If you were ever selling something that’s handmade, you’ve probably encountered that type of people.
Yeah, THAT type.
The ones that will check out your merchandise, and then loudly express their disagreement with the price, telling you how they can buy the same thing at the second-hand shop for 0,5$. The ones that will say something like: “I’m not going to give money for this, I could’ve made the same thing, even better!”. The ones that will try to bargain for the price, even though they would never do the same at some big, commercial store.
Sometimes I feel like handmade things are really underrated. Sure, you probably can find something factory made that is similar to almost every handmade object, but it will still lack soul and uniqueness. I have always preferred buying something that someone invested their time and skill into making, rather than giving money for something not creative. Of course, people are different and like different things, to each their own.
However, I believe that people who say such things are not aware of how rude and disrespectful they are being. Some may say that everyone has right of their opinion. They do, but if they don’t know what it’s like to spend hours into making a piece of jewelry or a painting and then having to lower the price to the very minimum because otherwise no one will even consider buying your work of art, they should better keep their biased opinion for themselves.

An artist has every right to sell his or hers product for whatever price he or she wants. No one will ever walk into a Swarovsky store and ask the clerk to lower the price. Then why do people think it’s okay to do that to an indipendent artist or creator? Sometimes, things are too expensive for you to afford, factory or handmade, and it’s not something you should loudly complain about. You should simply walk away without buying it and find something that has a more fitting price. I don’t think it’s shamefull for any creator to make their prices as high as they can sell. It’s called “sale” for a reason and everyone wants to make their profit as high as they can.

So, what should we do about those people?
Well, we could complain or argue with them, but most of them will never realize why are we against their rights of speech. The best advice I can give is to educate those around you how expensive your materials are and how many hours it takes you to finish even the most simple piece. Those who can’t help but be rude… They will keep on being rude no matter what we do, and what hurts rude people the most is when they are being ignored. Also, support fellow artists, at least with words of praise, because every nice word means so much more than you might think.