Pricing

Information about pricing

Transparency about the issue of pricing is meant to serve other artists who are wondering "how much should I charge?" as well as curious customers who may be wondering why prices keep going up (it's the economy!). Read on for details.

A great resource for up-and-coming (or established) artists are the "Small Biz Resources" put out by Peach Fuzz Co.

My cards sold for $5 apiece from 2009-2022, including MS word icon cards printed on cardstock and linocut greeting cards printed on a range of materials. As of 2023, I had to start charging more in an attempt to break even. For comparison, at a local convenience store / pharmacy in the US that I'll call "Smalgreens," cards from a conglomerate that I'll refer to as "Smallmark" run $6.99-$12.99 (or more).

Case Study

By way of elucidation, I'll use one (small!) item as a case study to explain my (current as of 2024) pricing for the Chicagoland area.

• To create one $8 popsicle card (available at Made Artisan Collaborative this Valentine season) requires:

  • A roughly 50/50 consignment split (a booth fee + part of the purchase price equates to approximately 50% of the sale price that goes to the store for their overhead, including taxes, bags or other packaging for customers, rent on the shop, credit card use fees, etc - this list is not exhaustive and this list is not a litany of grievances! more of a "transparency in the cost of doing business" list for your consideration). All of that brings the purchase price of $8 to a "profit" of $4. But wait! There's more:

  • Additional overhead not including raw materials for the card): a die-cutting machine plus replacement parts (so even though I found a Sizzix at the thrift store, replacement plates run $20+ and are necessary for its operation), a popsicle die cut, scissors, glue, tape, really any adhesive regionally available, letter stamps (a Trodat letterpress set from Austria that I found second-hand through Texas Art Asylum) and ink (thank you, Chicago Creative Reuse Exchange) for the logo on the back of each card, not to mention time spent sourcing all of the equipment, setting up materials, creative thinking, cutting / gluing / assembly, and then shop set up (putting items into bags, adding price stickers, dropping everything off in person).

  • These bullet points are kind of making me talk myself out of creative pursuits...

  • The components of each individual card include:

    • paper to make the card (in this case, a sturdy colorful cardstock sent to me from British Columbia),

    • paper to decorate the card (thinner paper of the scrapbooking variety sent to me from Maryland),

    • popsicle sticks for the ... well, popsicle stick bit,

    • two-sided puffy craft stickers (think the 3M type) to adhere and slightly suspend the colorful popsicle paper over the popsicle stick on the card,

    • glassine envelopes,

    • popsicle stickers to decorate the envelope,

    • 2018 vintage scratch-and-sniff popsicle stickers with USPS domestic forever value (68 cents in 2024, but I bought these on ebay for a higher price due to their semi-scarcity and my desire to really lean in to the theme),

    • 2 label stickers (I used Avery because I wanted them to actually stick), one for the addressee and one for the return address,

    • a plastic sleeve for store display,

    • pricing information (I printed this out on regular printer paper to provide extra details about sealing and sending the glassine envelope),

    • washi tape to seal the plastic bag and adhere the additional pricing information,

    • as well as materials used that resulted in errors during the manufacturing process!

• I'll have to run the numbers on this with individual pricing per sticker as time allows. For now, I'll just say:

  • It's about $20 per pack of papers at a nearby craft store that I'll call Smicheal's (which does have coupons, and sales, etc),

  • $20 for a pack of 1000 popsicle sticks, apparently $170 for 1000 double-sided 3M strips (which I found out from searching it up),

  • $10 for 50 glassine envelopes (I can't remember where I got these, but I'm guesstimating with shipping here from what I just looked up),

  • $20 for 20 scratch-and-sniff postage stamps on eBay (shipping not included),

  • approximately $30 for 9000 Avery label stickers,

  • $10 for a bulk assortment of 50 popsicle stickers,

  • let's say $20 for 1000 plastic display bags and shipping from Paper Mart (surely the receipt is somewhere for tax purposes?),

  • and I'm not even going to price out the washi because I know they cost $1 to a lot.

  • Once again, this accounting is really making me question my overhead on this project. BUT! I think you get the idea.

• In conclusion, you are left with a unique, bespoke, handmade, mailalbe-within-the-US-and-US-military-bases-and-US-territories-and-other-eligible-locations-for-domestic-postage-price piece of popsicle mail art for the popsicle lover in your life, made using  items upcycled as much as possible and sourced from Chicago, British Columbia, China somewhere along the route, California, Texas, Austria, and probably elsewhere!

• . Oh, and it costs $8. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.