Selling Handcrafted Cards

[sanddancer]

Hi, I have been making handcrafted greeting cards since last year. I have listed them repeatedly only to find no-one is buying cards. Plently look, and compared to shop prices, they are a bargain. Several of us have really nice and resonably priced cards for sale. Many of the cross-stitched cards take more than an evening to make. In some shops you can pay as much as £7.99, shocking when you discover that they barely show more than a topper the size of a postage stamp. So can someone enlighten me as to the reason why cards do not sell????

[cutpricegoodies]

I don't think anybody is buying anything, I haven't sold anything yet. Even though I get regular sales of my stuff in 'the other place'.

[kim69]

Am i right in thinking there is no specific Crafts-->Handmade cards category? If not, maybe we could ask the boys to put one in. Maybe that would help?

[sanddancer]

Am i right in thinking there is no specific Crafts-->Handmade cards category? If not, maybe we could ask the boys to put one in. Maybe that would help?
Thanks for your response Kim and Lucy. There is a section for cards under crafts, or else in handmade items, which is where most people put their cards. Maybe people just want them at a cheaper price. I have lowered my prices a few times. At the moment I have a few as low as 25 pence, and I will not make a profit on them. But it is the only way I can think of to grab peoples attention. Hopefully as Father's Day gets closer I may well sell one or two. Even ebay is a dead loss on the card selling section. Either they are ridiculously cheap, ie: 1 pence, or else they are weir and wacky. Here's hoping someone will notice and bid!

[hlsweb]

Hi

I have never had any success selling handmade cards on internet. In my opinion it is because no matter how good the photo it never does them justice.

I know it isnt my cards because I have two shops who buy off me and I also sell at the odd car boot/ table top sale.

I have an online gift shop and have listed them on there but because people cannot see the quality for themselves I believe this is why they dont buy. Let them pick it up and hold it and they will buy.

I often look to see what other people are doing and am amazed at some of the low prices, I know how much time and blood and sweat and tears goes into making these and have sympathy for you.

Get together a bundle of cards and take them into work and leave them there on a cupboard top - this is how I sold most of my cards as the guys at my old showroom never had time to go to Tescos and also wanted something that looked like a bit more thought had gone into it for their wives and mothers, it also meant they would come and ask me to make cards specially.

Lot easier than spending all that time taking photos and adding listings.

Regards

Helen

[sanddancer]

Thanks for your reply Helen. I have actually sold a couple on here and a few on the other side. I was selling them at work, but have been off sick since January 12th, I am hoping to go back October 3rd, and later and I will loose my job. I work in a school and was selling to the staff. I did manage to sell five to the headteacher last week.

I have also left some at my hairdresser's. You are right, people often do like to handle cards before they buy. I made one card on commission from someone on ebay and they were thrilled. I have offered the same service here, but as yet no takers.

One of the main problems, to many people are into card making and the market is flooded with them. In the next year or so, I reckon it will die out and so maybe sales will pick up. Knitting has made a huge comeback and so a lot of people will start knitting and forget the card making. I have been knitting for years, and did not give up as it was my first hobby. I sold to family, friends and even a shop a few years back.

I have booked a craft stall in early October and will sell both knitted items and cards, so hopefully I will do better there.

Good luck with your card making.

[hlsweb]

Hi

I found that as so many people are in to Card Making now as you say I did better on my stalls when I also took along some card making stock such as blank cards, peel offs, decoupage sheets etc. Might be worth giving that a try on a small scale.

Helen

[blondyskyblue]

Thanks for your response Kim and Lucy. There is a section for cards under crafts, or else in handmade items, which is where most people put their cards. Maybe people just want them at a cheaper price. I have lowered my prices a few times. At the moment I have a few as low as 25 pence, and I will not make a profit on them. But it is the only way I can think of to grab peoples attention. Hopefully as Father's Day gets closer I may well sell one or two. Even ebay is a dead loss on the card selling section. Either they are ridiculously cheap, ie: 1 pence, or else they are weir and wacky. Here's hoping someone will notice and bid!
Hi this is just what i have been thinking.loads of selling cards and loads looking.But no one buys.gets on my nerves why look if your not going to buy.
I sell decoupage framed pictures-gave up on the cards.see what happens with them.In the summer in Broadstairs there are craft fairs,people sell loads of cards and some are really badly cut out and they sell them for £2.00 per card like hot cakes.
Im going to do the same for my pictures I think.

[clairesdog]

I also make my own cards, and usually just send to family and friends, but this year I made extra and put them in my shop (just a small general corner shop!) I have had tons of people looking and saying how lovely, but sold just a few. Most people are buying them as a personal touch for a special friend or family member.
Plus you can get a box of cards in tesco or birthdays for a fraction of the price these days.
I'm not too bothered, because for me it is really just a hobby, I do look at some of the other handmade cards around and see that they are selling for pence - How can they do that?!

[4seasonphotos]

Since you ladies are talking about cards not selling what would you say to 11x14 photo's nice photos I am thinking of selling my pictures please look at my site and give me your honest evaluation do you think people would buy?

[JMC_CREATIONS]

Hi, I've just seen this, I make cards also, I thought it would be good to get into, little realising just how many people do make cards, So I had to give up as I was getting no where, and now just sell the odd embellishments made by quilling. I enjoy doing this, as I find relaxing, so if I sell any its a bonus as well.

And like someone said, You can buy packs of cards for half the price. I bought a pack of cards for £1.99 in Morrisons, but it was buy one get one free.

Its a shame people are not selling who make cards, as I know the time and effort put into this.

Happy Crafting
cardsforall

[kraftykerry]

Hi

I have been selling my cards for about 4 months on ebay and it was starting to reaaly pick up.

But still no luck on here yet, but fingers crossed, for all of us!!!!!!!!!!!

Kerry

[frellie27772]

I have a "real" shop and my cards go like hot cakes. I find it quite frustrating as I wnat them to buy stuff off me to make their own!
The best way to attract attention is to personalise them, I've found. So make up an example card with a name on and a birthday message, then make up a couple more so that you can just add the personalisation ...

[JMC_CREATIONS]

Hi

I have asked for a greeting card catagory before, but no body did anything. And it was FAO Gazza, I think they just want to put the ones on they want.

June
junescardshop

[sanddancer]

Well a year has gone by and I still haven't sold any cards. I have given away a lot free with items I have sold.

Today at work I sold 6 and I actually lost money, as I had a low price on them in the hope of making people I work with take a look. I did try a craft fair last year and sold nothing, the table cost me £6.00. I took them into my hairdressers and two other people came along and so I had to withdraw my cards as I was not selling any. Of the two left only one lady has actually sold any as she said they were for charity.

At school where I work, no one even looks at them. Except the lady that bought them today. The School Fair two weeks ago was also a waste of time as too many people say they are making them too. I originally started as a way of raising funds for school. The teaching staff are just not willing to look and buy, even though all my fund raising efforts in the past have meant things needed were purchased using the money I raised.

Tonight I was looking through cards I made last Christmas and have realised that a pack of twelve Christmas cards are missing. The only place they have been was at the school fair last year, so obviouslly someone must have taken them without paying.

In the summer I tried car boot fairs and people only wanted to pay 20p and no more than 50p, even though some of them cost between £1.00 and even £2.00 to make. I do use expensive items sometimes to make them look good, but still people want to pay peanuts for them. I hope other people on here have better luck than I have had.

The only place I have had success with, is a shop in Lancashire, in a local village store near where I have my caravan. But I live in the North East of England and so only go there during the months of March through to October, so unfortunately I can only sell during the odd week I spend there.

Anyone have any ideas please? I would be more than grateful. I wish everyone good luck with their card making venture.

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Hi
Have just had a look at your auctions of hand crafted cards and looking at your prices you can't be making any money on them! Shame when you have obviously put so much work into them. If you would like an honest opinion I would say they are a bit too fussy - less is usually more on hand made cards. I like your silver flower and beads cards auction no 1163358418-6139-0 and think that would appeal to more people. If you typed your messages onto the cards that might help rather than using peel offs - I have card templates I would be happy to email over to you if you like to help you position your wording in the correct place. You could try selling more toppers for people making their own cards? The cross stitched ones are lovely and not many people can be bothered to cross stitch their own! You could also try making cards aimed at a 'younger' audience also this might help?

Anyway, good luck with your venture and don't give up! Oh I have just bid on one of your items!

stampsandcraftsupplies

[Gothicina]

Hi,
I notice most of you don't have a link to your auctions in your posts, it does help, a lot more people browse forums than ever join in, also the forums are crawled by web spiders in the same way other web pages are.

To add a link, go to User CP (It's short for control panel), its the link on the left in the blue bar at the top of the forum.
From there you can add a link to your auctions &/or your store to your signature.

JunesCardShop I've noticed that you've changed your shop name a number of times lately just so you know every time you do that your shop has to start again from scratch with being indexed by search engines :eek:

[kengillam]

Hi,
also the forums are crawled by web spiders in the same way other web pages are.

Perhaps she's arachnophbic :)

[sanddancer]

Thank you to all who have replied. I am going to give it another try, who knows I might get lucky and actually sell some cards.

As for the other site, I have stopped selling on there because of the ridiculous charges. This site is much friendlier and I have sold other things, besides cards.

[Gothicina]

Perhaps she's arachnophbic :)


Ok then just for the arachnophobes out there
Web Bots or Web Crawlers, :D
"A Rose by any other name" :cool:
& all that

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

just testing my sig

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

testing again

[Gothicina]

testing again

Your sig works, all you've got to do now is stock your shop:D

[alisonofcoalway]

Hi - I'm not a card maker but I do make hand crafted jewellery and the same problems arise as have been discussed earlier in this thread.
Namely with hand-crafted items people like to see the items in real life, it's difficult getting pictures that do the product justice. When you start making items to sell, pricing is really difficult. You do need to cost out your cards so you are not selling at a loss - I know its not easy to do this especially when no-one is buying. You need to hit upon an idea that makes your 'different' - I think putting special individual messages in is an excellent idea and could be marketed on-line easily. You would need to plug this part of your selling strategy.
I attended a craft fair - long time ago now - lady selling cards was simply including a hand written message for the buyer - done on the spot - she was busy all afternoon. I took a peep at her cards - they were OK and she just tarted them up with the message written with a gold felt tip.
Can I also add that if you are selling 'hand crafted' items at a price that covers your costs and brings a small profit there are some places that don't work. Car Boots - people want bargains they want to get your price down. Craft Fairs - these have gone down hill over the last few years - too many 'bought in items' being allowed in, public treat them more like car boots some of the time. I belong to a craft association, we recruit members - their work must be 100% hand crafted and this is how we market ourselves locally 100% hand crafted.

I'm sorry I can't offer any foolproof way to ensure you have sales. But have a good look at what others are producing, be critical of your own work and be prepared to be honest with yourself if any of your ideas are not working and try other ideas you may have. Its not easy, but don't just sit back and moan cause people aren't buying, reassess everything all the time.

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Your sig works, all you've got to do now is stock your shop:D

Stock? What's that?!

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Actually somebody may be able to help me here. I had a lot of stock listed on in my ebay shop (which is winding down) and was wondering if there's an easy way to load it all onto my ebid shop? Or is it a case of starting all over again...

Gothicina - how do I put one of those smiley faces in my message?

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Hi Alison
I saw a lady doing a similar thing at the NEC fayre a couple of weeks back, handwriting a name onto a card embellishment and she was had a constant queue and seemed to be doing really well. I have an online shop selling handmade cards and wedding stationery which should be up and running by xmas and I know what you mean about the pictures not doing the card justice. I decided to go for a web shop rather than selling locally because I am hoping people will be willing to pay a little more for them. When I've sold locally I've had to knock my prices down as people compare to local supermarket prices and think I'm expensive - if only they how much time and effort it takes to make these cards! I have a personalised message service built into my site but if they don't decide to have one all my cards come with a 'default' message. I also offer free postage as I know that from personal experience the added postage charges at checkout is fairly annoying and often sees me abandoning my cart as it bumps the price up especially when you're only buying one item. Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas I would be grateful.

[Gothicina]

Gothicina - how do I put one of those smiley faces in my message?


Hi, you use advanced view to reply, the smilies & options to change your font are there.

[kengillam]

I don't think people would queue up for my handwriting! bit like a drunken spider. :)

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Yep mine too! I print all my greetings off my pc!

[0ctavias0fferings]

Actually somebody may be able to help me here. I had a lot of stock listed on in my ebay shop (which is winding down) and was wondering if there's an easy way to load it all onto my ebid shop? Or is it a case of starting all over again...

Gothicina - how do I put one of those smiley faces in my message?

If you still have your llistings saved in turbo lister you can copy and paste them onto the selling page here. That's what I was doing when I first came over to ebid.

There's a bulk lister on here too isn't there?

Good luck with your products

[Stampsandcraftsupplies]

Thanks for that Octavia will have a go