Where do you sell the most pens?

[kennosborne]

Where do you sell the most pens?

 

[kennosborne]

Of all the pens we have sold, I belive my wife has sold the most at her office. We have only done two craft shows at this time, the first one was great to second was a flop. Friends and family received most as gifts but some buy for gifts to give to someone else. I have only sold one pen on my website at this time ... I don't know why. Ebay ... never tryed.

 

[PensofColor]

We did about 22 craft shows in 2002, and sold quite a bit. Then in 2003, we weeded out the bad shows and did about 10-12 of the better shows. This year, we plan to do about 6 or so of the best ones.

And, we have sold quite a few pens and bottle stoppers on our website, several on e-Bay, and a few to friends, co-workers and family. Then there are the give-aways and the gifts.

Man, we have turned a ton of pens in our 3 years!! Whew![]

 

[Daniel]

I sell about equally between Friends, and my web sight. I also barter some of my pens. then their are the charities. Pens raise alot of money when raffled, If their is a decent drive to sell the tickets that is. I alredy am slated to donate over 100 pens this year. On the sunny side this is a better way to advertise than simply giving them to friends. the pens are seen by far more people in a raffle. Plus many organizations actually request that you send business cards with the donated pen.

 

[knifecut]

Having only just started, my wife sold two at her work and I sold one at mine.

Since the kits and wood were a gift, the selling prices were $20/20/15, respectively.

I figure if the kit cost $5 and the wood $2, $20 is a good price for a basic pen. I have some Rose Gold and Black Titanium kits coming in, and those will be sold (hopefully) for quite a bit more. Problem here is that our turning club is quite large with a number of excellent pen turners.

http://www.capwoodturners.org

 

[Daniel]

By everything i have ever read about pricing, $7.00 in materials calculates out to be roughly $21.00 in actual cost to you to make. when you figure in the tiny things like glue and other things, then the cost of your tools, adn equipment, any transportation costs to have gotten them in the first place. but his is from managment of a small business where you have to recover your real cost for everything and still make a profit. the rule as I remember it is for $7.00 iin material costs. you have to charge $7.00 for the cost of materials. $7.00 for your shop.(which you look at as an employee that has to be paid. and $7.00 for overhead. Lights, power for your equipment. cost to store the materials or finished item. cost in hauling it anywhere to show it off. and other little no seeums. If you then want to make any money you have to add that onto the materials times three price.
from years of running my own home maintenance business i have found the materials times three very accuratly reflects the true cost of production.

 

[PM Woodworks]

At this point, it would have to e co-wrkers. I am in the process of starting a web sight (at the prompting of several co-workers) as well as starting at craft shows. But, as of now, I have yet to try these things.

 

[roberts]

I have only just started pen turning, 4 months, but I have managed to 'off-load' (sold) 4 pens so far, all the rest my son has 'borrowed' or I have given them away as gifts. The best deal I got was giving two to my dentist, he reduced my bill quite a lot, I like bartering

Bob `S`

 

[jrc]

By August 1st I will have about 6000 pens in two years. I sell to non profit wood or forest related groups. A few craft shows, small ones that does not cost much to get into. Department heads in collages and hospitals. A museum that the wood was pruned from there grounds. Local fairs. Special events like 4th of July and Harvest Fests. What sells my pens at shows and events is I turn pens while I'm there. Busy days I have sold 30 or more pens and turned as many as 30. I mainly make slims and comfort without the grip. It seems to me that around here is that penturners start with the slimline and go to a higher priced pen and I try to make a pen that anyone would buy. I hope I did not give away to many of my secrets. I have found that in my case people are more interested in buying something with a story, like local wood a special tree than fancy imported wood.

 

[melchioe]

At work we have a very nice computerized "for sale" system that allows me to post pictures of the pens. The response has been almost overwhelming, and I've started carrying two rolls of pens with me to work and I sometimes have a line outside my cube at lunch. The biggest challenge is keeping people away from my cube during working hours so I can get my stuff done and not tick off my boss... I have a feeling this will slow down soon as I reach a saturation point among the 600 people in my facility, and then it should hopefully branch out to word-of mouth to my co-worker's friends...

 

[Bev Polmanteer]

Hey Ed, can I go to work with you!!! It is harder to sell them when you and the spouse are both retired! I'll just stand beside your cube and sell pens while you work (my pens that is) HaHa

 

[melogic]

I have kind of the same issue as Ed. In the last 4 months, I bet I have sold a dozen of my desk sets and probably 3 dozen pen and pencil sets at work. I have used wood that I have purchased and wood that they brought in that had sentimental value to them. I am currently working on Christmas orders for some of my co-workers now. They took it upon themselves to order now because they see how busy I've been with the pens. I also am currently working on over 40 pens for my church. I'm using the wood from a few old church pews that they were replacing. These are selling like hot cakes to the church people.

 

[PenWorks]

I have an actual pen shop in my office. It only takes up about 200 square feet. If you look at my web site under " Desk Accessoties " you will see a couple of photos of the display in my office. I sell my work and other brands. I have a street front in a small town in AZ. I sell 75% my work and 25% other brands. I do little addvertising and sales come from word of mouth and clients that come into the offfice. I do a lot of donations to local fund raisers and charities. This has brought in a lot of business. I do this because of love this hobby, I want to sell enough to just keep buying materials. I average about 700 to 1,200 a month in sales. I don;t do ebay, to many good turners giving thier work away. I like to think I have a nice web site, but haven't sold 1 pen from that site. It is more of a nice calling card and addvertisement than a selling machine. I do know that you need to get to pen collectors. They are out there. They love pens and buy a lot of them. I have one client she has spent about 5,000 allready. I sell alot of 100.00 pens. I don't work for free. I sell most of my pens, at least 50% as gifts. When I addvertise , I addvertise in the gift sections and the Art sections. Hope this helps.

 

[Gregory Huey]

I sell most of my pens thru work. Have a couple of reg. customers. Use to try and do 4 to 6 craft shows a year but was so busy at work I did 0. My web site only brings in 5 to 8 pen sales a year. Guess I don't promote it right.

 

[jkirkb94]

I sell the vast majority to coworkers. Working in a teaching hospital I have basically an endless supply of young doctors. Many who like having nice pens. I'm still fresh at getting the word out about my pens. Kirk[8D]

 

[Fred in NC]

From all the posted aswers, I have made a logical deduction:

We sell the most pens when we are in front of possible buyers. The more we show, the more we sell. Even if we don't try!

 

[Gary]

Well Fred, you just discovered the secret to sales. The more you show your wares the more you sell...pretty simple.

 

[vick]

I have not been at this for long but I have sold the majority of my pens at work. I work on a systems team at a large call center I use one of my pens and have given the 5 other people on my team pens. Whenever someone asks about on eof them it is mentioned that I make and sell the pens. Mostly Supervisors and managers have bought them, but even a couple of the agents have purchased. All others have been sold to friends, neighbors, or friends of neighbors.

 

[Gary]

If what daniel says is true (real materials cost = 3x basic materials) and labor cost should be added at 1x to 2x materials cost (as I've also been told), then how do you make any money selling handmade pens? That means you have to sell a slimline for over $40 and a Statesman for over $200.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Using a multiplier of material costs to determine selling price seems to be only a way of belittling ones work. An artist does not charge based on cost of paint and canvas. I'm a writer and my payment is not dependant on cost of paper. Turning items is a little different, we do have material and tool cost. I'll agree to some extent one must factor those into final selling price. I generally start at 3X material cost then just 'gut' it from there to what I think the final product is, or might be, worth to a potential buyer based on artistic and creative value. I also make duck and other game calls. Some, with the same material cost, I don't think I should ask more than $10.00, others easily are in the $100.00 range. At the same time, we must take a businesslike approach. This spring I will be putting pens, and other items, into a consignment crafts store. They charge rent and a commission. I plan to add about a flat $5.00 to each item to help cover that cost. I'm in business for me, not for them.

 

[Fred in NC]

Gary, what I don't understand is the cost of the material. $5 for a kit is high. I can get kits for a buck and a half, and even the Ti Gold kits I use are about $3.

Also, how long does it really take to whip out a slimline? I can do about 4 per hour, not rushing it, and that includes all the operations. I am not talking about laminations, etc. but your basic skimpline in a basic shape. They sell well at about $20, and this is not a high income area.

 

[Gary]

Fred, in the post above that Daniel responded to the materials cost I believe was based on a $1.50 and a +/- $5.00 pen blank. By the same token the Statesman is $30 + a +/- $6.00 blank. You say the slims sell well for $20, and I agree they should. But according to Daniel's post above, the real material cost is $21. That means at $20 we are giving away our labor and paying someone a $1 to buy the pen.

And I'm not as fast as you. I can't turn, sand, seal, sand again and finish a pen in 15 minutes. I wish I could.

 

[Fred in NC]

Gary, Daniel's calculation is based on $7 material cost. My material cost is about $4 or less.

I make pens in batches of at least 4, with that many mandrels.

 

[Gary]

Fred, I think the problem with the above argument is the assesment that real material cost is 3x the basic material cost. It doesn't matter is the basic cost is $4 or $6; I just don't believe that it costs $21 to make every slimline one produces. To make the first one...maybe...but not $21 each when I'm making several a day. I agree with you, I'll sell slimlines for $20-$25.

 

[Gregory Huey]

Some times I make a little more profit on one style pen than I can another. By the way I sell my slim lines for $25.00 to $35.00. depending on cost of materials. I can't make a pen in 15 minutes that I would sell.(just not that fast) I spend more time than that on the finish alone. I guess I am getting good money for my wares.

 

[Fred in NC]

Right Gary. And it depends on the pen of course. At the Chrismas show I sold several slimlines from $30 to $40. Most were made of BOW and either ebony or bloodwood. See my album for one of the ebony/BOW pens. Kits were Ti gold. These took a little longer to make.

Below is my sandpaper ready to go!

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[Gary]

Fred...re: the cherry pen in your album that is laminated with mahogany. Do you glue up the lamination with CA or wood glue?

 

[Fred in NC]

Gary, I used Titebond II for the lamination. I cut the 5/8" square blank at an angle, and inserted the mahogany. I used a jig to clamp the pieces while drying.

 

[panini]

I sell usually at work but the wife always ask me to make for gifts..

 

[Woodbutcher68]

I did 5 shows this year and only sold 4 pens. There were guys at two of the shows selling pens, keyrings and bottlestoppers and they said they didn't do well at all. Fortunately, I supplement my booth with scrollsaw work.

 

[wpenm]

Add me to the list of people who donate to different raffels for the cancer society and others. A large number go to my family and friends. I have sold several at my wifes work. I have a web site and like alot of you I have only sold one set, but the shopping cart did not work for the first six months.I would like to try a few shows this year for the fun of it. If I get too busy I'm afraid my physical condition couldn't handle it. I like to think of pen turning as a hobby that pays for itself and I can afford that.