Selling prints at Fairs

[egwardo]

Havent started my own topic before so thought i would give it a go.

I have just signed up to do a few craft fairs over the coming months selling my prints and wondered what experiences of this kind of thing people have had.

i have got some easels to display framed work and some art racks to display mounted prints, purchased some brown paper bags to put the frames in when sold and have my business cards ready. I also have stand, gazibo, table clothe, money box and float (cash) sorted. But as always expect i have forgotten something.

And as always welcome any suggestions.

[Chris Humphreys]

Good on you for giving it a try, it's something I've considered doing in the past. Sounds like you have everything covered. Are you going to offer framing? Though I guess this would only appeal to local buyers and would probably be more hassle than it's worth for you.

Out of interest, what's the going rate for a stall?

Have you got your banter ready? I reckon the Del boy look would work well.

Just a hunch, but I would imagine you will sell a lot of one particular print, there's always one that appeals the most. The trick is to work out which it is and have more copies of it available. You'll also need to push the prints that aren't selling so well toward the end of each day.

Let us know how you get on.

Chris

[egwardo]

i will be taking a few framed prints with me and if there are any that people want that i havent got framed i will let them contact me through the website as i have business cards and deliver the prints if they are locals.

i was sitting down last night trying to work out which would be the top sellers as i think people will be most interested in the pictures that are more local but hopelfully the first event will allow me to gage this for later events.

banter is load in both barrells

different events are priced differently but seems about £15-£25 for a 6 hour day so alot cheaper that gallery space.

[Chris Humphreys]

That's good value, the only downside is the initial outlay on prints, but I guess it all adds to your 'stock' for future events. Good luck!

[Rosie]

Exciting stuff! Would love to hear how you get on - people love the local beauty spots. It's good to have a mixture of framed prints and unframed as a lot of people like to put their ow stamp on the image with their choice of frame.

Good luck!

[DH59]

I tried a few last year and they were fairly disappointing. Could have been the venue (the organiser has now deleted it from his list), but I didn't even make the stand fee back, let alone all the investment in mountboard and frames and cardstock and table cloths, etc.

I will try a couple more this year, and perhaps one or two with a different organiser, and see how it goes. I can't invest a lot of money into this, being unemployed at present, but I need to generate an income somehow, and thought that this route would be a good one, in addition to stock photography and setting up to do portraits, etc.

One thing I would advise, if you haven't done already, is to make sure your mounted (unframed) prints are a standard size. I lost a sale to another photographer at one fair, as my mounts were not a standard size for the customer to buy a ready-made frame to fit it.

It's very difficult trying to decide which images will sell. I gathered the opinions of a few friends before creating the greetings cards and mounting the prints. You will probably be safe with local scenes. Although I took along a laptop with a slideshow playing and one bloke liked a photo from a completely different part of the UK that I hadn't thought to mount or make into a card, so you never know.

[Pitmatic]

I think thats very sound adive to make sure your maunted prints are standard frame sizes and if your unsure go to a couple of shops and see what sizes of frames they do that will give you an idea.

Do let us know how you get on.

[egwardo]

this is a very valid point that i realised the other day as i bought 70 A3 mounts and printed and bagged these then realised when in a shop this isnt a hugely popular frame size so i will change next time i order.

but i am hoping that people who wish to frame there own prints will realise that a large number of frames come with their own mount now and A3 frames are available just less common,we will have to see as i cant afford at the moment to re-mount them.

[dirksmith]

Good Luck. I had a stall just before christmas on the weekend that the really bad weather hit so there weren't many people able to make it unfortunately. Even some of the stall holder who paid £40 didn't make it.

A couple of tips I picked up from the weekend were to have some low cost items to make back the cost of your fee for the day. Maybe postcards of your prints for £1 or £1.50 with your details printed on the back so they remember who you are. You can get them done at moo.co.uk or photobox.co.uk or the like. Photobox have 2 for 1 offers on quite often which makes them better value than the standard cost. Moo allow diiferent images on each postcard and printing on the back as well.

Keyrings with your images and details are another low cost or even giveaway item. I know someone who go's to lots of fairs and gets all the free keyrings he can and replaces the images with his own to give away to his customers.

Another thing is lighting. You need to show off your prints to their best advantage so I would enquire with the venue if there is sockets close by so you can have a few little lights to brighten things up.

I talked to people and gave them my card and a leaflet but there's no way of knowing if they are ever going to get in touch. With that in mind I would maybe have a form on hand that customers can fill in with their name and email address/phone number so you can follow them up with offers etc. You could even have a prize draw of one of your prints for people who complete the form. Have a data protection statement on the form.

Another things to consider is the option to pay by debit or credit card. Although your prints aren't a huge outlay a lot of people don't carry cash around (me for example) and pay for everything by card. You could potentially lose a lot of business by not having this facility. There are different options available but some are costly to set up and also a cost per transaction. You could have a paypal account on your website which you could log into from an ipad or laptop them customers could tap in their pin and complete the transaction (as long as there is an internet signal and also electricity available).

Regards

Dirk

[egwardo]

thanks for your reply, i was looking to do postcards but couldnt find a supplier i was happy with but that moo website looks good.

there is no power available but hopefully the weather will be good and there will be lots of natural light to show my images off.

People can buy prints through my website with paypal and i have business cards so they know were to go, also i will say to those that are local that they can contact me through my website to get the iamges without the postage cost and i will deliver personally. Hopefully this will overcome the problem of those without cash, also the fair is a big local event with all stalls dealing in cash and there is alot of art stalls etc so hopefully the majority of people that may be interested in purchasing will have cash and i think last year they had a mobile cash machine on site.

[Rosie]

Moo.com are really good - I've just used them to get some personalised stickers done for my wedding invites.
But they also do things like business cards where you can upload a different photo to the back of each card. This is great
if potential customers like the look of one particular print, but don't necessarily committ to buying there and then. At least their fave image will be fresh in their minds and hopefully they buy it on your website instead.

Lots of things to think about! The best thing is to just get out there and give it a go and you'll soon learn what sells, what works and how you can improve.

[egwardo]

A while back I made a post about selling prints at a local fair and i said i would update on how it went.

Well the fair was today and i managed to sell 6 mounted prints and one framed print, the framed prints largely worked well to demonstrate my work and bring the crowds in and then the sales or interest was mainly around the mounted prints.

Although sale weren't hugely high i managed to make a small profit for the day which is always a good thing, but more importantly i generated alot of interest in my local area for my landscape work and at the same time was able to promote my portrait, wedding and corporate work all helping to raise my profile. Beyond the business benefits it was very up lifting to have so many people say nice things about my work, many people stopped just to look and admire my work which was wonderful it also allowed me to gauge how people percieved my work, which aspects of which pictures they liked and so on, which will help to inspire future trips out with the camera.

So all in all it was a long but successful day

[benjeev]

Good to hear that it went well egwardo, congrats! Thanks for starting the thread and for everyone's contributions too. Very interesting information.

[Rosie]

Nice one egwardo - glad you had a good response. Now you've got the experience you'll be able to go to future shows and
promote yourself better and provide the more popular mount sizes. Good luck for the next one!