two questions about pricing

SHOKR

SHOKR

Well-Known Member
hey guys

1: on my site or page, do i place teh prices below the items, or ask customers to contact me for pricing? pros vs. cons?

2: if someone asks me about the price of a WIP knife because they are interested. what do i tell them?
i am new so have no experience pricing items so well yet. so far i just give and estimated range, but i feel thats not so good sales wise for some reason. suggestions?
i am asking in the case that someone wants the knife customized to them, like choose finish, handle material etc. not just asking about its price generally

Edit: new questions, 3: for custom orders and creating new design for somene, is that time added to cost?
4: if someone requests a customs, puts a deposit, and i start work and he backs out, what now?
thanks
 
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My two cents:

1. Unless you want to have a lot of correspondence and spend a lot of time in answering pricing questions, list the prices with the items. That way the interest you get is genuine.

2. One way to go here is to set a basic price and adjust it according to any custom work that is added to the base model. Being relatively new to my business I can tell you that pricing is one of the toughest things. Too high prices you out and too low might sell, but sometimes feels like you cheated yourself. Take a look at the competition and see what they charge for different styles. Experience here is the key and patience. Good luck.
 
thanks a lot

that actually helped, thecfirst pint i did with the new knife in question the price to the closest one like ot and added estimated cost for the extra work

and yeah pricing is one of the few parts of knife making that are not fun, i BELIEVE i underprice, but thats because icneed to establish a market here. hopefully one day i will reap that :) the downside is i cant be too sure about my quality since there are no professional knife makers or even 'amateur' ones around

thanks again
 
SHOKR said:
pricing is one of the few parts of knife making that are not fun, i BELIEVE i underprice, but thats because icneed to establish a market here. hopefully one day i will reap that :)
Click to expand...

That is the smart thing to do. Once you establish a market who knows and wants your work they will be back and willing to pay more for it. Just keep making products as best you can and hone your skills as well as your knives.
 
One other thing posting prices helps with is that every potential customer knows what you are getting for a particular knife. One of the worst things you can do is charge differently for the same knife. Lets say you made 5 identical knives and sold them all at different prices and the 2 folks you sold the highest and lowest to get together and start talking about your knives. Eventually they are going to talk about how much they paid. The one who paid more you will have lost as a return customer and likely everyone he talks to about you. Never discount your knives. Set a price and stick with it. You can always add things to make a sale but the cost of the knife shouldn't change.
 
Thanks a lot Barry

I think i made that mistake couple of times, except i didnt actually make the sale. so i guess thats a good thing that i didnt sell after all
But anyway so far i never made identical knives. But the advice stands :)
 
Interesting newspaper article here . I should start by saying that I haven't sold a knife in a few years, but a couple thousand in the past. I've come to the opinion that the price a knife will sell for has little to do with how much you put into it - and everything to do with what the customer perceives the knife to be worth and your ability to enhance than perception. Of course, junk will come back to bite you, but I'm going to suggest that perhaps only half of the worth of a knife is related to materials, labour and craftsmanship, and the rest is directly related on your ability to effectively market yourself and your product.
 
I'd list the price.

I can't tell you how many items I pass up just because it says "call for price". Doesn't matter if it's a knife, or anything else.

When I'm asked about prices for knives I'm working on, I'll typically give them a range, and let them know that it depends on materials I end up using, as well as final finishing and features I may or may not add. I try not to short change myself in any case.

For customs pricing, I typically just try to price for what I feel the value of the knife should be. If it's something that might have to be protyped and tested, then that could be a different story, but if it's a basic knife design with a few specific features, I don't charge so much for the order being "custom" as I do just for the overall knife. Again, at any rate, I'm not short changing myself if I can help it.

As for deposits, I personally don't take them, but I understand why makers do. If the buy backs out, you typically keep the deposit (assuming you negotiated the deposit as non-refundable in the first place)

The point of the deposit, after all, is to cover at least your materials (or most of them) and to also encourage the client to follow through with the order. If they already have non-returnable money invested, they're more likely to follow through.

If, however, they can't pay for the finished knife, I simply sell it to someone else. Sometimes, unfortunately, it can be at a slight loss, but then again, money in the pocket is often better than a knife on the shelf, collecting dust.
 
thanks guys

Andrew, thanks a lot for the tips

so far i dont take deposits, however i know that a lot of egyptians are unprofessional, and some talk a lot, i mean lets face it promises cost nothing to some people. so i think i will eventually have to take deposists on exclusivley custom ones, however sometimes i start a knife, show it in the WIP stage, if someone claims it i probably wont take deposit unless the handle material is really rare or expensive (or i will special order it)
 
i wouldn't think 25% deposit would be too high for a from scratch custom. both you and customer should sign a contract that would say deposit will not be returned after 2 or 3 days. would also include details about knife and additional charges if they want changes after 2 or 3 days.
scott
 
Well said Scott. I was charging a non refundable 50% materials deposit, and the balance was due when the product was ready to ship. Any changes would need to be quoted and approved. If the customer has a change of heart, it isn't too hard to sell the custom for (at least) the 50% remaining.

That is for custom work. If it's a normal stock item you sell a lot of, you can be a lot more customer service oriented. A small deposit - and even refunding of that deposit might bring you good reputation and future orders.
 
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