Where is the best place to sell flies?

[eaglecreekcustom]

Hi, i am wondering where to sell quality hand tied flies that i tied. I am 12 and I sell flies. Do you have any suggestions?

If you want to see our flies eaglecreekcustom.com

[Darian]

Since you haven't said what type of flies you're going to sell, I'll try to answer generally. First, consider how to make your product known to potential customers. Probably should photograph your flies and make some handbills and asking for permission to hand out and place at places like fishing shows or fishing shops (fly fishing or conventional). You're trying to attract a customers attention and then show your flies. You could post an ad on several fly fishing bulletin boards (like this one) but that would involve interstate sales (to complicated for now). How about showing your flies at a local fly fishing club??

Now the hard part starts. Once you receive an order for flies, you have to produce and deliver those flies in a timely manner and account for your sales/money.

Sounds like fun. Hope you do well....

[eaglecreekcustom]

Ok, we are starting to do that!

[eaglecreekcustom]

We mostly tie freshwater flies, but we are starting to get into saltwater

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the past I helped a young man start a fly tying business.

He took a large clear 18 comportment box and labeled it with 18 popular patterns.

He went to convenience stores and small shops in, I think, Markville? to see if anyone wanted to sell his flies.

He sold them on consignments so weekly he checked the boxes or the store called him with an order to replace what sold.

[eaglecreekcustom]

Yes! I am thinking about doing that.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

You need to get together a selection of 18 ? of the best patterns in the right sizes for the area where you sell them.


You can always put up an add in our Forum's classifieds with a link to your web site, if you have or get one.

I am sure some here might like to try some of your flies.


Some commercial fly tiers will tie special requested patterns for fly shops or fly fishing guides.

[eaglecreekcustom]

Bill,

I am working on a selection of 18.
Just so you know I do tie requested patterns, we call them custom flies.

[Ralph]

Bill,

I am working on a selection of 18.
Just so you know I do tie requested patterns, we call them custom flies.

A good way to get your foot in the door, rather than shotgunning patterns into the wild, is to go into a fly shop and ask what they need. Bring samples of your work. Right now it is tough to source certain patterns and your skills may just well be in demand. It can also help that fly shops buy everything in bulk and might sell you supplies at cost to help your bottom line.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Very good advice Ralph......


Over the years we had lots of local fly tiers that tied special flies pattern for Kiene's.

If it was an annual thing we would help them with the cost of their materials.

Some got pretty big and got connected with the big material wholesale houses.


Joe Shirshac, Sacramento City Fire Fighter, was the first local commercial fly tiers I knew.

Joe tied lots of Shad flies and sold them to the local Sacramento sporting goods stores in the 1960s and 1970s.


Some who tied for us, and other shops as well, were Dave Hudson, Gary McConnel, Carl Blackledge, Bob Scheidt, Jay Murakoshi, and

the infamous Galen Geller ('Oregon Salmon' on our Forum).

[Troutsource]

If you'd like to sell online, try Etsy.com or eBay. People even sell flies on Amazon. Selling from your own website will be difficult because no one will know about it. There are many more "eyeballs" looking at Etsy, eBay and Amazon. You will have to pay some fees, but at the same time selling directly to the end customer on the internet will allow you to charge a higher price than selling to someone (like a fly shop) who's going to turn around and sell your flies to someone else. But if you do sell to a fly shop, their orders may be much bigger.

I recommend you also start posting on Flytyingforum.com and ask for more advice there. There are numerous current and former professional tyers participating there, and I've seen them give advice to people like you.

Good luck!

[Darian]

Troutsource has given good advice but failed to mention that on-line sales will expose you to the tax rules of all of the states you do business in (State & local Sales/Use Tax in Calif for example). Imagine trying to keep track of all of those differing rates/rules/regulations. As long as you stay local, you'll likely not encounter those problems but if/when you become successful, you'll probably need a bookkeeper.

[Carl Blackledge]

Darian,

So your suggesting he sell illegal? That's not really fair to those of us that have to pay Tax on our flies.

Carl Blackledge

[Darian]

No Carl.... I'm not suggesting he sell illegally. I'm suggesting that he not start by selling on-line as he will not necessarily be able to control who orders flies and/or from where; other states, where (as you must be aware) the rules on taxation vary from his home state. Keeping track of those rules/regs takes a up time/effort. When he becomes successful, he can either learn how to account for sales or hire a bookkeeper to assure he doesn't run afoul of tax authorities.

I re-read my post and can't really see how you got the impression that I was encouraging illegal sales. The last sentence in my post advises: "As long as you stay local, you'll likely not encounter those problems but if/when you become successful, you'll probably need a bookkeeper." Since Oregon doesn't have a sales tax, he won't have to account for that particular tax. So, he should try to sell locally unless he's prepared to comply.

[Carl Blackledge]

I thought that would wake you up :)