Sewing mamas!Calling all AmityMama's who like to sew! Do you make quilts, clothes, diapers, bags? Do you love to run your fingers through fiber? Can't get enough just sewing, but want to talk about it too? Come on in!
So what do you think about high fabric prices here? You know like when someone charges "ebay" prices (whatever that is) for HTF fabric.
IMO if you want "ebay" prices - go to the trouble and risk of selling on ebay. If you want to sell fabric as a community member - then act like a "community" and sell at fair prices.
OK like I said I am in a pissy mood today.
__________________
Alison - mom of
Brian 5/28/02
Ruby 6/2/04
Well I am in a fairly pissy moood today too, but this doesn't really bother me. In my opinion, people have the right to set their price at whatever they want and the rest of us have the choice to buy it or not. I also don't really care when someone buys something really cheap and marks it up to sell it here. It is really a hassle checking postage, getting $$, PM'ing everyone, going to the PO (or even typing in addresses and printing postage) etc. And I think it is totally fair for someone to make some money doing that.
So I see your pissy mood and raise you!
__________________
Nirinjan
Last edited by Niri : 07-13-2005 at 12:10 PM.
Reason: To get my emoticon working right.
on the occasional pissy day i grumble to myself about high prices here. but if it is not my fs post i usually don't let it bug me. i have the problem of undervaluing my stuff fs because i am worried someone will think my prices are too high. also i almost always post stuff PPD and loose money because of it but keep the prices lower because it looks like i am charging too much with the PPD.
__________________
~Amanda~
Wife to Jeremiah
Mama to Jocelyn, Tristan & Ethan
I would hope that if someone was interested in a fabric I had listed and they thought the price was too high, they would ask me if I could come down a bit on the price. I usually list it for what I paid. I'll admit that I did recently go through my stash and pull out the PRR and Munki that I knew would go for a higher price. I had made a purchase that I knew dh was going to balk at, so I wanted to raise a quick 'buffer' stash to ease his mind. I'll admit I never like Ebaying stuff. I always feel that here, if a mama is unhappy with what she got, we can work it out on a personal level rather than the uncomfortable working with a stranger thing.
SO, while I do pass up alot of fabric listed here because I can't or won't pay the price that is being asked....I don't really fault (most of) the mama's who list it. Most of us really don't want to part with any of our fabrics (I think) but know it is what can get us some money fast.
again, because I was in a pissy mood yesterday and they just SUCK! hahahah Hope you are feeling better soon!
I'm kind of on the fence on it. I can see both sides to this. I think the people who do that are avoiding ebay fees. OTOH, I can understand people wanting to get the best price, to earn money for their family, and not pay corporate Ebay and when they offer it here at one price, then there is no chance you'd be out bid.
Also, if the price is too much we have the choice to not be a taker and pass. If enough people do that, then the price will go down or it'll go to ebay.
Personally I can't let myself pay the high prices for fabric, no matter how much I love a print. I rarely pay over $5 a yard for a knit and wouldn't ever pay $8... just doesn't make it worth the cost of sewing the item since I'm sewing for the kids mostly.
I completely agree with you Allison. Not that you can't charge a "fair" price, but usually the "ebay" prices are at the high end of ebay. Yes, I have had some fabric sell well there and and some that simply does not. You never know what the price will be and to charge "ebay" prices is not really valid.
On the other hand, everyone has the right not to buy something here if the prices are too high. But ebay, you also have fees and time to take into account.
But you know what REALLY bothers me?? When you sell a piece of fabric to someone (not necessarily here, I sell fabric in other places too) that is kind of hard to get ahold of and then they turn around, triple the price and re-sell it within a week or two and brag about it. I try and price my fabric here like I would sell to a IRL friend. Fair, but I don't mark it up.
I pretty much try to sell at a fair price here, sometimes I even sell fabric here at my cost. If I want big $$ I put it on ebay. I try to balance it out like with the baby nay and sell most here at a small profit and then put a few yards up on ebay for a bigger profit.
There have been times that people have contacted me to buy something they know I have at a higher price. Still, a little less then ebay but they really want it and know they might not have a chance if I put it on ebay. Also there are times when I've offered to pay $20 on the board for a yard of htf and someone took me up on it. I honestly thought that was more fair then the people who wanted really high trade values.
I don't really care though how much other people ask for their fabric. I've bought $20 a yard munki sock monkey knit here on the board. It probably would have went for more on ebay. I guess I'm kind of torn. What's considered a fair price? If you paid $5 for a yard of fabric a couple years ago in a co-op and it's been selling on ebay for $30 a yard and you offer it on the board for $20 a yard is that a fair price? You're still making a big profit but also a community member is getting a chance to buy it at a below market price.
__________________
Kori,
Mom to Calvin 8, Nathan 6 & loving wife to Lance since '97
I agree Alison. I personally think to keep and foster the feeling of community here (which I really think we all need to really help feed right now w/so many people feeling hurt and left out of things) if your going to charge significantly more than you paid for it, you should just ebay it. This is just my opinion and it doesn't make me mad when I see someone up the price alot but I just think it goes against what I remember when I first started lurking on this board 2 yrs ago.
I remember awhile ago a specific member being jumped all over for this a year or so ago, here and at another board, and it just amazes me that it's now become the norm.
I don't know, I feel like I shouldn't be replying to this thread because I'm so afraid I'll hurt someone's feelings and it seems like we've had way too much of that recently on a board that I really love inspite of it's problems. I know I said on md that I don't feel like many of you "know" me but I really feel like I "know" so many of you and you've become my friends and I hate for my friends to be hurt
But you know what REALLY bothers me?? When you sell a piece of fabric to someone (not necessarily here, I sell fabric in other places too) that is kind of hard to get ahold of and then they turn around, triple the price and re-sell it within a week or two and brag about it. I try and price my fabric here like I would sell to a IRL friend. Fair, but I don't mark it up.
This kind of pisses me off too when it's obvious that someone is buying from you at a low price just to turn around and ebay it. I've worried someone may have thought that about me too though. There have been a couple times that I've bought too much here or something I thought I'd like from the pictures and didn't and put it on ebay (at a low starting price) and it's gone for much more then I paid. I DID NOT buy it with the intention of ebaying but it ended up in my "to sell" pile for whatever reason. I know that I'm not being greedy or trying to make money off people's kindness here because half the time when I buy something I don't like I just give it away, but people don't see that. They only see what happens here on the board or on ebay...unless you come to a party at my house, then you leave with lots of free fabric LOL.
I am of the good karma school when it comes to fabric sales. If you find it for a screaming deal, pass on the savings to the community. If you want to make money on it, ebay it to strangers. I guess I've been doing co ops for so long (5 yrs now) that I am used to just charging cost plus shipping to me LOL.
__________________
Terri
wahm to 5
Ashlyn , Ivy , Chloe , Indigo , and Finn
SIZE=1]unless you come to a party at my house, then you leave with lots of free fabric LOL.[/size]
Okay, I'm totally coming to visit you! How's tomorrow? I can be on a plane tonight. Maybe Suzanne will let me come and pick her blueberries while I'm there...
Well I am in a fairly pissy moood today too, but this doesn't really bother me. In my opinion, people have the right to set their price at whatever they want and the rest of us have the choice to buy it or not.
__________________
SAHM to Kathryn (11) and Lauren (8)
Okay, I'm totally coming to visit you! How's tomorrow? I can be on a plane tonight. Maybe Suzanne will let me come and pick her blueberries while I'm there...
LOL I was thinking the same thing! When is good for you, Kori?
Well...you know what they say...that when woman live or hang around together that they start cycling together. Is that it ladies??
That said, if prices are too high, I don't buy it, but people have the right to sell for whatever they wish, maybe they paid that much for it originally with shipping? Like what if I bought a yard of Munki fabric from Sewzanne's for $10 and paid $4 for shipping, and then saw that another Momma would *really* like this fabric, but Suzanne isn't carrying it anymore and though I like it, I wouldn't mind parting with it so I sell it for $14 for that one yard to just recoup my cost. I see that as fair.
But I also worry about people buying from me and reselling on eBay. I check that every now and then because I sold all that Baby Nay for $4.50/yd and some of those prints are going for much more now, and I guess I get suspicious.
I also like to play: "what goes around, comes around". I think I did this with Alison (warneral). She wanted something of mine that I knew I could sell for more then she wanted to pay, but I sold it for less because she had sold me something recently, that she too could have gotten more for. In that instance I knew that, in all the community spirit, one good turn deserves another.
Many times I will just eBay and not sell here, because I know people here expect low prices and at this second in my life I need the $$ to survive, so I generally eBay first those HTF prints.
And *then* what about when you do offer fabric for less expensive and it is the same people buying it all the time because they are on the forum all the time and those on dial up always seem to miss the good deals? (not that it effects me, because we have cable). I feel for those Mommas.
I don't even know why I am posting here except that I am avoiding packing, which I have to do, since moving is only 1+ weeks away. Can we say procrastination, oh, and that and, yes, I am readying to cycle too.
, Ivy 
, Chloe 
, Indigo 
, and Finn 
Maybe Suzanne will let me come and pick her blueberries while I'm there...
Can we say procrastination, oh, and that and, yes, I am readying to cycle too. 
Linear Mode
