pricing pens

[mikes pens]

Okay, I know this topic has been on before. I sell most of my pens via e-mail. I post the pictures on my work e-mail and sell them that way. Last October to December, I sold over 70 pens this way. The buyers did not see them in person. I was amazed they sold without people physically seeing them. I have never had an unhappy customer. I included one of the pictures in my album. It seems to be too large to post in this post. It has about 9 pens in the picture. You can see the pictures (at least to me and compared to others on this site) are not great. Today, someone e-mailed me back and wants to sell them in his store. He wanted to know what my whole sale price would be. I sell the pens in the picture for about $35.00 each. That is Canadian - so that is about $4.00 US (joking). Anyone have an idea of what a good price would be to sell them to a store?

Mike

 

[aamstutz]

Mike, Your price of $35.00 Canadian seems reasonable from my experience. When you sell to a store they will mark up your "wholesale" price about 40% +/_. Given that the selling price still needs to be "reasonable" you will need to get much less than when you sell them yourslef. I sell to stores for $17.00 so that they can get the markup they deserve and still sell the pen for under $30.00. If I sell them directly I try to stay in the low $20's
Let's see what others think.

 

[Ron in Drums PA]

Mike, it all depends on how many he buys at a time.

My price for Euros with burl is $50-$65 each, and I wouldn't discount them by more than 20% to a retailer. If he is willing to buy 100 pens at a time, then I'd go to 25%.


He will probably double you price and still sell them.

 

[Rod Torgeson]

Mike.....Back in 98 and 99 I was selling pens and pen and pencil sets to three different jewelry stores for $25. They in turn were doubling the price to $50 and selling them. One jewelry store would give a pen or a set along with a high dollar item, such as an wedding ring set. This was in three different towns north and east od Seattle, Washington. The pens were the designer pens and the pen and pencil sets were the slim lines. I think I also sold some cigar pens. Hope this helps. Rod

 

[scalawagtoo]

I have always sold standard styles right off my infamous duplicator at: $15.00 for Slimlines, $25.00 for Black Classic Rollerballs & Premium Designer
Twists, Traditionals I sell for $20.00 even though they take two blanks because I don't like the snap on cap,

I have started selling four piece desk sets: Magnifier, Letter Opener, fountain pen and roller ball, for example, in a custom matching exotic wood stand for $100-$120.
I have orders for three piece sets - $80-100.

Gift shops want to pay 50% of retail and I won't do it.

Great idea, selling them through emails!