The High Price of Handmade: Why Buying Handmade is so Expensive
Lucky for me, I met Lex long before she published the blog post which has pretty much gone viral. I keep seeing it everywhere- and thought I would show her some love right here. She is super sweet, always willing to help out, and smarter than your average bear. You will find a ton of useful tutorials and tips over on her site whatthecraft.com and her creative handmade punk designs at http://smarmyclothes.com.
“$70 for a t-shirt?!”
“I love your website, but everything on it is overpriced!”
“Your stuff is too expensive.”
“Are you rich or something?”
“I could make that for $5.”
“Sorry, but that’s a rip-off.”
“$80 for a hoodie? You’re not Gucci.”
I’ve heard it all. At first it hurt my feelings and made me worry that my prices were too high. Now it only baffles me that someone would say something so rude. This is my job. It may not be like your job. I don’t have a boss or regular hours, and I don’t have to drive to work or even get dressed for it (heh), but this is how I pay the bills.
I’m always tempted to asked these people, “How about I come down to where you work and tell your boss you’re overpaid?” Because that’s essentially what they’re saying.
But I’m too polite to do that.
Instead I decided to write this article to shed some light on the work that all of us that run a handmade business are doing… including all the behind-the-scenes stuff you probably never even think about. (And that some of us don’t charge for.)
Sure, some people will still be rude doucheballoons. That’s life. But maybe I can just make a few people think, “Oh, I hadn’t realized how much work goes into that!”
To read the complete break down of costs/time and pricing stop by and read the full article at whatthecraft.com
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