Selling Custom My Little Ponies

Custom My Little Ponies are very much like any other art field. You have a small market, heavy competition and you have only begun. Vincent Van Gogh only sold ONE painting during his life, months before he died and it sold for only 400 francs. So there's a little reality. I know, I know that boot to the head just hurt. I'm sorry I'll hold your hand for a moment.

You are not going to get rich making and selling custom My Little Ponies, unless you are like Damien Hirst. You will however get to a position where you can pay for your supplies and maybe a nice trip to Noodles and Company. Of course there are people who can sell a pony for hundreds of dollars apiece. These people are few and far between, usually only releasing a very small number of ponies a year. Also they have been doing it for a number of years, have their own marketing, travel the convention circuits and built their name up. I can guarantee you; it did not happen overnight.

My first custom pony (pictured) sold about two months after I started. I did it as a test run, I had no idea she would sell. I did not hype myself around the idea of making money. I only wanted to see if my work was good enough for public consumption. I put her on eBay and went to bed that night. The next morning someone in Italy clicked the "Buy it Now" button and scooped her up. I almost fainted.

Here's what I learned:

1. There is a buyer out there who likes what I did.
2. My work has potential and my little marketing works.
3. I found a base price that someone would pay for my work.
4. What mistakes did I make?

Since then I have expanded my marketing ring, done a few free swaps (to get my work out there), improved my custom pony skills and very slowly began upping the price on my work. I'm still learning new tricks and doing more aggressive work.

I don't care how good your marketing is, if you pony looks like poo no one will buy it. I've seen people who make customs practically beg for someone to buy their stuff even just for $10.00. Why are they having problems?

A few guesses I have are pretty simple.

1. Their product looks unfinished with jaggy painted lines and frizzy hair.
2. Their personal style is so unusual that they really need a niche market to find it.
3. No one knows who the heck they are.
4. Their eBay auction doesn't give me a compelling reason to actually buy it.

Unfinished craft anything is not going to do well for selling. Honestly people are willing to pay a little more for handmade crafted items that they can't find at Target. However they will only pay for that item if it looks like something that came out a higher end store. Your output is what really determines a sale. So yes that means you have to practice and put the time into it. I don't subscribe to the "natural talent idea" anyone can learn how to produce something beautiful in high quality. That's what you need to do, produce the highest quality art product you can with your skill set.

Radical personal styles are usually very cool but only to very few. Here you need to find your personal niche market. Odds are you may not reach that group easily on eBay or Etsy, as those sites are more for the general populace of surfers. You may want to consider using alternative methods for sales, perhaps a consignment agreement with an alternative clothing store or direct sales from your website. When you live in a different spectrum, you'll need to sell to that different spectrum in its environment. I know a customizer who does a lot of work towards Japanese anime/video game styled ponies. Her biggest sales come from anime conventions, she pounds her niche market. On occasion she hits the pop culture market with something more mainstream but the majority of her stuff is from the anime conventions.

WHO ARE YOU? I'm sorry were you speaking? I just didn't see you over there. What was your name again? In all honesty that's how it works, if no one knows you or can't find you, then why should they buy? You are going to have to get social and creative. Reach everyone in the planet just to find 5 who will check your sales page. Blast yourself out there, be a productive member of the internet social society.

Oh look, it's another eBay auction for a toy. Yeah it does sound kind of unhappy doesn't it. So how do you give the eBay user a compelling story? Well...tell it! There it is, basic and simple, tell the story. Talk about the pony design, the quality materials you use, how it's the perfect gift for some person and how unique this custom My Little Pony is. People like to know a little bit about what they are buying, knowing what you are buying helps with the "why should I buy this" pause that people do.

Don't' forget to make your story look attractive a few simple suggestions:

1. Ebay has nice and simple style templates, start with that
2. Learn a little basic HTML to format your headlines
3. Clean big pictures and many of them. eBay charges for extra big pictures but you want them.
4. Catchy title and use keywords in your description for easy finding.
5. Type your auction message in Word first to avoid embarrassing spelling mistakes.

Hey! Don't just limit yourself to eBay. There are so many options out there including, Etsy, My Little Pony Forums and Groups, your personal website and others. Though I do find that eBay is your biggest bang for the buck with Etsy being a close second. So ideally you can try eBay first and if she doesn't sell then put her on Etsy for a few months.

Pictured pony sold via a forum website and not her original eBay auction.

Remember people will only pay what they think something is worth. You may want to ask friends and family. Post pictures on a craft forum and get people feedback. Try reading a couple articles on pricing crafts and most importantly be flexible. Don't start at the bottom end but don't get too ahead of yourself. This is one of the hardest questions to answer.

Here's a simple formula to give you an idea:
Materials costs + overhead (wear and tear on tools) + Time (how much is your time worth, $2 per hour or $20 per hour) + profit (well you would like a small return right) = Base price

Example:
Materials: $8, pony, two hanks of hair and some paint
Overhead: $3, brushes and pliers use
Time: $100, let's say it's like 10 hours at $10 per hour (I'm not kidding my custom ponies take more than 10 hours on average, but I'm being general here)
Profit: $5
Total: $116.00

W00t! Looks impressive huh? Yeah I know it's a nice number. However something my husband once pointed out to me is one flaw with the formula. "Time" No one wants to pay you for your time, they don't care. So if we look at his theory then your base cost is $16.00, which covers all the basics and a little more, but man it's a tiny number.

The flip side! By starting at the higher number you have a formula you can work for any kind of craft you decide to sell. If you start high then you set the expectation that your stuff is really worth that kind of cash, no holds barred. Remember at that point you'll be doing a bunch more work to get people to want to pay that amount.

The middle ground! To find the middle ground, do your research, what is the average price for a pony at your skill level? Be honest with this one, you may think you are Salvador Dali but really you paint more like Pollack. Here's a hint, most My Little Pony customizers start at around $20.00 USD. I know that $116.00 looked so pretty.

So your husband is right? Ummm..no. I will never admit to such nonsense, how dare you think of it? He makes a valid point that people generally don't want to compensate you for your time, they have other things to spend their money on. The market also plays a factor in that, a down market provides less fun spending. Also remember people will pay what they think you and your time are worth. So keep that somewhat in check. After all, I hate to say it; you are well...selling a custom toy that can't be played with. However you did spend the time on it, so go on add a little for your time, you deserve some kind of kick back, just watch that kickback amount.

The good news! You can slowly add to your base price as your name becomes more and more famous. After a while and a few sales increase your base by $5.00 and go from there. With hard work, dedication and lots of ponies you can easily double your base price in a year or so.

Selling is not for the faint of heart. Not everything sells and not everything is going to sell high. You need some thick skin and drive to make things work. I haven't been doing this for a full year yet and I already know that with hard work I'm doing better with my sales this month than I was 3 months ago. It just works that way. Hopefully in a year I'll be doing even better and in a few years, well who really knows.
I hope some of this helped and even made a little sense!