Relationships with your consignors

I'm still waiting for my studio to cool down some before I worked on a few things, so I thought I would take a moment to write here.

If you are an artist or crafts-person, you should be well aware of consignors. If you are unfamiliar with what consigning means, I'll explain... Consigning is basically where you send a set number of items to an actual brick-n-mortar store and they sell the items for you. They take a percentage and give you the other percentage of when it sells. It's normally 40% to the store and 60% to you. In some circumstances it will be lower or possibly higher. I have never dealt with a consignor that is more than that percentage... unless they are just extremely popular.

For me consigning is somewhat of a hassle. Don't get me wrong, I like consigning with the people I have now, but I have had some bad experiences and sometimes I get nervous when someone new emails me and wants to consign. I much prefer wholesale now, though making 20 Tickles Goldfish at one time, can make you feel like an assembly line!

Make sure before you consign with anyone, that you know who you are dealing with. Don't just blindly send tons of stuff to someone that sent you consigning information through etsy. Do they have a website? If they have other people that are consigning with them, maybe try to get in touch with those people to see if their experience with this person is good. Most often though, you don't know who the people are and you just try to trust your instinct and go for it. Always read all the information that the consignor sends you... If they have a contract, don't just sign the contract and send them the items... read it carefully.

Sometimes consignors request "sample" items to see if you would fit in their store. Be sure you know the circumstances and their policy when you send "sample" items. Please let them know that your items are not free and that you would like them back if they decide not to carry that particular item. Some consignors will give away your items to charity or keep them for themselves if you don't tell them you want them back. (I had this happen to me) so be sure that you know the circumstances... Also, if you are with a consignor and they don't keep you up to date monthly with how things are going, ask for your stuff back. It's so annoying when you have to constantly contact the consignor to see what's up, or if things are selling. They should contact you by email or call you monthly and let you know how things are selling. If you have items that have been with the consignor for a year, ask for your stuff back. It probably won't sell if it's been there that long. Ask the consignor what is selling with them right now, and then you can decide if you want to continue or not... or you may just be wasting your time.

If you have friends that consign, ask them about their experiences... It's good to have mutual friends that you trust, that sell similar items, that know of people to consign with. Not everyone knows of other people, so just do you research and search around. Consignors have found me most of the time, but I have met some wonderful consignors on myspace believe it or not... Also etsy message boards are a good place to ask about consignors. Post a message there saying you'd like to consign and maybe someone will respond with some information.

When you do decide to consign... be sure and take a photograph of all the items you send the consignor. I usually take a photo the day I'm mailing out the items, and attach that photo with the inventory sheet and send them a copy, and place the other copy in my consignor folder. That way when you get a check at the end of the month, you can go through and make sure they have sent you the right amount.. and also be clear which items you need to send more of.