#I at the very least want to do these submas charms. just one small batch because I want one lmfao dshgjkfnhg

[illdothehotvoice]

Y’all i am like shaking idk if this is like a quick obsession I’ll be interested in for like 2 days and then drop immediately or if I’m willing to actually start an etsy shop and sell charms and shit. anyways long ramble in the tags dshgjknfh

#CAUSE LIKE. OKAY #I am very scared I'll get everything set up and then no one will want to buy form me which is fine which is okay #but like with charms and stuff you need to buy them BEFOREHAND and then have them manufacured and stuff #and I KNOW I can just do an interest check and stuff but I want to do this SO badly- #and also like just cause people are INTERESTED it doesn't mean they will actually BUY stuff you know??? #and like. at the same time vograce's minimum batch sizes are REALLY small so i cna totally just. buy small batches and then see if they sell #and then go from there #but like #y'all i want this so badly #thoughts rn are this: #I think I'm gonna do an interest check on submas charms see if anyone is itnerested #i do not have the money to order a big batch rn anyways so i have to keep it small #do a little test batch make it CLEAR it's a test batch and then put that really small batch up on etsy for the people who were interested #because it shouldn't be that hard to sell a small batch of submas charms (and keep one for myself) due to how limited submas merch is???? #I at the very least want to do these submas charms. just one small batch because I want one lmfao dshgjkfnhg #then i can just call it an experience thing i guess if it doesn't work out dshgjkndfh #cause here's the like big thing dsghjknfdh #my school has a day at the end of spring semester where we have vendors and stuff which is super cool? and students can set up booths #my friend also wants to set up a similar etsy shop and we were talking about how fun it would be to do a booth together qwq #and like i guess that's the big goal dshjgkfh idk how much people at our school would want to buy from a booth like that #just cause a lot of the booths last year were like ceramics and glass stuff but idk variety is good qwq #anyways rambling a lot i jsut dshgjknfh. ugh i want this to work out i want to sell charms so badly i've wanted to for a while qwq #one of my goals this summer was to figure out how to do that anyways qwq

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

Hi! Feel free to ignore if you don't feel like answering. I see you've been posting about selling pokemon merchandise, and I wanted to ask if you maybe have any advice for someone who's also interested in selling merchandise but isn't quite sure where to begin?

Sure, I can give a little bit of advice! Sorry if this is super haphazard, I'm just talking off the top of my head.

Ok tbh the first thing to be aware of is that making merch is expensive. I really do not recommend getting into making and selling merch if you're struggling financially. I don't make a lot of money from this.

If you're interested in learning more about manufacturers/where to get stuff made, there's a list of them on the account @howtobeaconartist under the "resources" tab. They also have a lot of advice for selling merch in general, tho they're mostly geared toward anime convention artists.

There's also vograce, a company based in china that makes a variety of things:

I use them a lot but there's also often communication issues/minor printing complications, and shipping can get quite pricy if you're ordering a lot of things. (for example, shipping on the order of submas pillow cases + misc merch samples was almost $100.) (also I live in the US.) That said, I like to use them because they have low minimum order quantities; I don't sell a ton of merch, so it's convenient for me to be able to buy small quantities of items. They also let you split up orders between multiple designs (again, useful for lowering quantities).

Anyway, my personal recommendation for your first merch would be buttons. I get them made by cheapestbuttonsnet on Etsy:

Their prices are very affordable, and they also let customers split up an order between multiple designs. Typically I order a batch of 50 buttons, and then split it between 5 designs to end up with 10 buttons of each design. Customer service is also very responsive; if you have further questions I'd recommend messaging them on Etsy or sending them an e-mail.

Anyway you don't have to start with buttons, but that's just what I think would be the best balance between affordable for the artist + affordable/attractive for customers.

Also, keep in mind that artwork you draw for merch should be sized at least 300 PPI for prints, charms, buttons, and stickers, and at least 150 PPI for fabric printing (like pillows). This means if you want to print a 1.5 inch button, the canvas you draw on should be at least 450 px by 450 px (because 300 * 1.5 = 450). Typically I draw larger than this anyway (like 2500 px by 2500 px for most things), but note that if you draw larger that some small details may get lost.

There's a bunch of other logistic things you'll need to do before selling merch, including:

setting up an online shop (I use Etsy because they're convenient for shipping and send tax forms at the end of the year to make it easier to report income, but they have a lot of random fees)

Purchasing shipping materials (for buttons/charms, usually just bubble mailers from amazon or wherever are fine)

Setting prices (I reference other sellers on Etsy to gauge a good price for products. Another thing people often do is take the cost of manufacturing one unit, multiplying it by 3, and using that as the price.)

Purchasing business cards to include in orders (optional; I get mine from catprint.com bc I like their holographic finish and I get prints from them anyway, but there are much cheaper options out there for business cards)

Taking product photos/making graphics for products (this goes with "setting up an online shop" tbh. i hate taking product photos LMAO;;;)

Drawing the actual artwork for the merchandise lskdjflsdjf

There's probably more than this and there's more details that I'm not mentioning because this is just a short little intro, but tbh a lot of merch making is about learning along the way and seeing what works and what can be improved on.

#replies #possibly delete later since i talk abt manus and cost of production a little bit here #the manufacturers i use aren't really a secret but i don't like to post abt it too much publicly #info