by Barbara Brabec
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How to Sell Seconds, Samples, Overstocked or Discontinued Items
by Barbara Brabec |
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This Column Is Barbara Brabec's last for The Crafts Report. Barbara has decided to devote more of her time to book editing, and has decided to do less magazine writing. We have appreciated her contributions to the magazine and wish her well in her future endeavors. |
As a craftsperson, you not only put time and money into each of your creations, but a part of yourself as well. Because you feel so close to your work, you naturally want only your best pieces to be seen by the public.
But what about all those less-than-perfect seconds you or your production workers have made? Those overstocked or discontinued items? Or those products that just didn't sell at a crafts fair? You could be sitting on a mound of salable work. ... But how and where can you sell it? How much should you discount it? Here are some ways The Crafts Report readers are moving unwanted merchandise out of the studio and bringing money in instead.
Selling through your retail shop
"I had this box of little angels that one of my trainees made," says gift wholesaler and retail shop owner Dodie Eisenhauer. "There was nothing wrong with them except I didn't like the way the heads were tilted. Because I am constantly designing new products, I also have a lot of prototypes that can't be produced in quantity or are deemed unprofitable. In selling such products, my goal is to recover whatever it cost me to make each piece," she continues. "For products with a flaw, the end sale price may be 50 to 90 percent of the original price, but I offer high-quality samples or discontinued items at full retail price. I only do one retail show a year (the same one every year) and sell through my own shop, where I have a special sale corner. Regular shoppers gravitate there automatically," she says.
Artist Lisa Myers of Spare Moments wholesales her stained and fused glass products through trade shows and her retail shop in the boonies of Maine. She too sells imperfect items in a back area of the shop, discounting them as much as 50 percent. "Sometimes the imperfection is known only to us," she says. "Sometimes it can be seen as an artsy thing as well, but I still feel uncomfortable selling it at full price because I know what the original intention was. These items bear a little tag that says, 'We may not be perfect, but we may fit your budget.' Frequent visitors love these bargains and know exactly where to find them in the shop."
"We have
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Studio or workshop sales
Eisenhauer says that some fellow exhibitors at trade shows have had success selling "unwanted" merchandise at an annual sale in their studio, workshop or garage. "I tried this once before I opened my retail shop and was amazed at what people bought. For this idea to work, however, you would have to be fairly well-known locally."
Decorative painter Susan Young of Peach Kitty Studio sets up tables and other display props under the big maple tree in her front yard and catches passers-by. "I've been selling last year's merchandise, damaged items and studio boo-boos for years," she says. "The first time I tried it was to get rid of prototypes and experimental painting projects I made a mess of or that had a product failure. I couldn't see tossing painted wood and concrete items into the landfill, so I set up folding tables on the driveway. Nothing fancy," she explains. "I just put up a sign at the end of my street and in the front yard that read, 'Driveway Daze! Crafts! Studio Samples! Today Only!' It worked so well that I continue to sell this way several times each year, adding a variety of new seasonal products to the mix. I set up around 2 p.m., catch moms and kids as the school bus comes through, and then by 4:30 the after-work commuters drive by. I close at 5:30 or 6 p.m., with a couple hundred bucks in my pocket."
Back yard bash
Fiber artist Sandy Mooney and a number of other artists have been presenting a very successful "Art Rummage Sale" in Mooney's back yard and garage every other year for 17 years. "This has proven to be a wonderful way to get rid of things we haven't been able to sell at fairs," she says. Mooney says the event, which is held in August or September, regularly attracts upwards of a thousand shoppers and grosses nearly $20,000.
"We all collect our unsold items, things we don't want to make any more, pieces in outdated colors and other products that don't have a market anywhere else," she says. "We mark them down 50 percent or more, and people literally mob to buy them at prices from $1 to $200. Buyers love this sale!"
The show is held every other year because it takes a while for the 25 or so artists and craftspeople in the group to accumulate enough items to make the event worthwhile. Postcards are sent to over 3,000 names on the group's mailing list, and recipients look forward to this sale with great anticipation. The group holds a "by invitation only" event the night before the show. "The [invited guests] love having first dibs on items before the general public is admitted to the show," adds Mooney.
Donation/consignment options
Are you a member of an art or craft guild? Members of Best of Missouri Hands have found a good way to get rid of their seconds. "We donate them to the group and buy each other's rejects or overstocks," says Eisenhauer. "We call the sale 'Beasts of Missouri Hands,' and we make hundreds of dollars for the organization this way." (If you don't want to sell products yourself using one of the above methods, consider placing your prototypes and other clearance items in a consignment shop, Eisenhauer suggests.)
"I'm amazed by
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Online auctions
Another way to sell seconds, suggests Howard Broman of Real Rose Jewelry, is through online auctions. "In fact, the market for seconds is so great on eBay and other auctions that we're making new products and calling them seconds." Broman emphasizes that "seconds" are more than just an item that's slightly imperfect; they're actually a clever marketing strategy these days. "Since we label certain products as seconds, no one complains if they're not perfect and buyers appreciate the fact that they are discounted for this very reason."
Broman grows and dries thousands of miniature roses every year for his jewelry products, but not all of the dried roses are good enough for the jewelry, so he sells batches of "slightly crushed" flowers to crafters who shop online. When QVC ordered 250 rose pins and then returned 140, Broman didn't have a shop outlet for that many pins of one kind, but sold them easily on eBay. "We just called them seconds, listed at our regular wholesale price, and got better than that in the end." (For example: An item that retails at $19.95 may start (the lowest bid) at $6.50 and sell for $12.)
Your "junk" is someone else's treasure
The popularity of flea markets and garage sales suggests that the average person loves a sale. Where crafts are concerned, people often do not care if something has a minor defect or flaw. In many instances, the thing that makes a product undesirable to you is not something that would bother the average crafts shopper.
"I'm amazed by what people will buy when it's put on sale," says Susan Young. "Things that are obviously chipped or dog-eared, I put into baskets with a sign that says, 'Clearance As Is.' I normally discount items 30 to 50 percent. I've seen people go through those baskets like they were looking for gold. One year I put all the seconds into a garden cart lined with an old blanket. The cart got more attention than my carefully set-up tables, so as it began to empty, I started taking my new items off the tables and putting them into the cart. They sold better there at full price."
One problem with seconds
"I used to sell my seconds in my home studio at a greatly reduced price (up to 90 percent discount)," says potter Kim Marie, "but I'm reconsidering this practice." Many craftspeople feel, says Marie, "that seconds can come back to haunt you when people buy them as gifts. When an item is not what I consider top quality merchandise," she explains, "I don't want someone giving it as a gift and having it reflect on me."
Potter Emily Pearlman, who regularly sells seconds in her studio, agrees this is a problem, but one that can be discouraged by not offering seconds around Christmas time when most people are buying gifts. "There is nothing wrong with selling seconds if they are clearly marked as such," she says. "We have a massive seconds sale where people literally line up to buy them at prices below normal wholesale. Sometimes people can't even tell what makes an item a second until we point out that the color isn't right, or the plate is warped, or the platter has a rim crack."
"If it's a glaze problem, you can sell it easily enough," Marie agrees, "but if a piece has a structural problem, such as a chip or a crack, I'd rather destroy it unless I can use it myself. Anything I can't use, I'll add to my chard pile. Small pieces make great drainage for flower pots and maybe the larger pieces will give archaeologists a thrill when they dig them up 100 years from now."
Barbara Brabec is the author of several small-business books, including "Creative Cash," "Handmade for Profit," and "The Crafts Business Answer Book."
JANUARY 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS