In article ,
"M.J." wrote:

But Owen I don't just sell "in my region". I sell through my website AND
locally. It is notoriously hard to sell woodturnings locally so I have to
price items accordingly. Should I price items on my web site for the local
or international market? You see my quandry?

Using the term "regional" was probably too limited to geographic
definition. I see your point, but would clarify that your selling
"region" is whatever sphere you choose to present your work -
geographic, by clientele, by venue, etc.

As to your problem of selling locally, it sounds as though you are
putting too much time or materials into the products and can't recoup
the costs because the buyers can't afford the finished items, for
whatever reason. Your response to this is to sell for less than you
need? Or do you cut back on time or materials to lessen your costs to
produce the items? (You can cut back on time by finishing to a lesser
degree or having fewer details of design.) I hope you are not trapped by
the mindset that to sell for any price is better than selling nothing.

I was going to add to that last sentence above, "You won't be in
business long with that sales strategy." It occurred to me that therein
might lie the crux of the pricing debate. Many turners who sell to
augment their income do not do so with a business mindset. They don't
see that they are indeed in business (no matter how small) and should
approach it in a business-like manner. They would rather sell something
for any price than sell nothing at all.

snip
Of course there is no exact price - but there is an acceptible range of
price depending on variables. Two of which are time and skills required.
I've hollowed a few pieces with smallish openings and have a rough idea
of the time and skills required. $100 translates to barely above minimum
wage - if that, if the completed piece is finely finished but that
doesn't even take into account materials, supplies, tools and equipment.
.

But again Owen, you mention an "acceptable range". Doesn't mean a damn
thing except to you in your area. My market is NOT the same as yours. I
remember quite some time ago reading where Steven Russell had sold a perfume
applicator for, as I recall, around $300.00. Hell I'd be lucky to get that
for my truck in my local market.....:-)

You are correct that the range in my sphere may be different than that
in yours. However... The $900 Ellsworth and $100 imitator were not
offered in different spheres. Nor was the Russell perfume applicator
offered in yours.

The pricing exercise for the juried show that I mentioned in a previous
post caused me a lot of uneasyness. The venue is in a high income area,
the show will feature invited turners from around the world, and I have
no experience participating in anything of this level - this arena is
certainly outside my own social and economic circles. I wanted to price
my work to ensure I wasn't leaving money on the table while at the same
time being realistic to what the audience might find financially
acceptable. At the price my fellow turners and I seemed to gravitate
towards, I can spend a little extra time to ensure the work is as
perfect as my skills allow. Another venue that might not support the
same price would not get the same attention to detail. (But that opens
an entirely different can'o'worms - do you make substantially similar
work to varying degrees of fineness to sell to non-similar markets?) In
other words, highly skilled and detailed work demands a decent return.
If one is making work to the same level as another turner and displayed
in the same market then the works should be priced similarly.

The arguments in this thread seem to eminate from those who say they
feel no obligation to the good of the selling community. What happens
when you find that you are being undercut by similarly skilled and
detailed work? How are you going to respond when the pieces you were
selling for $20, $40 or $100 are now being left on the table because Joe
over yonder is selling imitations of your work for 10% of what you
charge. Hell, he doesn't care what he gets for it - he says he's just as
happy giving it to passersby, afterall, it's only a hobby to him.

--
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised
as 100% Americanism." -- Huey P. Long