Thinking of doing a craft show, any thoughts

[cards_by_karen]

Hi All, I am thinking of selling my cards at a craft show. I have never done this before and I was curious if anyone else has. It is a two day fair. It normally draws a lot of people. I was curious how many cards I should have on hand. Does anyone have any tips? etc. Any input would be great! Thanks, karen

[peasoup]

You can do a search and find out lots of info on craft shows. I have not participated in one yet but have done alot of research. All the info I found points to cards are not so good. It seams people go for the other crafty type of stuff. I know that at alot of shows the coasters are a big hit and that it what I am leaning towards doing - that and the snowman soup. Good luck!

[Melody Smith]

I have done 3 craft shows selling my cards. For all three shows I went in with about 100 cards. It's really hard sometimes trying to figure out how much to bring into a show, but what I do is think about what type of cards people are usually looking for around this time of year (Fall: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). For the spring and summer I usually do baby cards (pink, blue, and combos of green/yellow), bridal cards, graduation cards, and lots and lots of birthday cards. I usually end up selling about 60-70 of my cards each time I go in, so I feel it was worth it. I never go in thinking I'm going to make a profit, but just to see what others think about my work and to listen to comments. I sold my cards for $3-$4 per card depending on the amount of detail on the card and people didn't even flinch at the cost. I hope you have fun. You'll enjoy it a lot.

[row4d]

If you run a search for threads on this subject from last fall you will find a TON of them. Dozens of ladies here did craft shows and discussed their plans and experiences extensively.

[Bananajane]

I've been doing local craft fairs for about seven years and I seem to do better every year. Most of the fairs are around Thanksgiving and Christmas and I tend to only do Christmas cards. I will also bring all occasion stuff, but not as many. I also do card sets and my average is about 20 - 30 card sets (12 cards/set) and about 200 single cards. Most of the time I sell out, but every once in a while I'll be left with cards/sets and turn around and consign them to gift shops or bookstores. It also helps if you do a variety of stamped items and not just cards. Think about doing gift tags, bookmarks, covered notepads, etc. Hope this gives you an idea. Good luck to you if you decide to do it.

BananaJane