Putting things in catalogs

[ayalanya]

Hey look! I remembered to go to Dreamwidth to post this. Heh. Old habits really die hard; I almost always have a Livejournal tab open, so it's much easier to update there when I've forgotten to reopen a Dreamwidth tab.

Anyway. This is an important post - I could really use advice if there's any to be had.

Last night I was struck with the fact that, while everything else is too complex/random to recreate exactly, the elf ear tips/cuffs are relatively easy to reproduce. I can make infinite copies of almost exactly the same thing, with variations only when I'm bored (which is often, I'll admit, but we'll ignore that for now). Therefore, it seems reasonable to believe that I could make a whole hell of a lot of them and sell them through the Pyramid Collection. I called their customer service line (let's hear it for 24/7 phone lines!), and got the url for their buyer's group. I'm supposed to snail mail them pictures and a wholesale price list and then wait to see if they like it. I am reaching higher and higher, and apparently this is the year I've gotten truly tenacious about putting my name and my jewelry out there.

My worry: because I doubt I'd be able to realistically manage more than five-ish pairs per day (call it 150/month), I'm afraid that if their demand exceeds my output, they'll outsource my design to someone who can make it faster and cheaper. I mean, sure, I'll get faster with practice, and if I can set aside eight hours a day to just *work*, I might be able to reach an output I can't even imagine right now. But I don't want to promise anyone that, and right now it's a stretch to say that I could even do five per day, since currently I tend to only have time to make one or two.

Of course this is a worry anyway. This design is hardly unique, it's just better than what I've seen out there yet, and it's made of precious metal instead of stainless steel or craft wire. But if I submit this to Pyramid Collection or any other catalog, how realistic is the fear that they'll take the design and push me out of the production? Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? And actually, if you do, I might want to talk to you privately about pricing, because I have no idea what a reasonable wholesale price is for this kind of thing.

Comments

[rivenwanderer]

Maybe they'll work out a deal where you sell a big batch of them to the catalog company at wholesale, and then they deal with selling from there. Then you can further work out how they can order additional lots of them as their inventory runs low. I bet that as long as you give them a big batch to start with, and they're smart about ordering replenishments well in advance of them running out, it could work out pretty well. And they don't particularly need to start selling this month vs. three months from now, right? If you set up an agreement where they promised to buy in 2 or 3 months, they could have a lot of buffer on hand.

I've never sold to a wholesale situation before, though, so I could be making this all up :p

[ayalanya]

That's my hope - but I still worry that they'll object to either the slowness or the price, and say "yeah, this isn't worth it, so let's find a bunch of people to make it at a lower wage."

[rivenwanderer]

*nod* Have you heard stories of this company ripping off people's designs outright?

[ayalanya]

Oh! No. I just haven't been able to find any information at all about the experience of smaller artists with them. I know they carry stuff by Big Artists and I'm sure they'd never rip them off, but I'm not a Big Artist yet, and I'm just sort of suspicious of everyone in general. Trust issues and all that.

[ayalanya]

You know...I had a conversation just now that leads me to believe that it's entirely likely that this design is going to get used by someone else anyway (and as I've said, it's not unique), and it's just a matter of when. So I'm just going to go for it!

[rivenwanderer]

Cool! It seems like there's no skin off your nose even in the worst-case scenario, then, as long as you don't agree to something unrealistic as far as quantities and deadlines.

[turelie.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know how much this will help, cause you know how excited I get when your stuff sells and you succeed epically. :D

I loathe Pyramid Collection. I used to buy from them all the time...and I love the stuff they have. The thing that stopped me from buying from them ever again was their pricing.

They sell a ring, an exact copy of one I own, for much more than the $30 I paid for it. I forget the amount, but I can go look it up for you....I have a lot of old catalogs.

I also wanted to buy an awesome tribal skull ring for my hubby for $150. I wasn't bothered by the price here...it was an ounce of silver (this was 7 years ago, btw), but still a bit steep. I wanted that ring. What really got me going was the shipping. I lived within an hour drive of their warehouse and they wanted to charge me basic USPS shipping of $17 on something that would cost $3 to ship. They based that on the cost. Anything over say, $100, was automatically $16.95 to ship.

I went online and several hours later found the exact same ring for the exact same price on a biker's jewelry site and I paid ONE WHOLE DOLLAR

[turelie.livejournal.com]

Ooops...dunno what I hit there LOL

so....one whole dollar for shipping. $151 total.

So...I happily browse the catalogs they keep sending me...and then I browse the internet for the same thing elsewhere. I even emailed PC and asked if there was some way to pick said ring up...not only was I denied...it wasn't a polite denial either. So...I saw no reason to continue buying anything from them.

I wish like hell I had another suggestion for you...and I will still be excited as all get out if they take you on...but I cannot tell you what a bad taste they put in my mouth. :(

Good luck, girlfriend! You know I love your stuff...and I know everyone else out there will love it too. :D I'll still be buying off you directly tho. ;)