Stain Dyed Calf Skin Card Wallet

[DavidL]

First official wallet I'm going to be selling online. Picture taken from my laptop.

[stevieboy7]

if you're stitching by hand you should probably get some proper sewing thread... I would avoid the low-end machine thread you're using, not very strong and tends to break.
if you've already splurged enough to get some vergez tools, I'm sure you can buy some nice french lin cable to match!

[DavidL]

if you're stitching by hand you should probably get some proper sewing thread... I would avoid the low-end machine thread you're using, not very strong and tends to break.

if you've already splurged enough to get some vergez tools, I'm sure you can buy some nice french lin cable to match!

The thread is french linen fil au chinois. May be hard to see from the picture but appreciate the response. I've underestimated how saturated etsy is with leather goods. Its best if i get all my social media, Facebook, twitter, ect together and put out 20 different products and heavily promote.

[stevieboy7]

The thread is french linen fil au chinois. May be hard to see from the picture but appreciate the response. I've underestimated how saturated etsy is with leather goods. Its best if i get all my social media, Facebook, twitter, ect together and put out 20 different products and heavily promote.

Sorry, It's very hard to tell by the posted pics, and the roll without the sticker on it looks really odd. haha

In terms of leather goods on etsy... you really have to put out some interesting product to stand out from the crowd. As many leatherworkers on here will tell you, this is definitely not something that you can gain a living from.. only really enought to pay for the habit if you're lucky enough.

First, your stitching looks nice.. but that cast off in the middle of the side looks really weird, and is essentially useless. As well, can't tell if/what you're doing to your edges...

Second, your pricing is wayyyy too low. If you're going to create any sort of brand identity, you will want to price correctly.

Pricing: (minimum)

cost of materials: ~5$ for your leather and thread (if not more...)

+ wage for time taken: maybe 1.5 hours @ 15$/hr = $22.5

Price it cost you to make: $27.5

MSRP = Price *2 = $55

This makes sense considering the other goods on etsy made by similar makers. You can't (and shouldn't) try to lower your prices to compete with sellers in China/India/wherever, their product is massproduced and low quality.

If you lower your price to that, you are saying that you have the same quality product as made in china.... As well, you are devaluing leatherworkers as a whole, saying that your time, effort, tools, and knowledge is worth nothing.

Now, you don't need to charge that much.. but it's a good mark for where to start with pricing to cover your costs + time.

Depending how happy you are with the particular product, you can charge less (if it's a prototype/ has problems) or more if very polished.

[DavidL]

Sorry, It's very hard to tell by the posted pics, and the roll without the sticker on it looks really odd. haha

In terms of leather goods on etsy... you really have to put out some interesting product to stand out from the crowd. As many leatherworkers on here will tell you, this is definitely not something that you can gain a living from.. only really enought to pay for the habit if you're lucky enough.

First, your stitching looks nice.. but that cast off in the middle of the side looks really weird, and is essentially useless. As well, can't tell if/what you're doing to your edges...

Second, your pricing is wayyyy too low. If you're going to create any sort of brand identity, you will want to price correctly.

Pricing: (minimum)

cost of materials: ~5$ for your leather and thread (if not more...)

+ wage for time taken: maybe 1.5 hours @ 15$/hr = $22.5

Price it cost you to make: $27.5

MSRP = Price *2 = $55

This makes sense considering the other goods on etsy made by similar makers. You can't (and shouldn't) try to lower your prices to compete with sellers in China/India/wherever, their product is massproduced and low quality.

If you lower your price to that, you are saying that you have the same quality product as made in china.... As well, you are devaluing leatherworkers as a whole, saying that your time, effort, tools, and knowledge is worth nothing.

Now, you don't need to charge that much.. but it's a good mark for where to start with pricing to cover your costs + time.

Depending how happy you are with the particular product, you can charge less (if it's a prototype/ has problems) or more if very polished.

I was really considering not posting this up online because it was a scrap wallet that I made. Wanted to test the waters and see what would work and how to use etsy. Changed my pictures and learned a lot from the listing. Appreciate the stitching comment, I wanted to get something that looked different but your right it looks off. Im considering different patterns/ designs of wallets, dying the edges and matching them with the thread colour ect.

I've made a plan of how I'm going to go about selling on etsy, but its not going to be easy or an overnight process.

- create social media accounts - Facebook, twitter, pinterest, ect. On those accounts I'm going to do daily updates on my process, finished products ect. Hopefully, find a way to get people onto those media streams maybe through youtube where I can create a video showing the process of making a card wallet and people who are interested will click on the link and follow. Other options are giving out a free wallet every month and people will sign up to get a chance to win a wallet. On youtube there is a reviewer who shows off wallets and he has 20k viewers per video that could be an option. Blogs seem to be the best chance to get people to see your product and they are always looking for new companies that they can right about and a media write up will help. Creating a website would help, but for know an etsy presence will be easier to attain.

I have to also create a big line up of items 20 plus so that it creates more buzz and opportunties for viewers to check out my shop. If you know of any more ways or alternatives that could help I would like to hear them. Btw are you hand and sew from etsy?

Edited April 13, 2014 by DavidL

[DavidL]

Awesome just got 9 views. I know, i know thats nothing but at least its progress. First day of etsy no views. I didn't put tags on my products and it was impossible to find my wallets from the search. Also leatherworker is a good promotion tool, because if i continually show good products(which I haven't) it will spark interest from within the forum and through google viewers who stumble on the forum. Lots of intricacies of google that you need to know, how to get etsy views (following people who have a big amount of favourites, re posting, keywords...) A lot to learn and i will try to get professional help. Check out Onnit.com. I tried to get in touch with the web designer, but unfortunately his fee will be insane, he did other websites like virgin mobiles.

[stevieboy7]

Yes, I am Hand and Sew.

I've been doing the selling deal for about 2 years. I don't know what your age or experiences are, but you can plan and plan all you want, but things (especially leatherwork) never really work out that way.
I've had 15000+ views on a promotional video, I've been featured in magazines, blogs, videos, websites... you name it. But all in all, I've only really been able to do about 500 sales (thats including some wholesale I've done on Massdrop)
That's less than one sale a day. And that's with a ton of views and traffic through all social media (instagram, facebook, twitter) as well as a lot of self promotion on Reddit.
Its fun to have a plan of attack... but like I said, don't expect anything crazy. Certainly don't invest a shitload of money into it.

This is a hobby... not a money-maker.

[cjmt]

Tell that to Hermes or in fact the substantial number of pros around here!

Charlie

[stevieboy7]

Tell that to Hermes or in fact the substantial number of pros around here!

Charlie

You can't really compare an established 175 year old corporation with a guy who's giddy about getting 9 views on an etsy listing (3 of which were me...)

Not trying to shoot anyone down, just trying to keep things realistic here.

Especially considering how much he must have spent on tools (who buys blanchard right off the bat?) he will have to sell a lot to just come even. He has nicer tools and supplies than I do.

[cjmt]

Fine, a hobby to him right now maybe. Everyone including Hermes started somewhere though and this forum has seen people go from beginner to very good pro (Peter nitz for eg) in double quick time. Whilst the chances are your right one should never say never...