How much!?

[Bernie]

Leather workers here might be surprised (as I was) to see what you can charge £94 for.

6222

Source: http://www.hardgraft.com/products/bifoldwallet-heritage

Maybe I'm underestimating the work involved, or the cost in shipping it from Italy where it's "hand made". I've seen much better workmanship from people on this forum.

Am I just out of touch, or is £94 excessive for a wallet?

[biker-bri]

I've got begger all to put in one so I wouldn't know, but I do know that Italian leather is first-class.
Cheers Bri

[Chubbs]

I remember a while back when JEEP mentioned the site http://www.etsy.com/. There are some great handmade products on the site including lots of leather work.

I think that most sites we visit have products that are way overpriced, including the above.

[JonnyP]

Hand made products are expensive compared to run of the mill, made in China etc items.
The most I can sell my spoons for is £15. They take me between two to four hours to complete, but some people do not want to spend £15 on a spoon when they can buy four for £1 in Ikea. Imagine if I wanted say £15 pr hour for making my spoons.
If that wallet was hand stitched then the maker, importer and seller all need to make something on it.

[BJ]

Leather workers here might be surprised (as I was) to see what you can charge £94 for.

6222

Source: http://www.hardgraft.com/products/bifoldwallet-heritage

Maybe I'm underestimating the work involved, or the cost in shipping it from Italy where it's "hand made". I've seen much better workmanship from people on this forum.

Am I just out of touch, or is £94 excessive for a wallet?

I agree, some of the leather craft posted on here is unique hand made and far beyond a lot of the commercially produced articles.
BJ

[paulthefish2009]

Got to say I don't think that wallet is that nice to be honest,as for the price,no thanks! Paul

[Humakt]

I agree with the points JonnyP has made.
It's all to do with time and labour. Even though I suspect that the wallet has been machine stitched.

If you are making these things as a hobby or supplementary income, then the prices reflect that. If you are making them to support yourself and family then prices go up.

I could make a leather sheath for a Mora Clipper; and all labour (that is, not including 'drying times'), all told would probably be no more than two hours. Parts (ie. leather, thread, dye, fittings, etc) would not be more than a couple of quid. But what about labour? If I am doing this for a livelihood then I have to charge at least £15 per hour. And that's a bare minimum. That means, that hand-made, leather Mora sheath will cost you AT LEAST £35 (in actual fact, I'd really need to charge you nearer £50 for it). Does that sound good to you? The sheath will cost nearly three times the amount of the actual knife. And that's for just a plain sheath - no decoration. If you do a quick Google search you will find that you can get a leather Mora sheath for as little as £15. I couldn't make one, and sell it at that price, and make a living from it. I could do it at that price if I am doing it as a hobby, and I'd still make a reasonable profit. But not as a commercial operation.
So that's why it costs that much. Although £94 is probably over egging the pudding a little - I think there must be an element of prestige pricing in that. But still, the cost for a genuinely hand-crafted item, where the maker is trying to provide a livelihood for themselves, is far higher than the price most would value the item, giving the ready availability of mass-produced items and the prices we are used to seeing attached to them.

[Realearner]

Got to agree with jonnyp here, I tinker a lot with rustic furniture and other bits, normally give it away or just a few quid. But if I sold it as a living then working out prices with even a low hourly rate of £10.00 and adding more for timber finish electricity, rent rates etc etc the cost of a small coffee table would end up in the region of £500.00.
With today mass produced products at cheap prices you get laughed at, as I can get one of those for £100.00.
Difference is one off and not mass produced.

[David_JAFO]

hello,
Have a browse at this website.
http://www.a-finlay-primitive-crafts.co.uk/home.html
Regards
David

[mr.punch]

You can pay more for that sort of stuff with a designer logo and still have a made in China sticker on it so make shure it is truly hand made in Italy
I have seen them for £200+ just for a name on them.
No wonder there are original conterfiets for them

[Mountain Goat]

surely it makes more sense to keep your £95 in your pocket and spend it on something worthwhile... or am I just different?

[jpgrilo]

On etsy they have a tutorial where give an example how a maker should create a price for an item. The formulas is something like this

To calculate the price of an item, you start from calculating the wholesale price

Materials + Labor + Expenses + Profit = Wholesale price.

The retail price should be = 2x Wholesale.

To using the example of the Mora sheath. If you spend 2 hours at a rate of £15 per hour and another 5£ on leather and other materials the wholesale price is 35£ but the price that should be sold to the end client is 70£ ?!?!?!?

For me, the most difficult in the leatherworking business is defining the price, because i know that normally this equation adequate to the item but i also now as a client it tends to be too high and most of the client cannot afford it.

[snowleopard]

Cheap wallets are alright, after all they just need to be secure, but 94 quid for that wallet, never!!