Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

You can have a conversation with the vendor about the product. Ask them about their techniques, and where they source materials! Folks are happy to talk about stuff they're passionate about, and making earrings isn't exactly rocket science with lots of proprietary information.



Only works if the maker has come along themselves to man the booth, though. Admittedly, that is true in the majority of cases.

But for about ...30%, I'd say? of the vendors I engage with at these sorts of markets, they turn out to be running more of a family operation: either one partner is an introvert with a trade-skill while the other enjoys talking to (and selling to) people; or there's a retired adult who likes to putter around making stuff but doesn't have the energy to show up to fairs, and then there's their kids/grandkids, who've grown up admiring their work, handling that part for them. Either way, the artisan themselves isn't there to explain their work; you've just got their "sales representative" to talk to.

And in those cases, the partner/kids/etc can certainly describe the "outside view" of the creative process, any material sourcing they've helped with, etc... but they don't really have the introspective viewpoint on technique that the maker themselves will have.

Which means that it would be entirely possible to come off as "the partner of an artisan" after just following a few Youtube channels from actual artisans in the field. (With the particular art content I consume, I could probably at least pull off sounding like the spouse of a person who makes vinyl-print stickers or cold-press soap.)

Mind you, if you've never been a creative person struggling through the creative process yourself — nor lived with a creative person and watched them struggle through the creative process — then your story might be missing "emotional veracity."

But I would imagine that most people who would decide to make a business of selling things at craft fairs — even if it's a "fake" business – are people who like crafts and being around creative people; and so who have either tried their hand at some creative hobby personally (but just failed to produce anything that would sell), or have at least dated someone who makes stuff. They're people who wish they could be selling their own stuff, but just don't have their own stuff to sell. For them (insofar as there are such people), it would likely be as much about "being a part of it" as it is about the money.

Or, to put that another way: nobody who's not already in the "crafting world" somehow, would ever come up with "sell Alibaba goods at a craft fair" as a get-rich-quick scheme. Because it's really, really not. :)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: