Craft Fair Vendors

PhotoDavid78

I was thinking about selling my photos at craft fairs. Anybody have experience with this?


I need a tent and something to display my photos on. I'm looking for someone to point me in the right direction as to wear to purchase the tent (New York City / Long Island) and what is good to display my photos on.

Glort

There have been a lot of threads on this. The general consensus is that it's a tough gig to make any money from.

You say you have been thinking about this. Have you done any research into it? You need to look at your work and get an idea how it might go in your specific market.
I wouldn't spend a cent on anything until you have made some sort of assessment as to the viability of of this. Do you even know where you would actually set up and how many other vendors are there doing the same thing? IF no one is doing it, why not? You are not the first person to think of this obviously. If there are other people doing it, Why would someone buy one of your prints as against one of the other vendors?

Basic research and fact finding like that will go a long way in this being either profitable, a complete waste of money or a waste of time you avoid in the first place.

puzzledpaul

+ 1 to Glort's comments and also check out how others already doing such venues go about the practicalities / hardware etc involved ... and whether you could improve on display techniques etc

pp

AlliOOP

PhotoDavid78 wrote: »

I was thinking about selling my photos at craft fairs. Anybody have experience with this?


I need a tent and something to display my photos on. I'm looking for someone to point me in the right direction as to wear to purchase the tent (New York City / Long Island) and what is good to display my photos on.

Listen to Glort. His advice is great.

It is a pain in the gluteus maximus and unless you are selling other craft items (like crafts made from the photos), you won't be making money. Even with a large inventory and varied selection within that inventory, it is not for the faint of heart. Indoor and outdoor art shows instead of craft fairs are far and away better places to sell, but art shows are usually by jury/invitation only. They tend to have a long waiting list and many requirements to join the show. Once in = whoot!

This is not to discourage you in any way of selling at craft fairs if you so desire...I even have one indoor one we'll be selling at this month -- never again a show having to set up our own tent though!!! That's a story for another time... Just keep your expectations very :uhoh low.

Some places provide 6' or 8' tables. Others you have to provide all the display items (including tables) for yourself. I use two types of displays for the photo based items. 1) Tri-pod display stands for smaller items on the tables, doubled up for larger frames and 2) Hanging "displays" for the large items.

And a final few more pieces of advice. The spaces do not hold as much as you would think so minimize the inventory to "only fill part of the space for optimum visual purposes". Research the space allotment and do a dry run of laying out the entire display long before the fair. Unless you are a really sweet person and just can't help helping others, until you are an experienced craft fair participant don't stop to help as you'll run out of time setting up your own space. Never leave your items alone! Oh, and finally, digital displays don't work at craft fairs like they do at other venues. People look and leave quickly so if what they want to buy isn't seen in the first few seconds, they just move on. How/where the items are displayed is key.

Good luck and enjoy.

PS - Some craft fairs expect a donation to the "charity of the day". It goes a long way in good will to have a little something to donate to the raffle/auction/door prizes/insert term here. It might just get you a better location the next time around.

PhotoDavid78

thanks for the advice everyone

TonyCooper

My daughter and son-in-law sell their photographs at craft fairs,
and have done pretty well at it. They don't have their own
booth, though.

My daughter has an arrangement with a friend who makes
jewelry and my s-i-l has a similar arrangement with a person
who makes wood products. Their photographs are added to
the tables of the other exhibitors.

It's a labor-for-payment situation in both cases. They help
the jewelry maker and the wood product maker unload and
set-up the booth, break down the booth at the end of the
show, and they help them by working in the booth. In
exchange, the booth owner doesn't charge them anything.

The booth renters feel that having something different from
their own products at the booth brings in possible customers
that might not otherwise stop at the booth.

Both my daughter and s-i-l sell card sets of their photographs.
They sell a package of note cards with various photographs.
They also offer 8x10 mounted prints, but the note cards
sell the best.

They've never done a show where the revenue would make
it worthwhile to rent their own booth. The arrangement
they have, though, works out nicely for them. They've
received re-orders by email from some buyers.

stirinthesauce

I actually make good money at the craft fairs I go to. However, I am picky and only do one or two a year with the occasional off year (this year was an off year). Specifically, what I am selling suits the market. The main revenue fair I attend is in a vacation area with wealthy customers (2nd home folks up on summer vacation). I market regional art for them to decorate their summer homes with (or their offices back in the big city, to remind themselves of vacation ). Not uncommon to clear 800-1.5k in a day. Not great but worth it. Profit margin is about half that with fees and production cost. Another one in the area I do about 1/3rd to half of this in sales. Worth it for a day fee but oh well, similar market and do it more for advertising purposes.

Things I have noticed. People selling photographs/fine art photography from outside the locale of the fair have LOW sales. If you live in the smoky mountains, you would not be buying art of Bryce Canyon etc. 2nd, I would not pursue this full time or even part time. Pain in the rear for more than a couple a season.

Good luck!

Glort

stirinthesauce wrote: »

Not uncommon to clear 800-1.5k in a day. Not great but worth it.

In that market, I'd say that is Definitely great and you must have your market pretty well sussed out.

Some interesting insight to what sells as well.