How Should I Price My Crochet Work?

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I am sure that people hear this a lot “How Do I Price My Crochet Work?” There have been a lot of blog posts regarding this dilemma. There were a lot of good blog posts about how to price, but a lot of them were pricing in a range that I knew I couldn’t realistically get. So, how can I get a more realistic price for myself and the consumer?

I just wanted to let you know how, and what, I would price for my crochet work. I get asked a lot about how much I would charge for my crochet dogs, but I always tell the people that I don’t sell my crochet work. My love is teaching and crochet designing, but I used to sell before I started my YouTube channel.

From my personal experience, I will tell you how much I would charge for my Crochet work if I were to sell it now. The Large Crochet Siberian Husky Dogs that you see in the pictures above were donated to the Puppy Love 5k fundraiser, and people bought raffle tickets to win the gift baskets. The money was used for the Helen Woodward Animal Center. I received this email from the Animal Center, and they were asking if I was interested in crocheting the dogs for the person asking to buy the crochet dogs:

This is what the person wrote to the Animal Center:

“I enjoyed seeing the beautiful baskets at the puppy love five k and getting raffle tickets.

If I wasn’t the lucky winner of one of those Siberian husky crocheted dogs how could I get two?

I have a reddish brown husky and a black and white husky.

Does the woman who made these for your event make and sell even if the money went to your center would be nice?

How can I get in touch?”

I responded that I don’t sell my crochet dogs, but she could visit my YouTube channel or Ravelry for the written pattern and maybe commission a crocheter to make one for her.

So, what if I were to sell my Crochet Large Siberian Husky Dog to her? What would I price my crochet large Siberian Husky Dog for?

If I were guestimating:

The first thing I would do is look up the retail price of a similar Large Siberian Husky Dog plush animal online. This is the approximate price that I found: $50

2. Since my crochet Siberian Husky Dog is unique, and the colors can be personalized, I would negotiate a price. I would let the person know that this style of dog goes for approximately $50 online. This person wants 2 dogs so my price would be at least $100 for 2. Since the dogs that I am making are handmade, and in the colors that the person wants, I would add an additional cost. I would negotiate a price between $120-$150 for 2 Large Custom Crochet Siberian Husky Dogs. Any pet outfits would be an additional price, or the person can purchase their own.

You may also like this post by the American Crochet Association.

The American Crochet Association discusses how to price your crochet work. However, they still use the standard “Suggested Selling Cost.”

I made a Free PDF Product Pricing Worksheet for you to download

Helenmay Crochet Product Pricing Worksheet

This sheet can help you to determine a fair price for you and your customer. There are a lot of price suggesting sites out there, but I have a few additional recommendations of my own. On my worksheet, I still left the “Suggested Selling Cost” which has the formula that most other sites recommend that you sell your products for. It is a useful guide. However, they come up with a price of $468, which I know is the real worth of my Crochet dogs, but I don’t live around a lot of wealthy people that can spend that much on a yarn dog. So, I will show you how I came up with a more realistic price. I am going to use my Crochet Large Siberian Husky Dog as an example. I will show you how I used my worksheet to decide on a price for my crochet dog.

Optional: Place a picture of the crochet product in the top right corner of the worksheet.
Item: Crochet
Description: Crochet Large Siberian Husky Dog
Labor Costs: Skip this for now, unless you are firm on an hourly rate.
Material Costs: I placed all the materials I used here and my total was $20
Miscellaneous Costs: Collar, nametag, pet outfit, jewelry pin total $40
Totals: Add the Material Costs and Miscellaneous costs= $60. Next, find 1st internet equivalent price= No equivalent crochet large Siberian Husky Dogs to compare (None on Etsy and None on Amazon Handmade). 2nd internet equivalent price= Large Siberian Husky Dog plush $67.31 ergode http://www.houzz.com without collar or pet outfit. 3rd internet price= Amazon prime Toysource Large Siberian Husky Dog Plush $89.99. So, with this internet information. I am going to pick the higher price $90. Take $90 and subtract your material cost $20= $70 is your labor cost.
Go back to labor cost and put in $70 for estimated labor cost.
Total Production Cost= labor cost $70 + Material Cost $20 + Misc Cost $40= $130
Go to Suggested Selling Cost and fill out the blanks to come up with a price:

Production cost= labor $70 + Materials $20 + Misc $40= $130
Wholesale cost= $260
Retail Cost=$520

Now you have a price range to sell your crochet Large Siberian Husky Dog between $130-$520.

You can get price comparisons on Etsy and Amazon Handmade.

I put Crochet Baby Blanket in the Amazon Handmade search, and there was a price range between $50-$90. Depending on how easy-complicated your crochet baby blanket could fall between that price range, and possibly even higher (if the skill level was high).

Well, I hope that helps. Please comment on this blog post, if you have any other advice for people trying to sell their crochet work.