Hi all,
Now that 18 is over just wondering if your sales were generally up or down. I have heard from some there sales were way off. Also, how about hot items? My biggie is hybrid mills. Then, ring and earring boxes. (hybrid) My low end sales include bottle stoppers (resin) and this year added wood spatulas. I sold the heck out of spatulas and next was bottle stoppers. These low cost items really add up and usually pays my fee. Wood bowls are real slow. My year was up.
Cheers to all,
Lee                            

I'm fortunate in that I have decent retail space in a high end gift shop in the right part of town. I sell pepper mills and cutting boards of various shapes and sizes.  Generally, sales are pretty good throughout the year with summer and end of year holiday seasons being the highest. Initially, sales were off slightly in late summer from last year but I think that was due to in large part due to the aftermath of hurricane Florence. Christmas shopping season started off pretty slow and caused me some concern as it is the best time of the year for me. That was short lived however and sales went through the roof. According to my wife who keeps track of the inventory and finances, I sold a total of 106 pepper mills and 225 cutting boards, ranging from small cheese boards to large end grain boards throughout the year. That worked out to a 15% overall increase over 2017. What started out as a way to make a few extra $$ has almost turned into a full time job.

My sales on the 2 big art shows I do were down this year, but one of them had a bad weather weekend so I blame that.  The one with bad weather had about half the sales of previous years and then I add in repair expenses to damage to the booth tent.

I did do a small show and sold nothing but ornaments and miniature bird houses.  It was a 6 to 1 ratio (brought in $6 for every dollar of registration cost)  The bigger shows were closer to a 3 to 1 ratio.  Of course that doesn't take into consideration other expenses.

I did 4 shows in 2018.  The first 2 were bad i made just enough to cover my booth.  The one in October and December were good.  October i sold a couple $100+ pieces and alot for under $30.  Same for December.  I made about the same for both shows October had alot of traffic.  December was about half the traffic but the location was in a higher income town.  My Etsy sales were up by $200 over 2017 sales.

Don, the trick is to turn it fast. You can make money on them if you figure your time and cut it down to a minimum.

Depending on a lot of factors, i.e. geography, time of year,
weather, crowd size, etc etc it seems there is a wide variation in what friends tell me dollar wise is a good day.

When I do a show whether its 1 day or a day and half, I expect to bring in $1500-2500. If it's less than that generally it's not worth my time and effort. I only do craft type shows because there are no art shows in our driving area.

Not sure how that compares to others but some friends seem to be happy with $5-600 for a day to day and a half show.

Dave, that is good to hear. What do you find is producing the sales in your area?

It would be nice and informative to other members, if you people that sell at your items could post some photos.
It might be helpful to see what types of items and what quality of work actually sells.
Thank you