Gift Box for Wine

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I ran across a fellow near here who has a small (very small) business collecting and reselling wood scraps from commercial shops.  He recently had a lot of sapele, 1/4" x 6" x 8 ft.; $30 for 10 pieces.  I had been resawing and hand planing pieces to make this box, so his was a real deal.  He got it from a company that makes custom doors; apparently this went into the scrap pile.  He gave me a couple of pieces of maple in the same dimensions.  

Box joints on the shop-made router table jig.  The first effort at the poured inlay used epoxy tinted with green food coloring.  It went sour when I used model plane lacquer for the red ornaments; the solvent bled into the maple.  The second try used tinted polyurethane glue and acrylic artist's paint.  

The design was sketched onto the maple and routed with the Dremel with first 1/8" bit and then a 1 mm carbide bit.  

Now, I don't know how to price it at our upcoming Arts and Crafts Fair.  Input ?




Carey Mitchell

15 Comments

Whatever the price it is a very good looking box.    

Ron

hard to say carey, depends on your area. one place might get 50 bucks while another show might be lucky to get 25 ? my wife used to do craft shows but gave up because people wanted everything at yard sale prices !
box is beautiful so i hope you can what it's worth.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

 As a friend who turns bowls for the show said, "this is a show of trinkets, you will have a hard time with some of your things."    Nevertheless, I did sell 2 cellarettes, one for $1,000 and the other for $1,200.  They were priced at twice the price of the next highest items, some very nice framed paintings.  

Carey Mitchell

only way to know is try it and see what the market will pay ?

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

Carey,

Tough question.  We have craft shows here at the golf club.  They are looking for yard sale prices.  I make things now for the Childrens Hospital.  A Humidor might go for 500$ but you have to have two that want it.

I think that box is work at least $100 but to the right person.

Your Cellarette's would go for 2x in Beford NY for sure!


Petey

That is a nice box for presenting a fine wine. Wish I had a place that resold scraps like that near me.

My problem is what do you do the the box when the wine is gone and if you don't drink the wine for a while a box at room temperature is not the best way to store it.
What comes to my demented mind is maybe it could be used to store cremation ashes as a second use.  Sometimes I'm way to practical for my own good..
Carey.... I've seen many on the web selling between $25 - $40 and some between $40 - $70. Alot of these are simple butt or lap joint builds. I built this wine box for my daughter's birthday and she said a friend of hers felt I could get as much as a $75 - $100 for it. Maybe more.
I don't think people are going to spend alot on this type of box so believe keeping it reasonable and what the market will bear is essential. I'd keep it under $50 or less. That's my two cents. 
Selling stuff that you really want to get your time and materials out of can be tricky. Either it has to be cheap to make average Jane/Joe impulse buy it for a gift or very expensive (~$100) so people wonder about how classy a gift it must be. The kicker with high dollar is if they are thinking about it for more than a few seconds, offer 10% off. That makes them feel like they stole it.
yeah at craft shows i doubt anyone will go over 50 tops. but you could always offer to do a nicer high end box for those that might ?

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

I wish this seller was near me. I love thins, having to resaw, plane/joint them myself is tedious work. Sellers here sell it as 4/4, and often actually much more because they have time in making it thin, just like I do. 

Plus.

"He recently had a lot of sapele, 1/4" x 6" x 8 ft.; $30 for 10 pieces."  I see that as 41 bd/ft, so for 30 bux, that would be a screaming deal.

I like this box Carey. For the work involved I would say 100 bux, but the problem is you are going into a competition where all the other sellers are doing butt joints and glue on a wine box, maybe a spline? So finding a buyer they would have to appreciate the fact that their/your wine box is box joints, and nice wood, not pine and hardly any time.

Love the Christmas tree too. I would gift it, someone would like it a lot if they drank some vino.


George, today he has listed a bundle of African mahogany and sapele.  35 pieces for $70.  

15/16 - 1 1/8"
4 - 11" wide
18 - 31" length

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/845982004396115/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_top_picks&referral_story_type=top_picks

Carey Mitchell

Dang, that looks like some nice and useful cutoffs at a fine price!
yeah thats a hell of a deal for those that can use short pieces.

working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.

For some reason FB Marketplace doesn't allow me access? I've never been to it, so I'm pretty sure I haven't peed in their wheaties. So does this guy ship? Or it just local sales? If he would work around the Nazi patrols at FB, could be a nice contact. 
I'm sure he would not ship.  Just an older retired guy working in a tiny cluttered garage on a shoestring.

Carey Mitchell