pulled out their wallet and paid, the price was too low.

But, if a customer asked the price of something, complained it was too high then pulled out their wallet and paid, the price was just right.
 
Interesting that this popped up. Tonight I had someone ask me to make ten pens. The material costs for blanks and kits would have run $20.50 per pen so I asked for $35 per pen ($350 TOTAL). But the price was too high. :-( Funny thing is, this person has seen my work first hand and commented on how nice of quality my pen was. Is $15 per pen too high? I guess it is.
 
jakoop said:
Interesting that this popped up. Tonight I had someone ask me to make ten pens. The material costs for blanks and kits would have run $20.50 per pen so I asked for $35 per pen ($350 TOTAL). But the price was too high. :-( Funny thing is, this person has seen my work first hand and commented on how nice of quality my pen was. Is $15 per pen too high? I guess it is.
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They are not your customer base. Move on and do not look back. One thing to remember is you can always lower your price but can not raise it. People talk. They buy pens from you at that low price and everyone they tell now want for the same price. As mentioned and again there are a ton of these posts here asking about pricing. Many will have formulas which I never follow because everyone has different markets that they sell in and different clientele so no one formula works for all. But do this enough you will find that pens fall into categories and if you price said category you will not have any problems gauging what you should be getting for them. Then there is the position is this a business or is this a hobby that you want to make a few $$. That makes a huge difference. You can not treat them the same. Good luck.
 
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