Cat, thank you so much for your lovely message 🙂

After I retired and was able to pursue my dream of creating jewelry, I came Upon your blog quite by accident. And you have been the source of inspiration and wisdom throughout the years.

Now I look forward to your newsletters Every week…. because I know you’ll have something in it to inspire and challenge me.

You rock!

Sheila, that’s a great example of perceived value and pricing! Thanks for sharing that!

Ruth, The problem is getting people like shops & boutiques (who only believe we are deserving of consignment) to get with the program! IF they take our stuff, they want to sell it cheap or won’t take it at all because of our deserving higher price point. Makes me so mad when they say No to handling my work yet they sell $200+ blouses, etc.
Where in the world can we find wholesalers for our work?? Seriously, let me know.

Good point, Alysen! I agree. Thanks so much for adding that to our discussion!

I noticed this on Etsy but what people have to learn is that when you buy a jewelry from Eastern countries at a low price in USD, they actually get more profit because they have to convert to their monetary. That’s what I learned.

A customer had waltzed into his booth, airily surveyed the potters work, which was really out of the ordinary really large pieces, a lot of hand work on top of the hand thrown pieces. Before inquiring anything else about the artist’s work, the customer wanted to know how much better the artist could do on the price. My new artist friend promptly replied that he would be happy to sell his work to them for triple the price!

So, if you get an obnoxious customer, there you go. That’s how you give them a better price. Better to you!

Katie, thank you for sharing your jewelry pricing experiences, and how you customize the pricing formula for your business.

Colleen, you’re very welcome! And be sure to check out my Jewelry Pricing Formula to help you with your pricing.

I also have first hand experience of too low a price d reducing the value of your pieces. I made more sales when I raised some prices.

It’s a challenge at times finding that balance – we want to make money but don’t want to scare off customers. I like what you wrote about attracting a lower priced customer base. When I find myself pricing lower, I remember this and do some visualization about higher end customers who want unique handmade pieces and are willing to pay for them. Mindset and feeling worthy are key.

Crystal, thanks for asking! Please see my Jewelry Pricing Formula – it should help you figure out your pricing. 🙂

-Brittany

Hi Linda, You’re absolutely right that lower prices tend to make people think that a product is lower quality – while higher prices give people the impression of higher quality.

If the other gal’s jewelry is somewhat similar to yours, has similar components, and people are buying her jewelry at her higher prices . . . that means you should probably be putting higher prices on your jewelry too. You may even want to try your prices a bit above the other gal’s pricing, and see what happens! 🙂

I think it is hard to sell a quality item, where you put a minimum effort of 16+ hours of tidious work (beside design and creation of unique items). My ideea is to have more types of handcrafted jewelry, where you spend less time but they may look beautiful and useful, such as stringing, for a certain group of customers (youth).

I have noticed on Etsy unique designs and beautifully crafted, but they sell on close to 1000$ as per necklace. I imagine, they do not sell fast. My thinking is to be able to create also a line of less expensive jewelry, a different style maybe and addressed to a different group of customers. That would make the sales easier.

At this point, I focus on well-made pieces with non-precious metals. I’ve recently been moving into higher price ranges. Still, if a pair of earrings takes less than 5 minutes to make and costs maybe $2, I won’t charge over $12. I’ve sold other pairs for more than twice that, but they either had higher priced materials or they took longer to make. If and when I’m able to use Sterling components, I’ll raise my prices to reflect that.

I think there will always be people who think my prices are too high and those who think they’re too low. For me, as long as I’m making a good profit, I’m happy. The 3X formula works for me: 1/3 pays for the supplies, 1/3 pays me and the other 1/3 pays any other expenses, if there are any.

I had a woman approach me about a necklace (one of the pieces that was way underpriced already, btw) three consecutive weekends at a regular show I did. She asked me several times if I’d go lower on the price. I said no, that the price was already as slow as I would go. After the third time, when I offered to give her a discount on the matching earrings and she still didn’t buy, I knew she wasn’t going to buy anything unless I really lowered the price. I later sold the piece for what I was asking AND I sold the earrings for full price too.

I think that, if someone is going to buy your work, they’re going to buy it.

It’s frustrating to do shows alongside people who sell their work for next to nothing. You just have to ignore that and hope people see the quality in your work and know its value.

Time and time again I find comments similar to those posted here; mostly that you cannot undervalue your work and the effort and time you put into it.

One of the most recent things I discovered is the sometimes pitfall of agreeing to wholesaling. I will be the first to admit that I should raise my prices, as a matter of fact I just raised all my prices a little and have plans to raise them more (think baby steps here!).

One of the tidbits that was just hammered home to me was that if a wholesaler viewed your site and wanted to purchase some of your items they would likely expect 1/2 or less of whatever your listing price is on your site.

Right now my pieces are priced to make a small profit, but cut those prices in half and I’m getting paid for the materials and maybe a couple minutes of work – not good!

I took the plunge and listed two pairs of earrings that normally I would have listed for around $30 and listed them for $58 (yes I know still not high enough but I’m working on it, really I am!).

Imagine my surprise when those earrings became the most popular item in my shop! No, they haven’t sold, but they have lots of fans and are getting tons of views, who knew…

So thus begins my price war I must wage with myself – guilt and undervaluing yourself is out the door and real math and formulas are in. I’m going to give it a spin and see where it takes me, my time and effort are worth it!

If your jewelry is priced incorrectly the buyer feels they are buying a cheap piece of jewelry and doesn’t give it the respect it deserves! A jewelry store on the corner will price their products about 7-10 times above cost..ie an item that costs about 10 dollars wholesale will be marked up anywhere from 70 to 100 dollars.

Your jewelry is not any less quality than the local jeweler. Yeah they have diamonds, but they also have semi precious gem stones and CZ’s and lessor beads. They may have lots of gold, but they also have silver and copper and silver plated stuff and they mark it up too.

If you consider yourself a traveling jewelry store, or a jewelry store using a different method of delivery then you should have no problem marking up your product correctly!