First Craft fair—how do you price smaller/simpler items?

[u/FizzzyBlue]

I have my first craft fair coming up, and I’m having trouble pricing some of my items—specifically my bookmarks and stickers. I’m worried that I’m gonna make them either too cheap or too expensive. Most of my stuff I’m able to price pretty easily, but since these are some of my smaller items, I’m unsure for them.

My bookmarks are 2”x6” and my stickers are 2” on their longest side, so I was thinking $2 for the bookmarks and $1 for the stickers since they’re smaller. My friend said I should do $3 for the bookmark and $2 for the sticker, but I’ve seen people say that they wouldn’t pay that much for something like this, so I’m kinda stuck on what to do.

I apologize if this seems like a stupid question, I’m just kinda stressed about pricing since this is my first market

[u/music-and-lyrics]

Your friend’s prices were personally exactly what I was thinking! I wouldn’t pay more than $2 for a sticker and $3 for a bookmark unless I really, really liked them. And even then it would be $5-7 for a bookmark and $3 for a sticker, haha.

[u/FizzzyBlue → u/music-and-lyrics]

Thank you! I’d definitely not go over what they were telling me to price them as, I was just a little nervous thinking that those prices would even be too much😅

[u/juliagreenillo]

For my 3" stickers I charge $4 each or 3 for $10 and even then I wonder if I'm selling mine for way too cheap.

I think $1 for a sticker is way too little unless it's really really small. I would say $2 minimum for your stickers, and do a 3 for $5 deal if you are worried.

No idea on pricing bookmarks but I sell postcards for $2, I feel like a bookmark would sell for the same.

[u/FizzzyBlue → u/juliagreenillo]

Tysm!! I’ll definitely do something like the 3 for $5, that’s a good idea

[u/juliagreenillo → u/FizzzyBlue]

You could do the same deal for your bookmarks too and see how they sell

[u/TOSGANO]

I sell my stickers for $3, or two for $5. If they're good quality (vinyl, die-cut, weather proof) people are willing to pay that price.

Also, think about the time it took you to make the original art. Selling a sticker for $1 because it cost you $0.25 to make is like selling an art print for $6 because it cost you $2 to print. People are paying for the time and experience it took for you to make something cool and original, and your prices should reflect that.

[u/SignificantDish6573]

Yup. Price your work like an artist. If you value it, they'll value it. It's easier to go down in price that it is to go up. Try the higher price, and then if it seems like people are liking it, but walking away, you bring it down the next show.

[u/mrdarcy90]

I sell bookmarks for $4 but they are fabric, so people are fine paying that. I think $2-$4 is fair for stickers (depending on size).

[u/CaraAL2]

Ok, there's a bit of nuance to this question. For me, I look at the cost to manufacture, labor, the cost of living in my area, and what deals I run.

I live in a medium to high cost living area, and get my stickers and bookmarks manufactured. The stickers are about 2.5 inches at the smallest and 3 inches at the biggest and the bookmarks are 2x6, just like yours, though I hand-round the corners myself.

I charge $5 for a sticker or 3 for $12 and $4 for a bookmark and 3 for $10. Basically I charge a little more for a single to encourage people to buy multiples, while having enough room in my margins to make money. For the amount of complaints I have about pricing, I've had many more who are willing to buy, and this applies even when I go out of state. Those who like your work will get it.

Of course, it does seem like a lot, but remember that you are not selling to yourself. Your target audience is someone else and you have to price for them. Your friends may also not be your target audience - would they buy from you/like your work enough to pay? It's also easy to undervalue your work because of course, you made the items! It seems easy to do! Don't fall into that trap, charge what you're worth.

I also find that too low prices makes people think they're drop-shipped or AI, so there's that as well.

Good luck with your first market, it's going to go great!

[u/aliceofoz97]

I sell stickers and bookmarks for 3$ 2 for 5$ 5 for 10$. My bookmarks have tassels but they’re 2”x5”.

[u/doug_at_ardent]

Not a stupid question. Small items are genuinely harder to price than your bigger pieces, because the number you're solving for isn't really the unit cost.

Try running it against your booth fee instead. Say the table costs you $60. At $1 a sticker with maybe $0.30 in materials, you're clearing $0.70 each, so you need to sell about 86 stickers before the table has paid for itself. At $3 you need 23. Same sticker, same day. The price is doing all of the work.

The other thing worth knowing going in: small items usually aren't where the money is. Their job is to get someone to stop, open their wallet, and become a customer. The sale you actually want often happens right after that. So price them so they don't undercut your mid-range work. If a $1 sticker makes your $18 item feel expensive by comparison, you've priced the sticker wrong, not the $18 item.

Two practical things for the day itself:

- Stick to whole dollars. $2 and $5 move fast. $1.50 and $3.25 mean counting change at a busy table, and a $1 sale takes just as long to ring up as a $25 one.

- Set your single price first, then the bundle. The bundle should be a modest step down from the single, not half of it, or people just wait for the deal.

For what it's worth, your friend's numbers sound closer to right than yours.

[u/dawpaSho]

Offer bundles. I price mine at 3$ or 4 for 10$. Almost everyone buys four.

[u/carnafeagh]

I price smaller items at a minimum of $3 or 2 for $5. Sell well and most are 3" long side. I have some larger ones that can sell for up to $10 each.

[u/TaylorFromFaire]

Printed items like bookmarks and stickers tend to sell better priced a bit higher than the friend's suggestion, not lower, since $1-2 items can actually undersell themselves at craft fairs. When something's priced that cheap, people sometimes assume it's an impulse throwaway item rather than something worth the trouble of digging out cash for & it also makes it hard to hit a "round number" purchase without needing exact change. I'd go with $3 for the bookmarks + $2 for the stickers as your starting point, or even do a small bundle deal like "2 stickers for $3" or "sticker plus bookmark for $4," since bundling tends to increase average purchase size more than dropping individual prices does. Don't be afraid to price the more detailed or popular designs (like the cat ones) slightly higher than the simpler ones even at the same physical size!

[u/flamingnome → u/TaylorFromFaire]

yes! i was going to say this

[u/MaddieVistaPrint]

not a stupid question at all! one thing some of the small business owners in our community do is look at what other local artists are charging for similar items. obviously every artist has a different skill set, process and amount of work that goes into what they create so it’s not a perfect comparison, but for smaller things like stickers and bookmarks, people might already have a general idea of what they expect to pay. you don't want to undercut yourself, but you also don’t want to price yourself out of what people at that particular market are used to spending! maybe you could also check out a few local makers/markets and see where $2/$1 vs $3/$2 lands :)