Price tags are apparently a hotly debated topic among craft fair and market vendors.
Who knew? 😆
I recently posted an Instagram Reel showing how we display our necklaces in our market booth. I mentioned that while every single piece of jewelry we sell has a price tag, I generally tuck the tags behind or under the jewelry so they aren't immediately visible.
And people had opinions.
A few of the comments were along the lines of:
“If I can't see the price, I won't even look.”
“I won't ask how much something costs. I'll just move on.”
Others suggested that every piece should have its price prominently displayed so customers can immediately see how much everything costs.
I understand the argument.
In fact, I agree with part of it:
Everything in your booth should have a price.
But does every price tag need to be front-and-center?
For us, the answer is no.
Everything We Sell Is Priced
First, let me make this very clear because I think this got a little lost in the discussion:
Every single item in our booth has a price tag.
We're not intentionally hiding prices or making customers ask us how much something costs.
Our tags are simply inconspicuous.
They might be tucked behind a necklace, underneath a pendant, or flipped to the back of a ring display. A customer can easily pick up an item and find the price without asking us.
That's an important distinction.
I don't personally like the idea of having no prices at all and requiring customers to ask. I want someone to be able to browse our booth without feeling obligated to talk to us.
But I also don't want hundreds of little white price tags becoming part of our display. Nor do I want the added work and hassle of making sure prices are correct each week.
Why We Tuck Our Price Tags Away
Our jewelry display is big.
We carry a lot of inventory, and there's already plenty for your eye to take in: gemstone rings, sea glass jewelry, earrings, pendants, handmade chains, stacking rings and more.
Will and I work pretty hard to keep the booth looking organized and uncluttered despite the amount of jewelry we bring to markets.
Adding dozens—or realistically, hundreds—of outward-facing price tags creates more visual noise.
We want you to notice the jewelry first.
Not the tags.
So our compromise is pretty simple:
Price everything, but keep the tags discreet and easy to find.
That works for us.
Our Jewelry Is Meant to Be Touched
There's another big reason our system works.
Almost all of our jewelry is accessible.
It isn't locked in a glass case. You don't have to ask us to take something out so you can look at it.
We actually encourage customers to pick things up.
One of the first things you'll usually hear from Will or me when you enter our booth is something like:
“Feel free to touch anything, pick things up and try them on.”
That means a customer interested in a necklace can pick it up, look at the stone, feel the weight, check the length—and flip over the tag to see the price.
I also let customers know that I can put things back after they've tried them on, so they don't have to worry about putting items away in the right spot.
If we displayed our higher-end pieces behind glass or in locked cases, I'd feel very differently about price tags.
In that situation, I absolutely would want the prices prominently displayed because a customer shouldn't have to ask the vendor to unlock a case just to find out what something costs.
Accessibility matters.
Of course, putting everything out where customers can touch it comes with some risks, particularly when it comes to security.
That's a whole other blog post. 😆
For now, it's a risk we're willing to take because we like having an approachable, interactive booth.
We Talk to Our Customers
There's another important part of our selling style that doesn't really come across in a photo or quick Instagram Reel:
Will and I engage with pretty much everyone who enters our booth.
Not in a pushy, hovering-over-you-while-you-shop kind of way.
We greet people, give them a little information and let them know they're welcome to browse.
Depending on what catches someone's attention, they might hear:
- “Everything is handmade by us, and all of our jewelry is sterling silver.”
- “Feel free to pick things up and try them on.”
- “All of our sea glass is genuine and sourced from collectors around the world.”
- “A lot of our gemstones are sourced here in the Pacific Northwest.”
That last one can easily turn into a 15-minute rockhounding conversation. 😆
We'll also talk about how Will makes his chains, where we collect Oregon Sunstones, how we set our stones, where our sea glass comes from or how a particular piece was made.
We're not just filling silence.
We're helping customers understand what they're looking at.
Those conversations are one of the small details that can make a difference in a market day. I share more practical ideas in these tips for increasing sales at markets.
The Conversation Provides Context for the Price
This is particularly important when you're selling handmade work.
There's a huge difference between attaching a commercially made pendant onto a commercially made chain and constructing a piece of jewelry from sterling silver sheet, wire and a gemstone.
Our customers may not realize that when they first walk into the booth. In fact, they are often surprised that we actually make everything ourselves.
When we explain that our jewelry is made from sterling silver and fine silver, that our sea glass is genuine, that many of our gemstones are locally or ethically sourced, and that we actually fabricate our jewelry ourselves, it provides context.
They understand that they're not looking at inexpensive mass-produced jewelry.
They're looking at something someone actually made.
Sometimes from the raw materials all the way through to the finished piece.
And that matters when they turn over the price tag.
A $400 handmade sterling silver chain makes a lot more sense when you know that Will formed, soldered, shaped, finished and polished every single link himself.
Most customers aren't shocked by our prices once they understand what they're looking at.
And yes, we sell jewelry priced at $400 or more at farmers' markets. I’ve written more about selling expensive handmade items at a farmers market and why offering different price points matters.
We Know Who Our Customer Is
This is another lesson we've learned after years of selling in person:
Your booth doesn't need to appeal to every single person who walks through the market.
Ours certainly doesn't.
Our typical customer is someone who:
- Likes sterling silver.
- Appreciates handmade work.
- Cares about quality materials.
- Likes natural gemstones, genuine sea glass or Pacific Northwest stones.
- Is willing to spend more than they might on mass-produced jewelry.
We don't work in gold.
We don't use base metals.
We don't buy components and assemble them into jewelry.
And we're not trying to compete on price with booths that do.
There might be ten other jewelry vendors at a market with us.
That's okay.
We're not necessarily competing for exactly the same customer.
We're Not the Booth for Bargain Shoppers
And we're okay with that too.
We don't bargain.
We don't discount.
We don't run sales at markets.
Our price is our price.
If someone makes a particularly large purchase, I might throw in a pair of simple sterling silver studs, a nice polishing cloth or some other little extra as a thank-you.
But I'm not knocking $50 off a piece because someone asks. We aren't desperate for the sale.
Our prices reflect our materials, our labor, our overhead and the years we've spent learning our craft.
There will always be shoppers who think we're too expensive.
That's okay.
They aren't our customer.
And Sometimes People Misread the Price Anyway
Here's the funny part:
Even when an item is clearly tagged, customers sometimes see what they want to see.
Our necklace tags might have the chain length on one side and the price on the other.
So a 25-inch handmade sterling silver chain might say:
25"
on one side and:
$400
on the other.
Every once in a while, someone sees the 25-inch length and assumes the chain costs $25.
The same thing happens with rings. One side of the tag has the ring size. The other has the price.
And occasionally someone gets very excited about what they think is an unbelievably inexpensive piece of handmade sterling silver jewelry.
Until they flip the tag over. 😆
But here's the thing:
Someone expecting a substantial handmade sterling silver chain to cost $25 probably isn't our target customer anyway.
And that's okay too.
So, Should Your Prices Be Visible?
I don't think there's one right answer.
It depends on what you sell, how you display it and how your customers shop.
If your products are behind glass or otherwise inaccessible, I think visible prices are important.
If you sell inexpensive items where customers are making very quick purchasing decisions, prominently displayed prices may help.
If customers can't easily find a price without asking you, I'd rethink your system.
But if your merchandise is accessible, every item is individually priced, and customers can easily pick something up and find the price?
I don't think every tag necessarily needs to be facing outward.
For us, tucked-away price tags are a deliberate merchandising decision.
Our prices aren't hidden. They're simply not part of the display.
We want customers to see the jewelry first.
We want them to pick it up.
We want them to feel the weight of the silver, look closely at the stone, try it on and learn a little about how it was made.
And yes, we want them to be able to find the price without having to ask us.
After hundreds of days selling jewelry in person, we've found a balance that works for our booth.
If you're preparing for your own market, our vendor checklist for craft fairs and holiday markets can help you think through the details before you leave home.
And judging by the comments on Instagram, people will definitely have opinions about it. 😆