Craft Fairs Cost

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George417

George417

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Joined
Oct 18, 2009
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665
Location
Saginaw, Texas
I am getting into the craft fair circuit?? this year and am wondering what you consider as reasonable for entry fees?? What would you consider excessive?? Any information on this would be helpful, I gotten info on a fair where the the fees are nearly $400. I've had fairs that charge as little as $25 and done very well. I am wanting to get into the juried fairs and see if I can do better. Any information is greatly.
 
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We did a show in Katy Texas, it cost $325 I think and we had high hopes for making a lot of money but ended up breaking even or even loosing a little. We have done shows for $50.00 and made a lot of money (to us) If you are a good salesman you could take a chance on spending more I would think but for us we would never put out $400.00 and hope to get it back. It would be to much of a gamble for us. We would need to sell 8- 10 pens to get just the booth fees back then we have gas, food and hotel if it is far away. our normal show sales are around 20 pens and that includes our lower priced .50 cal bullet pens. If we had more money we might take more chances on higher priced shows but so far we have seen no difference in any of the shows we have done regardless of price.
 
We have done four-day shows in Chicago that were about $600 for the booth, and another $150 for power. Then the hotel was over $100 per night, sometimes we had to stay if the show hours were too long to make commuting a reasonable alternative.

We always looked at fees on a "per day" basis. Having done dozens of shows we knew what we could expect in daily sales, at a minimum and also what we could do if "all went well".

If you are new to shows, spend some time going to smaller venues. We had a couple "one day wonders" that were close to home, under $100 and we knew we would do VERY well.

Like many other things, you will only learn through your OWN experience. In some of our good shows, our "neighbor vendors" were VERY disappointed AT THE SAME SHOW. You need to learn what "works for you".

Good luck---it is NOT a cheap investment.
 
I think it depends on what part of the country you are located. I have spent $175.00 for a day and I do a two day two weekend fair that costs $1400.00, but the return is well worth it.
 
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Ed is right on target! A $400 show sounds like a big city market. However, getting into such a show is not exactly easy. Your competition will be very high quality and the number of open or available slots is far less than the number of participants due to returning artists. Shoot a little lower to get some experience. Some juries focus on over-all booth appearance regardless of product quality. I cannot speak directly to Texas as I do shows in the Chicago area. However, proceed with caution and good luck. If you want to discuss this topic futher PM me.
 
Looking at the normal Texas shows worth doing, IMO, expect $150 per day. I've looked at many shows attempting to get into them and the ones I believe are worth doing, Art shows, cost at least that much. Some of the local "craft" shows are considerably less and some find them very viable and profitable. Great experience getters.
 
Texas is one of the better markets in the US for ART shows but expect to pay IF accepted from $450 to $650 per show. When I was doing the art circuit I did 12-14 shows a year in Texas, 3-4 in New Mexico, 4 in Colorado, 4 in Oklahoma and 2 in Arizona, my least expensive entry was $250 but it was in Arizona and one of my most expensive considering travel and hotel. Now again it's still one of the best markets for CRAFT shows some juried some not, with entry feeds from $25 to $150, these are usually local shows that you might want to visit, talk to some of the vendors (when they are not busy) and get a feeling for what your looking to do. Can you make money selling pens....YES BUT IT"S NOT EASY AND IT"S NOT CHEAP.
 
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