Owen Lowe wrote:


snips


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.

They might be selling because 'product' is crowding them out of the
workshop; all the relatives and friends dread opening the Christmas
present; or they want to boost their ego. Folks doing turning for a
living will rapidly determine correct pricing of their work or fail.



Snip

The arguments in this thread seem to eminate from those who say they
feel no obligation to the good of the selling community.

Do the 'names' feel an obligation beyond sustaining their own income
levels?

What happens
when you find that you are being undercut by similarly skilled and
detailed work?

You do something else. Or you sell somewhere else.

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.

Has this happened to you?

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.

How much can he turn out that is comparable in design and execution if it
is a hobby?

Now for those of us who are retired, it may be a different story. We can
turn all day long. But how many of Arch's 'trees' or my 'bowl with hole
in bottom' do you think it would take to destroy the market as we know
it?