e-bay-ing Your Puppets...

Fozzie Bear

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Hey,

Questions for sellers and buyers:

Sellers, how lucrative are your sales through e-bay? Are you getting what you expected from the sales, or not? By the time you buy the materials and spend the time making the puppet, is it worth it? Do you put your puppets up there on reserve?

Buyers, how often do you actually purchase puppets from ebay? Have you ever, are you planning on it, would you? Have you ever bid on a puppet (whether won or not)?
 

ravagefrackle

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i havnt done any selling on ebay, i dont think i will get what i know the work is worth., but thats just me.
 

Fozzie Bear

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I was about to make a deal with the Audubon Society, but they are backing down from it because they don't want to pay the value of the hand-crafted, production quality puppets for their educational courses.

For example, they wanted a boy and girl, and that would be roughly around the $136 range each; but, they also wanted animals and while a brown bat would likely cost around $80 to make (materials and labor), they don't want to pay more than $150 per puppet, not taking into account that even though the bobcat they want might cost nearly $300 (materials and labor) that cost is off-set by the bat, snake, and hummingbird (which are cheaper and easier to build).

Folks don't see the work that goes into our craft and, as they are by cartoon artwork for advertising, they don't want to pay the costs because they see something less than we know it is. I hate that.

The appreciation of our craft is under-valued. :frown:
 

ravagefrackle

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Fozzie Bear said:
I was about to make a deal with the Audubon Society, but they are backing down from it because they don't want to pay the value of the hand-crafted, production quality puppets for their educational courses.
Folks don't see the work that goes into our craft and, as they are by cartoon artwork for advertising, they don't want to pay the costs because they see something less than we know it is. I hate that.

The appreciation of our craft is under-valued. :frown:
they certainly dont, but i think u are totally undercutting your price man, i dont think i have seen any of your work, but i really think u are charge way to little,

just my opinion though.
 

puppetpackpepe

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I've never sold any puppets on Ebay but when we started making puppets, that was our original plan. I have bought one puppet on ebay from Puppetsnstuff puppets, and it was an excellent deal. I believe I paid around 50 for it.
 

gfarkwort

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I've sold one Puppet on ebay that I bought off ebay, infact i think I made a 30 dollar profit. But I mostly buy Puppets off ebay..... each one ranging from $250 (a small old pro Puppet) to $560 and thorugh the the ebay transactions I have gotten pro builders who occasionally I order customs from usually ranging $500 and up. But I rely on ebay for my puppet collection. :smile:
 

Keeermit

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Well I have sold quite a few puppets on Ebay over the past few years, and i can say its not really something i can rely on to get enough money to survive on. The general idea of an auction is to get items cheaper than usually sold elsewhere - and the same goes for Ebay, my puppets usually go for alot less on ebay than what i would charge if it was designed especially for a client. Sometimes I sell my old puppets on ebay for some extra cash or sometimes I try and design a new stlye/character puppet and sell the prototype on ebay. I have two puppets on ebay at the moment - check them out one is a red head lady puppet and the other is a green monster called "Nud". Ebay is a great place to buy a good quality cheap puppet.
 

Fozzie Bear

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ravagefrackle said:
they certainly dont, but i think u are totally undercutting your price man, i dont think i have seen any of your work, but i really think u are charge way to little, just my opinion though.
Your opinion counts! :smile:

www.picturetrail.com/muleythemule you can find photos of Muley. Don't think I have any other puppets up there, except maybe in the Portfolio section where I posted stuff which I DON'T own, but have either made for someone else or myself (I made ME :smile: a Mahna-Mahna because--well, I wanted one!! :crazy: And a Slimer as a prop/puppet, too.)

I don't have any other characters there but Muley because he's the main one folks are interested in. Versions 2.5 and 3.0 are on that site of the puppet.
 

Fozzie Bear

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gfarkwort said:
I've sold one Puppet on ebay that I bought off ebay, infact i think I made a 30 dollar profit. But I mostly buy Puppets off ebay..... each one ranging from $250 (a small old pro Puppet) to $560 and thorugh the the ebay transactions I have gotten pro builders who occasionally I order customs from usually ranging $500 and up. But I rely on ebay for my puppet collection. :smile:
Further proving what Ravage says about me undercharging. Wow. Man, I've been CHEATING myself SOOOO badly!!

I do charge $10.75/hour outside of the puppet construction to go get the materials, design and develop the puppets. The buyer buys the materials, also, so there's no money out of my pocket or time wasted.
 

ravagefrackle

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dude you are charging way to little for your time and effort, thats were all the reall work is.i think u need to look at increasing your price. $10.75 is almost nothing i was making that as a manager at a deli when i was in college.and when you are selling a one of a kind piece of art work you have the right to set your price, granted i do some projects at a lower rate at times , sometimes for fun, sometimes out of nessectity, but for the most part i stick to my guns about my rate , and how valuble my time is.
 
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