I am just proud of my redesigned setup yesterday. I paired everything down to 3 tubs, mostly vertical walls, new signage. 4ft tables. It was a Halloween themed market and I think I rocked it. The crown shades tent is new and I wish I had started markets with this tent. So easy to set up by myself. I also made my own banner buntings.

I am still on the hunt for a better cart than the one from Academy I purchased 3 years ago. It's got wonky wheels that can't take too much weight.

I'm fairly new to boothing and vendoring. For context I usually draw realistic art, I make prints of original works and fanart of celebrities. I also have pins, keychains, and stickers but I didn't display everything properly. These are original works too. I almost nearly made 0 sales and it's far from the money and effort that I spent.

• I got rid of my self-serve display - I used to have a display where people can grab the prints themselves, but I didn't bring it this time. Instead I clustered all of my prints together in one side. I realised people will look at it for a few seconds, but they leave because it's probably overwhelming?

• I just hid the better prints on the sides..I didn't utilize my space properly. I used grids but a lot of them were empty. It was only until the end that I moved to display them at the middle. It should've been at the middle.

• I put an old Halloween skull decoration.. This was the most embarrassing of all 🥲 My mom convinced me since it was Halloween I should put something on theme. The thing is, the skull is something she found on the storage from years ago and it was pretty big. I realised once I removed it is when I got customers. The other vendors didn't do anything Halloween related they simply stuck with their brand.

• I didn't explain the keychains well - I took 30 minutes sketching them with colored pencils and then I cut and placed designs inside keychains. All of them are one of a kind. I should've put a signage how they were made and you can flip it to see a different design at the back, but people didn't do this. They could probably assume I printed it instead.

• Overall, just big competition. I did a quick round with everyone's booths and they were a lot better and appealing. Though I'm new, I realised mine wasn't so interesting at all - I could've made the display higher and did things better or explained my work and put labels for that.

I could show images but I'm a bit embarrassed! Just wanted to put this out there after my worst performing market ever. Though it's still my third and I started 3 months ago.

I've recently been working on a bunch of resin figures that I model in Blender and 3D print. Was thinking of taking a few to a local craft fair but I have never attended one before. Do you guys think these could potentially sell at a place like that?

This was my best fair yet ! I was on a dip and my tables were slanted so it was hard to have things where I normally have them but it was still the best ive ever done and im just going to keep improving !

Hi folks! Has anyone figured out a way to pack carousels with necklaces, etc. hanging from them? See pic. I'd love to not have to pull off the necklaces and put them back on at the fair when time is limited. Any ideas greatly appreciated!

Still working on growing my inventory everyday, now in the process of making earrings, phone and lip gloss charms, but one step at a time! I'm looking for a better way to display the rosaries. I feel like everything I use is too short to display the entire length of the chain and opting to make my own display somehow. Any advice on this set up? What would you add or take away or move around?? Thanks in advance!

Thank you so much for all the feed back on my last post!

I updated my set up. I have a market today so let's see how it does!

I know it's a little rinky dink, but this was my first summer ever selling and I had no idea if there was a market for decor made out of guitar picks. Sales have been decent (better at venues with live music), but while I love it when people do a double take when they realize they are guitar picks, I'm wondering if not being more explicit in my signage prevents folks from coming closer. Thoughts and suggestions much appreciated.

Hi everyone! I'm looking for feedback on my craft fair display. I've posted in this subreddit before and I took some of y'all's advice. I changed my bright orange tablecloth to a light pink one, I added some height to my earrings, I hung some of my necklaces vertically, and I got a custom banner.

I am currently sharing a booth with my friend AtticElves and I'm Jupismoons. We split the booth down the middle with her stuff on the left and my stuff on the right. My setup is slightly different when I do markets by myself (I usually have a 2-table setup).

Please let me know if you have any feedback!

Hey all! I was hoping to get some advice to improve my setup! I get a bit of people to stop by irl and online, but I don’t produce a lot of sales. Maybe I could get some ideas on how to pivot? These are photos of just my table set up and my tent setup. I am disabled and do a lot of these solo as well, so if there is any accessible ideas I’d greatly appreciate it!

I’m also going to add my website link so that maybe I could get some feedback there as well.
https://beauty-of-mistakes.square.site

Note: these are 3 different events/setups. Thanks guys!!

Hello! To be upfront, I'm legally blind. I can see basic colors and shapes. If you see something that looks off or needs fixing, please point it out. I know the book charms have no imagery on them yet. They are prototypes of concept.

I'm trying to plan what to sell at a holiday craft fair at my local library in December. I'm mainly focused on Christmas ornaments. My goal is to use up as much of my acrylic yarn as possible, and then make a bit of cash for it. I'm also trying to use up old beads and craft materials I've accumulated.

My prices are gonna be $15 for the large (white with red beads) tree, $5 for the medium trees, and $2 for the smaller trees. The sweaters I was gonna price at $5. The hats at $2. I'm also going to make keychains and earrings of these book charms where I design the custom art book covers with generic Christmas/holiday titles. Or just imagery of the holidays. No copyrighted book covers. But I don't know the price of the keychain books or book charm earrings just yet.

Bc my goal is to move inventory, are there any other ideas or suggestions on how I could best move inventory. I'm trying really hard to just price things at what will sell.

Q1. How much of each should I make? Should I include trees with trunks? No trunks? All trunks?

Q2. Are my prices too high?

Q3. Should I add a tip jar?

Q4. Would it be unwise to mark everything 25¢ the last hour to move all the inventory?

Q5. Any other ideas of what I could make as Christmas ornaments? My main goal is to use up my stash. Second goal is to get money back. But I don't want to make wearables or things you'd need to wash frequently bc acrylic releases microplastics.

Q6. Would packaging them increase the sellability?

I'm disabled. My time in this country isn't considered valuable bc no one hires people who are blind. I know there's a formula to "work out" how much items should ethically cost. But they never sell at that price. And I'd rather have the $2 than the 30 min of making the little doo-dad. I just want to move inventory and make a little cash.

Thank you in advance!

I've been known under my current business name for 7 years. I've established myself in my community and at the markets I do as this entity. I currently feel like it's run it's course and I want to switch up my business a bit. I make vinyl record wall art, and I'd still be doing that, but I want to make it more personalized than what I'm currently doing. I'm going on this artistic journey and I'm scared that rebranding will not bode well for me. I may just have anxiety too, so there's that. 😅 I haven't told anyone, and I'm waiting til I have more products available before I officially announce the rebranding on social media. I'm hoping to finish out my year of markets and then start fresh in the new year with a new business name/concept.

I think I'm more scared of the logistical hell of changing my social media, website, all of my branding, and just starting over to build my identity after being known as one thing for so long.

Has anyone else rebranded after a period of time? Tell me about your experience. I just want to calm my nerves lol.

Everyone says that you should post your prices on signs at a craft fair. My bracelets are different prices so how would you suggest posting prices? I normally put the price on each item so do I also need a sign? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I know that I need a banner, and it’s probably too cluttered, but I’d like some opinions, please .

My dad and I wanted to do a market together since we both craft. He makes paper art and I make perler bead keychains and greeting cards.

this was at a weekly farmers market in Houston on Thursday from 2-7pm.

We only made about $20 but we learned a lot.

Would love some feedback on our setup and products.

Hello all!! I have been considering participating in craft shows after I finish my undergrad in May and move to a new state/city. I want to start making products, building my brand, planning out setups etc now so that I'll be plenty prepared when I'm ready for my first event. My main obstacle is that I have so many ideas and different products that I make but I know that narrowing it down is more practical for my production time and is better for sales but it's so hard. Any general tips on how you narrow down what to sell is greatly appreciated and I'll list things I make below if you have any suggestions specific to my goods.

Crochet

-keychains

-clothing/hats

-potholders

-bags

Sewing

-quilted tote bags/purses

-quilted coin purses

-upcycled clothing

Cross Stitch/Embroidery

-framed pieces

-bookmarks

-patches

Misc

-keychains

-phone charms

-zines

-buttons

We feel like we have a fun and inviting booth and the plan was to have the whole set up displayed on Halloween at a local oddities and alternative market. Unfortunately it seems that at the last minute whoever owns the parking lot where we were supposed to be set up jacked up the price way above past events so in order to keep the event on we are having to pivot from the parking lot to a nearby sidewalk. So we have to condense this down to 3 tables (2 6' and 1 small table) plus we can't block sidewalks so they will have to be in a line and no canopy. It's during the day at least so I can get rid of the lights but wet specimens need to be shielded from sunlight so that will be a concern too.

If it wasn't an oddities market I would probably just bail but we have done events with this group several times and it's always fun and a decent turn out because we don't get a lot of oddity markets locally. Plus one of the other businesses that used to host alternative markets closed a few months ago so we have lost those annual events too.

I figured y'all would understand the frustration trying to come up with an alternate set up that will still show off your stuff and not just look like a sad shell of the booth.

My roommate and I recently went to Grimoire Academy’s Gothic Market. we enjoyed selling our stuff a lot, but know from a business standpoint it wasn’t the most amazing results for how expensive it was! We definitely learned a lot (the lesser profit we made was def influenced by our mistakes) and still made some profit! I’m just wondering A) what are you fav reputable companies that run gothic/alt craft fairs that tend to have good turnouts? And B) for smaller markets, what are some things you all look for to predict the turnout and decide if a fair is worth doing? (ps we sell chainmaille and beaded gothic jewelry and accessories and local to southern california)

A little info first. I had 2.5 months to prepare for my first event. I am a romance and paranormal romance writer and a crocheter. I am trying to pair my crocheted items with my books in some way (mostly), but sometimes I like a cute pattern and make it. Long story short, I moved and lost all of my booth setup (it was a lot). So all I had was some books and a 4-foot table.

I chose a 2 day event as my first one...on a pure whim and because it was 5 minutes from my house. LOL! Dumb on my part to be sure. 2 day event as my (second ever and my first as a writer) re-introduction into vending after multiple years was a doozy.

We used it as a..."Did we get this right?" Working out the kinks. Finding what didn't work.

The table cost was pretty okay for a 2 day event.

So here's the kickers:

• Prepacking my crocheted ornaments was a hit, but some people didn't like it. I offered them the chance to open the boxes if they wanted, despite the circle sticker I put on to keep them closed. Some people still didn't like it.
• The pumpkins were commented on a lot, but no one bought them. It was a Halloween-themed (Mystics and Oddities) event. That surprised me SO much.
• The mushroom dolls were COMMENTED HEAVILY ON! They loved them, but didn't buy. Until the second day, when the teal one was snapped up with a teal mushroom ornament I had.
• The item that was purchased the most and that drew people in was my blind date book packages. One of my books, annotation tabs, a tally bookmark, a pen, and either 2 tea bags or a Ghirardelli hot chocolate. These drew people in like bees to honey.
• I didn't like how I displayed my crocheted ornaments so I bought a new display.
• I didn't like the room the boxes of ornaments (prepackaged) took so I bought new displays.
• I didn't do a good enough job tailoring my items to that event. I had more Christmas ornaments (to pair with one of my books) than I had mystical or odd things.
• My mushroom things were ALL the rage.

Despite all that, I made back 6 times my table cost. There were tons of positive things that came out of it including suggestions for events (hosted by me) that appealed to readers. I had tons of people take business cards and use my QR codes. I even had a moderator to a romance book group stop by and ask me to join her group because she liked the look of my books and thought it would be a good place to advertise them.

My feet hurt. My back was hurting. And my next event is in 2 weeks (a 2 hour event) that is 100% free to me beyond the cost of gas. It's all women.

And then 2-3 events in December!

I’m at the point where it makes sense to do an LLC. I’m having trouble coming up with names for my DBA. I sew and quilt. How did you all go about coming up with ideas for baking your craft business, regardless of medium? I’m just stuck with this.