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Have a tentative plan to sell greetings cards and associated items such as banners, gift wrap etc, from a market stall. The town where i live has markets on Tues ( all year ) and Thursdays ( April to December ) There are also 2 nearby towns that come under the same "pannier market" set up, one does Thursdays all year round, the other does Fridays & saturdays all year round.
From info i have gathered so far, you can just set up casually at these markets ( if there is space on the day obviously ) and pay £13.50 for 6 foot space, providing your own stall/tabletop whatever.
This might be a good way to get into it initially, but as i have to buy stock, stands, stall , then would need to looking at getting a yearly licence if that is possible.
I do have experience from many years back of working at a greetings card wholesaler, it was only for a couple of months as a trainee manager ( i took it as i was waiting to start an IT job ) but gave me a good insight into the "industry" and the mark-ups on the cards were an eye opener !!
There are a couple of card shops in my town, both are pretty expensive, though there are a lot of well off folk who seem to happily pay those prices, if i operated on a quality at sensible prices stance, i think it could work.
Havnt checked out the other 2 towns yet, still early days in the process.
Any thoughts from experienced market traders welcome, even if to say dont do it ;-)
From info i have gathered so far, you can just set up casually at these markets ( if there is space on the day obviously ) and pay £13.50 for 6 foot space, providing your own stall/tabletop whatever.
This might be a good way to get into it initially, but as i have to buy stock, stands, stall , then would need to looking at getting a yearly licence if that is possible.
I do have experience from many years back of working at a greetings card wholesaler, it was only for a couple of months as a trainee manager ( i took it as i was waiting to start an IT job ) but gave me a good insight into the "industry" and the mark-ups on the cards were an eye opener !!
There are a couple of card shops in my town, both are pretty expensive, though there are a lot of well off folk who seem to happily pay those prices, if i operated on a quality at sensible prices stance, i think it could work.
Havnt checked out the other 2 towns yet, still early days in the process.
Any thoughts from experienced market traders welcome, even if to say dont do it ;-)
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I know someone who sells cards on the markets for a living, I get the impression he does quite well. Only see him 2 or 3 times a year tho, so any questions I could ask him for you, you might be waiting a long time for a reply.
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could you not do it online ?
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I haven't got his email address. Ohhh, you mean him
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Might be wrong but i dont see a big demand for folk to buy cards online, apart from moonpig, but i think thats more specialised as you can design and customise the cards to suit.
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There is major profit on greetings cards, places like Clintons are really expensive, where I work there is a clintons an an independent card shop opposite, they are half price compared to clintons & the profit margin is still huge, once you check out your competition & make sure your cheaper than anyone else you cannot fail to make it pay as long as you have a decent display.
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Markets usually vet what you are selling ..in so much as
they dont want every stall selling meat , or toys or greetings cards ,so if nobody is doing cards there now -- you have an excellent chance .. Person to check with is the Site "renter"/ manager , he will give you all the gen you need ...they welcome variety of stalls + continuity of attendance .... some have a first come first served attitude to the stalls area ... GOOD LUCK ... |
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There is a Card Shop chain who are selling great cards at 10 for £1 incl coloured envelopes ...based round various town centres ..plus a range of ever better cards priced at 29p ...49p....59p...and even 99p for one up to your waist in size !! :-)
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must be very profitable
i live in a decent part of sussex and in the shopping centre were i work there are 6 outlets that sell cards all at varying prices the cheapest one is literally 10p 15p a pop |
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think he was hoping to charge 60p +.. per card tbh :-)
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i started doing markets 35 years ago..did it for about 12 years
the problems are.. 1.the weather is the worst..especially selling cards ..wind or rain could ruin alot of your stock..and the cold is not fun 2.you can travel to markets and then not get on..so a wasted day 3.the tobys who decide whether you get on are invariably total ass holes..unless things have changed 4.the good markets are usually full when we were doing it.. the only day worth working was sunday we would take between £400 and a grand on a sunday..but you could go out in the week and only take £40 we made a living in the end by just working sundays..but this was in the days when shops were closed on sundays ive done an occassional car boot sale since and they were dire my advice would be ...give it a try...but do some research and try and find decent markets..i dont know what its like now but from what ive seen the game has gone..but if you dont try you will never know..good luck...one last thing its a young mans game..the weather beat me and i gave it up 25 years ago when i was 35 |
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I think you will struggle as the vast majority of markets are under supported. I would recommend that you join the NMTF as you get the liabilty insurance as part of the cost and they can advise if any disputes arise. Look at bankruptcy auctions as a good medium for purchasing stock, there are plenty of these types of business going under.
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I WAS ON THE MARKETS SELLING LADIES FASHION FOR 25 YEARS,USED TO MAKE A FORTUNE,BUT THEM DAYS ARE LONG GONE,IT WAS HARD TOI GET A STALL IN THEM DAYS,EASY TO GET A STALL TODAY,AS THE GOOD TIMES HAVE GONE,
THE PEOPLE I KNOW WHO STUCK AT SELLING CARDS ALLWAYS MADE A GOOD LIVEING, YOU HAVE YOUR MAJOR PERIODS AS YOU KNOW,MOTHERS DAY,VALENTINES DAY,CHRISTMAS,FATHERSDAY ECT,THE WEATHER IS VERY BAD FOR CARDS,MOST IMPORTANT THING IS KEEPING YOUR STOCK IN PERFECT CONDITION HAVE A WORD WITH MARKET SUPERINTENDANT,TO SEE IF THERES ANY PROBLEM GETTING ON,JOIN MARKET TRADERS FEDERATION IF YOU ARE DEF STARTING ,FOR INSURANCE YOU NEED TO BUILD UP CUSTOMERS,YOU NEED TO TALK TO THEM AND BE NICE AND LISTE TO ALL THEIR PROBLEMS,ITS VERY HARD WORK IN THE WINTER COLD AND RAINY MONTHS,AND NOT MANY PEOPLE VISIT ON THEM DAYS BUT THEY WILL BE THEIR AT XMAS,MOTHERSDAY,FARTHERSDAY AND VALENTINES DAY I WOULD NOT START SELLING LADIES FASHIONS AGAIN AS YOU CANT COMPETE THESE DAYS AND MANY OTHER TRADES ARE A WASTE OF TIME SELLING BUT CARDS IS PROBERBLY THE BEST ONE IF YOURE GOING TO START,BUT VERY HARD AT THE BEGINNING AND WHEN THE WEATHER IS BAD |
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There is a market stall in Carlisle coverd market the cards are a lot cheaper than Clintons etc. so they are usually quite busy.
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Thanks for all the feedback fellas, some really useful and interesting advice there.
The weather is a concern for the condition of stock, but a lot of cards are in cellophane packs now, good thing about cards is that you don't have dead stock, mothers day cards that dont sell one year can be given another go next year. I,m working M-F at moment so its difficult to do a lot of research, hopefully got a week off coming soon when i can get around a bit. I,m in deepest S Devon so wholesalers are not going to be very local, when i was in Brum there were loads about. Thanks again for the feedback ! |
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Burt: what is the NMTF ? market traders fed ? i know i need to get liability insurance, sounds ok if you get it included in membershiop cost.
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YES ITS INCLUDED IN THE COST,YOU CAN ALSO GET CHEAP INSURANCE FOR YOUR CAR AND VAN,ONCE YOU TELL THE INSURANCE COMPANIES YOUR A MARKET TRADER,THERE IS A BIG SURCHARGE
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National Market Traders Federation. they have their own website that lists all UK markets with contact numbers but some will be out of date as they never used to update regularly
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GOOGLE NMTF
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TY
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NMTF site very good indeed, cheers :-)
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