PROFITS FROM AMERICA'S PAST

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"If your quality is good enough, people will soon forget a high price and return for another purchase," Frank White-curator of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts-remarked to me as we watched expert craftsmen and women create and use old time implements for the entertainment of visitors. I'd suggest you keep that advice in mind when you fix your rates, and try to get a minimum of $3.00 or $4.00 per hour for your time.

Your problem, then, is to attract the attention of customers who appreciate good workmanship and are willing to pay for it. And the best way for an unknown craftsman to get his foot in the door is to sell on consignment (that is, leave your products for sale, to be returned to you if they're not purchased) to shops that handle high quality items.

You can also do well with a mail order business (especially in the South and Midwest, where as I've already mentioned commercial reproductions are uncommon). One approach I've used in those parts of the country is to send samples of my work to secretaries of organizations, who often agree to take orders at 20 to 25 percent commission for the benefit of their groups.

You also may find it profitable to insert one-inch display ads in quality magazines but in that case it's better to mention only one item per ad. When a brand-new potential customer is forced to make a choice, he often ends up buying nothing:

Since we close our workshop during the four summer months, we don't push any regular marketing plan but always seem to have unfilled orders ahead of us. (If your area is popular with taurists, you'll probably want to concentrate your sales efforts on the season when the most visitors are passing through.-MOTHER.)

Quality has always been our first consideration, and sells itself now that we're established. Good workmanship has often brought us repeat orders and requests for additional items from early customers. A former FBI agent, now in retirement in Vermont, has sent for miniature ox yokes three times (and has twice shipped special stock for our use). An Oregon dentist has re-ordered half scale hayforks and just last week gave us a commission for a wooden fork and two full-size flails.

Business is really good in fact, I'm thinking of adding hand lettered tavern and tollgate signs to our line next winter. Apparently the Bicentennial has created as much interest in reproductions as in genuine antiques. Thousands of Americans like the tourist whose remark got me into the trade in the first place-are ready and willing to pay good money for well-made replicas of implements from "the good old days", and I truly believe that this field offers a fine opening for those of MOTHER's readers who want to turn their craft skills to profit.

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