I just don't get it!
 

Just came back from looking at Etsy for the first time in about 5 years. How can some of these quilts be so inexpensive? I know how much I pay just for material for a quilt, and I am wondering how some of these can make any money. Then you go to Lancaster, or Berlin, and see these quilts that are $1200 or $1400 dollars. Am I missing something here??:confused:

And then you have potential buyers who think that paying $125 for a quilt is too much money. I don't get it either, if that's any consolation.

I'm guessing that the folks who have very low prices on their quilts are working from inherited or thrift store stash. That would make it possible to cut expenses drastically. Does however seem like they are not valuing their time very highly.
As to the really high $ quilts I don't know anybody willing to spend that much, but then I don't comprehend multi thousand $ for a wedding either.

I only make and give away my quilts for this reason..I spend more on materials than the asking price, and I feel my labor is worth something.

If I ever get to a point where I feel my quilts are 'sale worthy,' I don't expect that I'll ask much for them, simply because (one, I never give myself enough credit), but mostly because I just want to continue the hobby. My "free time" is just that; I spend it doing things I like to do, and am not expecting to be paid for things I do on my own time. Having said that, I would hope to get maybe $20-30 more than I spent on materials for what I might put up for sale.
Of course, if I were doing it for a business and grocery money, that would be a different story.

Right now, though, I haven't learned enough to put out what I consider a 'quality' product (at least not from a 'finishing' standpoint of what my binding and SITD looks like- UGH!), so for now my 'practice' quilts are giveaways.

A quilt is not something you have to buy, it's something you want to buy. I think most need the money so will discount the quilts down as low as possible. It's easy to tell they don't value their time at all. If they don't, I certainly don't.

I have sold quilts and quilted items on Etsy, and I can tell you this- there is a certain kind of person that thinks if it isn't expensive it must not be very good. And they are the ones who buy high priced quilts.

When you can buy a whole quilt set for $29, its no wonder people think they are cheap to make.
I remember buying a couple of these quilts and for the price they are not bad. The quilting is awful and sparce though. They even come with shams.
Bought them before I started quilting.
I call them slave labor quilts.

I have wondered the same thing, I would go broke if I sold quilts for less than what I put in to them!!!

We as a community just need to value our time more. I cross stitched Christmas stockings for my DIL and she had a friend see them and asked how much I 'd charge to do one. When I told her my costs plus $0.10 an hour labor would be $250.00 never heard from the friend again. And that was discounted labor. I have committed to never doing anything for cheap. I will charge for labor and do so at a fair rate.