Creative Genius

Okay people, today's post has potential to be huge, so bear (bare?) with me.

First of all, today was hopefully a very significant day for immigration.  As some of you know there was a march in Washington, D.C. for immigration reform.  It was basically to try to get immigration issues made a higher priority.  If you wanna know more about it, here's the link: http://www.reformimmigrationforamerica.org/

I just saw on the news that there was also a march at the capital in Salt Lake City.  Damn, if I would have known, I would have been there today.

Next on the list, I am a creative genius, and I have created a masterpiece.  Anyways, I'm pretty proud of it.  I bought this little thing at a thrift store for $10.  I bought the baskets at IKEA for $2.99 and $4.99 or something like that.  Cost of ribbon, paints, and brushed was probably about $6.  So I guess all together this cost me about $24 to make, plus I spent maybe 6 or 7 hours doing all the painting.

Adorable right?

My plan is to ravage thrift and antique stores and find as much cheap furniture as I can.  Then I'm gonna paint 'em up and sell 'em!  This one was my test run.  When I started, I intended on selling it, but I got a little selfish when it started turning out so cute, and I just had to keep it for Isabel.  I'll probably keep shoes in the top and use the bottom one for her dirty laundry or something.

If I was going to sell this one, I probably wouldn't have put the baskets in it, and I'll tell you why.  Without the baskets, production probably only would have cost $12-$13.  I think I probably would have been able to sell it for between $18-$28 appx.  Anyways, if I saw it somewhere, that's probably about what I would have been willing to pay.  That means when it comes to profit I would make about $5-$15 on it.  If you know anything about price mark ups and all that jazz, you know that $5 really isn't that great.  $15 would be awesome, because that would mean that I just over doubled my money. 

If I sold it with the baskets, which means production would have cost $24, the selling price would be a lot higher if I wanted to double my money.  In order to double my money I would have to sell it for at least $48.  I'm not sure anyone would pay that much for it.  Anyways, I know that I wouldn't.  The most I would pay with the baskets is probably $30 and that would only be a $6 profit.  (Not to mention, that IKEA is about a 2 hour drive from my house, so I can't just run down there every time I do something to grab some baskets or whatever.  If I considered the cost of the trip to IKEA, the production cost would be higher.)

What do you guys think?  I want some input for my future projects.  I'd probably sell them off of etsy.com or another sight like that and also at things like Summerfest, the county fair, and craft fairs.  Personally, I think stuff at things like that are overpriced, but I'm kind of a cheap ass, and I know a lot of people like to buy stuff there.  So help me out people!!! What would you be willing to pay?

P.S. Good news for you guys, this post wasn't as long as I expected because I've gotten lazy and I don't wanna finish everything I had to say today :)