selling sticks for money

Hi Guys

Viktur here.
I think every stick maker should try and sell his or her sticks at some time. Selling your first stick is a real buzz, selling your second stick is even better, and when you continue being able to sell them you know you must be doing something right.
Just have a look on the internet. There are a lot of stick makers/dressers out there with web sites, and its not difficult to do.
If you have Orange as a web provider they used to provide you with your own web space and the tools to launch your own site. I do not know if they still offer the space. It may be that other providers do the same. If you know, let the rest of us know. Help launch a stick makers career.
How many of you have been on ebay and checked out the number of stick makers there, its growing. So you can reach a vast audiance without much effort.

Of course there are the traditional venues for selling sticks, such as country fairs. Many of the smaller ones will invite you with open arms to set up your stall and charge you very little for the pitch. These are the best when you are starting out. Little outlay on the day, but you may sell a lot of sticks at the right price. Its no good paying in the hundreds for a pitch at a up market country fair just to find that you have hardly covered your costs and had a long hard day to boot.
Keep an eye open for the village fair, they are always short of good stands and may even allow you a free pitch.

The one thing I would say with regards to selling is, dont give your sticks away for almost nothing. You have spent time, effort and money to create your sticks and they deserve a reasonable return.
Time each stick in the making. You will be surprised how long it can take to make a walking stick. Multiply the number of hours taken by whatever you want per hour. Add the cost of all the materials multiplied by a factor of 2.35. this will give you a return on the money you spent to buy all the bits and pieces to make the stick.
Add these two amounts up and you have the selling price of the stick, and its worth evey penny the buyer is going to pay.

Thats all for now. Im feeling too sensible to carry on and think its probably time for bed.

Cheers Viktur.

I've just ordered a Lurcher head from Keith, intended for a guy who looks after the hounds for the local hunt.....he doesn't know it yet but he is going to be my saleman, no big profit just enough to buy more handles etc.

I've found that the best (most profit) way to sell the sticks is doing custom work on the web. Local craft shows are populated with people selling "cheap" sticks and the profit margin is very small. You can compete on volume, but I prefer to make quality custom sticks......