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RussFairfield

Passed Away 2011
In Memoriam
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
1,522
Location
Post Falls, Idaho.
I have always agreed with Don's comments about the people who sell their pens and other work at very low prices. These people are in this as a hobby. All they want are their costs for kits and materials. They don't consider the costs of tools and shop, and for many of them these are a free part of the park they are living in. The woodturning world is full of them. The only thing we can do is not compete with them, and that is often easier to do then we think it would be. The worst thing we can do is write them off as incompetent because many of them do excellent work.
 

Dudley Young

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
583
Location
Sebastian, Florida
Take this from someone who knows....you can put pens up for auction on eBay and they will sell for less than the kits to make them. I have started pens at $.99 and got no bids....

Additionally, whether we like it or not...there are a lot of folks out there who make pens strictly for a hobby. If they sell a pen and cover the cost of the kit and blank they are happier than a pig in mud. Their pleasure is in turning the pen, not making the sale.

That doesn't make it any harder for the rest of us to sell pens....trust me, people who are paying $5.00 for a hand turned pen aren't going to buy one for $10.00 or $20.00 or $50.00. If nobody will sell them a pen for $5.00 they won't buy one at all.

EDIT. One other point...if one has a couple of hundred pens sitting around the house there can be a lot of money tied down....That money isn't doing one any good at all, so if one make pens for a hobby rather than a business it makes perfect sense to sell them for what he/she can get out of them even if it is less than what was paid for the parts. It gives them some money to continue to enjoy their hobby. Those of us who sell or want to sell our pens as a business and turn a profit, have no right to expect those who do not to do anything at all to support our prices.

I agree.
 
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