Ron,
I walked away from the computer, and realized that I didn't really answer your question. You asked if there is a method to pricing your pens. Ultimately, I stick with the answer above; the market will dictate the price, to a certain extent. There is what's referred to as the "economically efficient" point at which supply (i.e. how many pens you're willing to make at a given price) equals demand (how many pens people are willing to buy at that price). That's the sweet spot, and the point at which your profits will be highest; as discussed above, that will vary depending on a lot of factors. But, I read your question as also asking, absent the market information, how do you go about figuring out how much to actually price your pens? One way is to look at how much others in your market are selling their pens for. But that's not always an indicator, either; some of the people on here sell via the Internet, so they sell in your market too. But a lot of the people who are "regulars" here make MUCH better pens than I do; faced with a choice, a customer (at least the smart ones) will choose their pens over mine if I tried to sell them at the same price. So, here's one way to figure out what your pens are worth to YOU, from which you can then determine, based on the numbers I gave you above, how far off from the market you are.
I'd start off figuring out how much gross income I'd like to generate from my pen turning. Depending on the area of the country in which you live, and other financial issues, that can vary widely. But let's say you're shooting for a gross income from pen turning of $10,000 per year. The next question is, how many pens are you willing to turn to make that $10,000? Let's say you're willing to make 100/year (for most of us, we're just shooting for a self-supporting hobby, so I don't think 100/year sounds TOO unreasonable). That means, right off the bat, each pen you make has to sell for at least $100. Next, try to figure out the amortized cost of your shop equipment (lathe, bandsaw, drill press, etc.), supplies (blanks, kits, glue, sandpaper, ShopVac bags, etc.), and maintenance costs (new turning tools, electricity, rent/lease/mortgage cost of your "shop", etc.); I'd guess that puts most turners somewhere in the $15-20 range per pen. So, that means that all the pens you make have to sell for $115-120 on average.
Of course, that's not that far out of whack for some of the higher-end pens, like the Baron, which is the good news. The bad news is, if you're turning slimlines, you'll have to make a WHOLE lot more of them to get you close to the $10,000 you wanted (remember, most of the amortized costs mentioned above are fixed costs; that is, it's still going to cost you a certain amount per blank, per kit, for the electricity, etc. for each pen you make).
It was this realization that pushed me to try some of the more "elegant" kits.
Now, of course, this is just MY perspective on pricing, and it doesn't take into account the enjoyment you get out of turning the pens!
So...have I totally confused you? [
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