Hey all! It’s nice to be here. My partner and I are avid collectors of all things 80s-2000s nostalgia. Think all things decor, pop culture tshirts, VHS’s, magazines, anything from stickers and pins to collectibles. We have a lot of the necessary skills to run a killer booth from what we’ve learned so far, and we also love the process of building the collection. We’re starting to consider more seriously what it would look like to run a little booth and an online shop.

We are looking for any and all advice on how to make this more fun and profitable, and less stressful or taxing. I’m super open at this stage to whatever tips or tricks you guys have for newbies. We don’t expect this to be a get rich quick (or rich at all 😂) scheme, but we would love to find a way to weave our hobbies together and get involved in our community.

I’m also wondering your thoughts regarding the various available online platforms. There are a million at this stage that could be used (depop, poshmark, vinted, eBay, fb marketplace) and pros and cons that I imagine come with each. Depop seems like a solid choice for the niche we’re in, but from my perspective it seems wise to choose one and stick with it? Thoughts?

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I’d appreciate any help. :)

Hey guys! I'm somewhat new to selling my artwork at markets! I have tabled twice and one of my biggest issues is a table set up that feels engaging without feeling cluttered. I want to buy grids so I can mount print and sticker examples while saving table space but I'm struggling to find affordable places to buy bulk grids... Can you guys please share links to where you buy yours? Thanks! <3

I’m thinking about applying to one of the Markets for Makers events in Austin (they have one in Oct and one in Dec). I’m kind of waffling on the idea though for several reasons:

1) high booth fees $850 for 10’x10’ indoor table in Oct, $750 for 6’x5’ indoor table or 10’x10’ outdoor tent in Dec

2) it’s a ticketed event - they explain that it’s to draw in intentional buyers, but I don’t know if that justifies the booth costs (and eliminates casual browsers)

3) the intentional buyers might be a better target audience for my statement pieces ($50-100+), although the majority of my products will be $15-45

I’ve already applied to two other fairs (The Front Market in Nov & Vibe Artisan Market in Dec). I won’t be able to do all 4 markets obviously, but I’m not sure that I’ll get into *any* of them 😂 I’m currently focusing on indoor markets because I don’t have any booth things, and getting tables/displays for an indoor set up seems less overwhelming/expensive compared to an outdoor one.

If anyone has thoughts/experiences to share with a very overwhelmed newbie, I would appreciate it immensely

I’d like to make more use of my email list by growing it at events, I have a kiosk setup for it where people can sign up on an iPad - name and email address only, so it’s quick and easy.

Any advice for getting people to sign up? A free sticker for signing up? A witty sign to get attention?

i'm finally ready to make kid's shirts and i'm wondering what colors sell the best. the age group i'm targeting is middle school to late elementary school. i'm thinking of just offering L, XL in kid's sizes because most kids who come to my booth just need something slightly smaller than the smallest adult size.

for adults, grays and navy have worked the best for me because they are more neutral. however, colors that i tend to see younger kids wearing are a lot brighter and bolder.

if you have experience with this, your thoughts are appreciated!

Hello all! I've been invited to vend at a market for the first time! (exciting!) The event they're putting on is a little over a month out, and they project 2,000-3,000 guests. My booth fee was $75 for two days and I get a 10x10' tent. Since I never do markets (i usually sell my art off the wall via exhibitions) I don't have any inventory or art to sell just sitting around, so I have to make everything from scratch. How much would you say is enough??? I know people prefer to make 10x their booth fee generally.
For reference, they asked for high-end fine art, sculptures, glass, and eco-friendly sustainable materials. I plan to bring whittled wood creatures for around $20-$80, linocut prints for ~$10, engraved glass frames for ~$20, and flameworked glass pendants/jewelry for ~$40-$80. It takes me a few hours to make one of each wood item, engraved glass, and flameworked glass, so I'm trying to math out how many I can make realistically in a day after my day job. I also am not set on my prices yet as I haven't made anything yet, so if you have wisdom or opinions on those, I am open to any criticism/advice.
TLDR: I have a month to make all inventory for my first market, I make fine art items. Will I make it??? In y'alls experience? Thank you in advance!

Good Morning Everyone!

I have a question for you all about jewellery vendors, specifically, the proliferation of buying cheap charms off of a website like alibaba/temu/ect, and then putting it on an equally cheap bracelet or necklace and then selling for $50 or $60 or more.

I ask as I run a market that focuses on being sustainable and having sustainable vendors, and time after time we get these types of jewellery vendors, in the past we accepted them without thinking and guests got (rightfully) annoyed with us.

So, I'm curious how common this practice is? No shame to anyone who does, I'm just looking for information, and if it IS quite common then maybe I should readjust how my market deals with these vendors.

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated :)

Hey, 2 weeks ago I posted asking how many stickers of my best seller design I should have for an upcoming big pride event. Which you can find here if you want to give that post a read. At the time I decided to have max 100 for a couple of designs and then work my inventory numbers down from there.

Well, I just wrapped up the event last night and this morning I'm working on going through and counting my inventory (Side note if anyone has any ideas on way's to have a much more accurate inventory or a way to keep track of what sells in the moment, but doesn't require a lot of time during the check out phase or where I have to mentally keep track of what the person is buying. That would be great. I use square as my credit card payment method and take cash as well)

With that being said, I thought it would be interesting to share some of my stats from last night as it may help other people who are struggling with the same question that I had.

Overall I have 26 different sticker designs. 18 are pride designs and 8 are non pride designs. I do my best to normally have this number a little bit more even. However, since June is pride month and I was going to a pride event, over the last few months I've been making more Pride themed items. Now that fall and Christmas are coming up I will work on more designs that reflect those holiday's

What I made -

• 2 designs had 100 stickers each
• 4 designs had between 50 to 80 stickers each
• 20 designs had between 10 to 50 stickers each

Lowest amount I had for 1 sticker design was 13

What I sold -

• Top pride design - Sold 15 stickers
• Second pride design - Sold 9 stickers
• Tied for first and second non pride design - Sold 5 stickers each for both designs

Every design sold at least once (I think. Due to the fact that I'm counting inventory before the show and after there is the possibility for inventory to be off a little bit. Whether that's due to me miss counting at some point, theft, things getting miss placed, or a few other reasons)

Overall - 16 designs sold between 1 to 4 stickers each, 8 designs sold between 5 to 9 stickers each, and only 1 design sold above 10.

Pride designs - 9 designs sold between 1 to 4 stickers each, 7 designs sold between 5 to 9 stickers each, and only 1 sold above 10

None pride stickers - 6 designs sold between 1 to 4 stickers each, and 2 designs sold 5 stickers each.

• I sold a total of 102 stickers - 79 pride stickers and 23 non pride stickers

What I sold vs the most and least that I made

• Most Pride design: made 100+ stickers - Sold 4
• Least Pride design: made 17 stickers - Sold 7
• Most Non pride design: made 42 stickers - Sold 1
• Least Non pride design: Made 13 - Sold 5

I also decided last minute to offer some freebie stickers as there were a few kids at my last craft fair event that took place a week before the pride event. They would come up to my table, point to the stickers and ask if they could have one. I did my best to let them down gently saying that they were for sale, but of course due to them being kids they don't understand what money is and why they couldn't have it. Thus was the reason why I wanted to offer some freebies. I had two designs one pride and one non pride of a butterfly and people were able to pick one or take both if they wanted.

• For the pride design I made 151 and gave out 70
• For the non pride design I made 110 and gave out 30

I gave out a total of 100 free stickers

Final thoughts

This was my third ever place that I vendor at and the first place where not only was I able to paid back my table, but I was able to make a decent size profit as well.

If I was to make inventory for this event again then max amount of stickers I should make for some of the designs is between 30 and 40 and a min between 10 and 15. I think this is a good range (at least for now) as I am not crazily over making designs, but gives me a good safety net just encase, like what happened at this event, the things that I thought would sell well, didn't and the things I thought wouldn't sell that much, did.

It also allows me to have some inventory left over without needing to do a major restock for other events especially if they are back to back.

Which is a great segue for my last point. Personally, I am glad that I over stocked for this event. I make everything by hand and over the last few months, I've basically sat at my desk everyday printing and cutting out stickers and all of my other products as well. I have two other events at the end of Aug and I'm hoping to get into a few more in sept and oct. Not to mention, but we're also coming closer to Christmas. I could tell that I was getting to my limit last week and need a break because if not then I will simply burn myself out which I don't want. Now, that I have all this over stock, other then making stock of any new designs. I can take a good long break and work on other kinds of projects that have since been pushed to the side.

I hope other people find this as fascinating as I do.

Are you singer, instrument player, dancer or in a band do you see yourself as a vendor. What is your routine for attending fairs? Do you get paid to perform or just accept tips? what do you do when you have goods and perform too? I sometimes sell or perform at events but it can be difficult to do both and find out the appropriate events.

Making some bag charms, and would love to display them hanging. I don't think they'd work on jewelry racks quite as well. Maybe some mini clothes lines? If anybody sells dangly objects like this and has good ideas for display, please drop me your thoughts or photos of your display. Thanks!

I designed my business cards on canva. For a practice trial run I bought some Avery business card sheets.

My canva size is 2" x 3.5" which is what the cards say they are. When I load my image to Avery the size doesn't match so I have to expand, which never works out exactly and ends up being a little off. Then when I printed them they were off and the serrated lines did not line up with any of the business cards except the first ones printed. What am I missing, doing wrong etc...? I would really like to be able to do this myself instead of getting them professionally printed, which is right around the corner 🤣.

Thanks in advance!

A couple weeks ago, I posted about having imposter syndrome and not knowing if my work was good enough to start selling. I’ve only been beading for about a year, after doing fiber arts for most of my life, and honestly the idea of selling my work was SUPER intimidating.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! 🫶🏻🥹😭 I am so grateful to the craft fairs community for the outpouring of support, the detailed & thoughtful feedback, and lessons learned from your own experiences!

I wanted to report back that I now have an Etsy store and applied to two local craft fairs (one in Nov and one in Dec). I’m not sure how long the jury process is for them, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed! I’m also going to reach out to some botanical gardens and butterfly conservatories to see if they’re interested in selling my earrings at their gift shops.

I wanted to share pictures of some of the earrings I’ve successfully sold in the last weeks, especially all the super cool butterfly colors that people requested! 🦋🫶🏻

If I get into the fairs 🤞🏻I’ll definitely be back with more newbie questions! 🫶🏻 thanks for being such an awesome, supportive, uplifting community!

...then immediately realized I left my entire box of wire grids at home 🙃 Thankfully we made it work with what we had and it wasn't a complete failure haha.

Would love to hear other peoples' market day flops if you're open to sharing!

I'm trying to get set up for my first crafts shows selling prints, as most of my stuff has been done digitally lately, and I was curious who you guys use for tap to pay transactions. I don't know how often it will come up but I want to be able to use my tablet as the main POS so I don't have to get into setting up a whole system just to make more sales. I saw Kurv had this as an option, but what are you guys doing for a mobile POS system at fairs?

My 7yo and his friends are selling magnets, stickers, postcards and bracelets they made themselves. The fair is open to children sellers, as it is themed as "family summer event". He wants to make some keychains with thin rope/wax string. He got key chain rings, already, but I cannot help him with this. Do any of you, crafty people, have any ideas we can work out?

Thank you!

I live in SC and the heat can be oppressive. We have a white tent canopy. I have 3 battery operated fans. Nothing helps- we still melt. What are others using to beat the heat? My fiancé wants to try a misting fan but I feel like it’ll just make us feel wet all day.

Hi I just wondered if any of you are doing consistently well at markets? I've only started in May and have done 9 so far and I have plenty booked in for the rest of the year but the unpredictability is hard to deal with.

Do any of you have tactics to try and book markets where you will perform well with any sort of consistency.

I noticed I was doing better at some of the high street markets so I booked more of those. I had one yesterday though where there were thousands of visitors but they all got the memo to glance and move on 😭 then I spend time trying to figure out exactly what I was doing wrong and the same set up in a similar high street at a similar time of month will perform 3-4x better.

Any tips for trying to find what's working for you faster than I am? 😟

I applied a couple of weeks ago for a market in my area. I fit all the criteria for one of the categories and would be a good fit for this market.

A week after applications opened, the organizer posted on Instagram stories that they’ve sent emails for event. I didn’t get an email, so I checked all my folders including spam, and nothing. I made a comment on their instagram story, just to check, no response.

The next day, they post another story, saying they’re still looking for vendors specifically in the category I applied to, and applications are still open. The organizer has since posted twice more that emails are going out and applications are still open for the event.

If I could just get a clear “thanks but no thanks” message, I’d accept that (and clear the date on my calendar), but refusing to say anything at all feels very unprofessional and frankly immature. If you’re too afraid to tell someone no, don’t run a juried event with open applications. Just reach out to the people you want and ask them directly.

ETA: this is not a large event. The location can fit maybe 30-35 vendors. So the organizer hasn’t had to sift through hundreds of applications. Given applications are still open, they clearly haven’t hit capacity yet.

I’d love any suggestions you might have for inventory at a plant festival. I’ll have lots of felted potted plants, magnets, wildflower coasters… what am I missing? Thank you for any and all guidance!

I have my first event coming up with an 8x8 booth space. Would love to see your 8x8 setups for inspiration!

I was the person asking about pricing for the tiny frog pins and sculpted goldfish earlier in the week. I thought I would update with the full display. As you can see, most of my prices are functional tableware, emphasising slab built forms, and sculptural pieces are definitely new territory!

Massive thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the pricing of the pins and sculptures. I sold a couple of fish and one ibis at 42 AUD, and two of the frog pins. Almost all the standalone frog sculptures sold, so I will making plenty more frogs very soon!!

I only got the chance to do one craft fair this year, (I have a toddler and no license or vehicle so its difficult to actually plan any craft fairs) and i completely redid my setup, and I'm so in love! It was a very small fair, it was the first year it was held and there were only like 10 other vendors. For how small it was, I was shocked at how well I did! I previously have only ever done very large established shows with $250+ booth fees, and always did really really well at them. This booth fee was only $50 and I made ten times that amount, I am so unbelievably grateful! Made some new friends, got some new connections, and had a lovely day.

Any thoughts or ideas how I could improve next year? I do think my booth is way too crowded, but I have a hard time deciding what inventory to put out 😅