In general, I say no. My stamp club participated in our town�s large holiday craft fair where the average attendance is 10,000. We sold close to a $1,000 and we were elated, but we would not talk about if we made a profit because we figured we probably broke even on much of what we sold. We had all agreed that we were doing it for the experience and if we made a profit woo-hoo!
Cards were not a big sales item. We priced them from $1 - $6. What sold well were journals, scrapbooks ready for pictures, poop (lots and lots of poop), tile coasters, stationary sets, bookmarks, and invitations.
Once in awhile when my chocolate intake is low, I think of doing another craft fair. Then I eat a peanut butter cup and I come to my senses.
Reason why not to do a craft fair:
10. You have to make a boatload of items or your booth looks empty and if you don�t sell it all, you have to bring it home and find a place to keep it.
9. You delude yourself into thinking you will make a tidy profit but you bought too many items to make all your wonderful ideas that you could only make a profit it you sold every single stinkin� card for $10.
8. Your family wonders if you ran away from home because you�ve been locked in your stamp room for the last two months to get ready.
7. You family is so afraid that all, yes all of their Christmas gifts are leftovers from your craft fair.
6. The food delivery people all know your family members by names because you have not cooked since you started working on your craft fair.
5. You been wearing the same pair of glitter coated sweats and ink stained T-Shirt for the whole week because you only sleep in your stamp room chair. Shower, who needs a shower, just a little Stampin� Mist here and there and you�re good for another few hours.
4. Your fingers are so stained with StazOn that you can�t tell if you are or are not wearing black nail polish.
3. You seriously consider calling in sick so you can have one full day with no interruptions.
2. Your stamp room is piled so high with finished product, products in progress, ruined products, and product to make more products that your DH has tied a red flag to your butt so he can find you and the kids just send you a text because they won�t come in since little Johnny was lost in there for 2 days.
1. By the time you make some 800 � 1,000 items, you won�t want to see a stamp, a piece of paper, an ink pad, or glitter for at least a couple of month. It ruins the joy of stamping.
Bottom line, some people do really well at craft fairs, but most of us do not. If you do it, do it for the fun and the learning experience, not because you want to make some cash and don�t spend money buying things to make products with the expectations that you�ll recoup the costs. Will I do it again, I can�t say never, but almost never seems about the right response.
