Hi Andy,
I grew up on a ranch in South Dakota (my father raised horses and did a lot of rawhide braiding, saddle and leather repairs. Hence, I worked with leather since I was a child. During the ‘70’s, I supplemented my income doing leatherwork selling at craft shows.
I continued to pursue the craft as a hobby during my work years. I’m now living in Alberta Canada. I retired in January 2012 and decided to do leather work full time. I’m presently selling at craft sales and on my website. As well, I’ve been doing a fair amount of wholesale. I have found that the retailers generally want to purchase at wholesale pricing. I’m not sure of how wholesale pricing works in California but here in Canada, the retailers expect to pay 50% of retail. I have developed a pricing formula (based on my years in business) that I use to set my retail pricing and also allows me to sell the products wholesale. I have set up a simple spreadsheet that calculates material costs in the project (including a waste factor for leather) and labor. I then put a 40% margin on the raw cost (Raw Cost being material plus labor). Example: If my material cost is $10.00 including waste and my labor is $7.50, my raw cost is $17.50. Divide by .6 to add the 40% margin equals $29.17. This would be my wholesale price (I may round up or down). My retail would be set around $58 to $60. This formula allows you to cover your overheads. Rest assured the overheads grow dramatically when you begin doing leatherwork on a full time basis.
I prefer not to do consignment (if I do, I get 60% rather than 50%and have a contract that ensures I’m paid monthly for all items that are no longer in stock at the retailer.)
I do not give terms on wholesale sales, I am paid before shipping and pricing is FOB my shop.
Hope this helps,
Don