Cheap quilts on Etsy and Ebay???
01-18-2014, 12:25 PM
#13
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: A Hop from Heaven, a Skip from Sanity and a Jump from the Good Life....
Posts: 6,665
I have a different take on it. If you're not making quilts as a business, you are probably doing it because you enjoy the process. Once a quilt is finished, the money for fabric has been spent and the time you spent making it is gone, never to be recovered. It would be nice to be able to sell the quilt for what you have invested, but it's rarely possible to do so. After all, if everyone could get paid a reasonable wage for indulging in their hobby, how many people would have outside jobs? When a quilt is finished, you may decide that you would rather have a little money (to pay rent, buy food, pay for insurance, help out a relative, donate to charity, buy more fabric... whatever) than keep the quilt. You're not really selling your quilt-making services, as you would be doing if you were making a quilt on consignment. Instead you're exchanging an already-made quilt for some money. It may not be a good deal from a business sense - but you still may feel that you're better off with the money than with the quilt. I don't think it cheapens your labor, which you actually spent doing something you loved. And I don't fault people who don't see the value we do in quilts. It's our hobby and obsession, not theirs.
Exactly....
01-18-2014, 12:26 PM
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Vermont
Posts: 7,013
I am one who makes quilts out of fabric that I got for free or very cheap. For years I had a big inventory of new and antique quilts that I sold at "high" prices. Now I am looking at downsizing from a house to an apt and want to get rid of things, so I am marking them down until they sell. Sorry if I am stepping on someone's toes but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Anyone who feels they are underpriced, feel free to buy them and mark them up for resale!! LOL!!
01-18-2014, 02:31 PM
#15
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 957
I have a different take on it. If you're not making quilts as a business, you are probably doing it because you enjoy the process. Once a quilt is finished, the money for fabric has been spent and the time you spent making it is gone, never to be recovered. It would be nice to be able to sell the quilt for what you have invested, but it's rarely possible to do so. After all, if everyone could get paid a reasonable wage for indulging in their hobby, how many people would have outside jobs? When a quilt is finished, you may decide that you would rather have a little money (to pay rent, buy food, pay for insurance, help out a relative, donate to charity, buy more fabric... whatever) than keep the quilt. You're not really selling your quilt-making services, as you would be doing if you were making a quilt on consignment. Instead you're exchanging an already-made quilt for some money. It may not be a good deal from a business sense - but you still may feel that you're better off with the money than with the quilt. I don't think it cheapens your labor, which you actually spent doing something you loved. And I don't fault people who don't see the value we do in quilts. It's our hobby and obsession, not theirs.
margee
01-18-2014, 02:34 PM
#16
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: western NY formerly MN, FL, NC, SC
Posts: 51,430
when i first started 'crafting' [knitting, crocheting, quilting] many many years ago, i remember reading that it was difficult to sell what you make. most crafters only make about fifty cents an hour for their work was the advice that i read. inflation on that amount has not kept up with the rate of inflation on everything else. just as big box stores sell their wares for less than 'boutiques', so it goes with quilting. it's just the way it is.
01-18-2014, 02:55 PM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,783
I have a different take on it. If you're not making quilts as a business, you are probably doing it because you enjoy the process. Once a quilt is finished, the money for fabric has been spent and the time you spent making it is gone, never to be recovered. It would be nice to be able to sell the quilt for what you have invested, but it's rarely possible to do so. After all, if everyone could get paid a reasonable wage for indulging in their hobby, how many people would have outside jobs? When a quilt is finished, you may decide that you would rather have a little money (to pay rent, buy food, pay for insurance, help out a relative, donate to charity, buy more fabric... whatever) than keep the quilt. You're not really selling your quilt-making services, as you would be doing if you were making a quilt on consignment. Instead you're exchanging an already-made quilt for some money. It may not be a good deal from a business sense - but you still may feel that you're better off with the money than with the quilt. I don't think it cheapens your labor, which you actually spent doing something you loved. And I don't fault people who don't see the value we do in quilts. It's our hobby and obsession, not theirs.
01-18-2014, 04:21 PM
#18
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 764
i see your point dunster, and in the end i agree.
it's a much wider cultural distortion involving the combination of readily available materials, class and labour ethics. it still gets right up my nose off though, and even if they don't need/want the money they could charge more, creating a more fair market for hand made goods.
globally having the privilege to quilt makes us bourgeois, so first world problems right?
aileen
it's a much wider cultural distortion involving the combination of readily available materials, class and labour ethics. it still gets right up my nose off though, and even if they don't need/want the money they could charge more, creating a more fair market for hand made goods.
globally having the privilege to quilt makes us bourgeois, so first world problems right?
aileen
01-18-2014, 04:58 PM
#19
Power Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Southern California
Posts: 19,127
I have a different take on it. If you're not making quilts as a business, you are probably doing it because you enjoy the process. Once a quilt is finished, the money for fabric has been spent and the time you spent making it is gone, never to be recovered. It would be nice to be able to sell the quilt for what you have invested, but it's rarely possible to do so. After all, if everyone could get paid a reasonable wage for indulging in their hobby, how many people would have outside jobs? When a quilt is finished, you may decide that you would rather have a little money (to pay rent, buy food, pay for insurance, help out a relative, donate to charity, buy more fabric... whatever) than keep the quilt. You're not really selling your quilt-making services, as you would be doing if you were making a quilt on consignment. Instead you're exchanging an already-made quilt for some money. It may not be a good deal from a business sense - but you still may feel that you're better off with the money than with the quilt. I don't think it cheapens your labor, which you actually spent doing something you loved. And I don't fault people who don't see the value we do in quilts. It's our hobby and obsession, not theirs.
01-18-2014, 05:42 PM
#20
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Spanish Fort, AL (on the AL Gulf Coast)
Posts: 236
I bought a "handmade" quilt off of eBay - once. When I got it, you could see where the person cut off the tags that come on bedspreads and quilts. Learned my lesson - never again.
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