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How to display prices at a craft fair (so people stop asking "how much?")

A shopper picks something up, turns it over, puts it down, and never asks the price. Price display is the cheapest fix a market seller has: paper, a printer, an hour the night before. Here is what to put where, how big the numbers need to be, what survives wind and drizzle, and what to print before you pack the car.

1. Why an unpriced table quietly loses sales

The usual defence of an unpriced table is that it starts conversations. It does, with the people who were going to buy anyway. The problem is everyone else.

Asking "how much is this?" commits a shopper. Once you answer, they either buy or perform a small polite rejection in front of you, and plenty of people would rather walk on than risk that. You read it as no interest when it was really no information.

Visible prices also keep the table selling while you are wrapping, taking payment or talking to somebody else. And they filter in your favour: someone who reads $48 and stays is a better conversation than someone who hears it after ten minutes of your time.

2. The three levels of price display

Pricing everything does not have to mean a tag on every object. There are three levels, and a good table mixes them.

Level 1: the per-item tag

One tag, one item, one price. Use it whenever prices inside a group differ, whenever the item gets picked up and carried around, and for anything expensive enough that a shopper wants to read the number privately. It is also the only level that goes home with the buyer.

Level 2: the category sign

One card for a group where everything costs the same. "Stickers · $4 each." It stops small items disappearing under paper, so it suits baskets and trays. It only works if the group is genuinely uniform: if two of the twelve mugs are $34, tag those two.

Level 3: the one big board

A single price list for the whole stall, read from the aisle. It works when your list is short and stable, and it sells to people who never come closer than the aisle, which is most of the people who pass you. It does not replace the other levels, because a shopper at the table still has to match a name on the board to the thing in their hand.

3. Tag placement that survives people picking things up

A tag works only if it is visible in the position the item actually sits in, and still attached after fifty people have handled it.

• Face the tag where the eye is. Flat on a table people look down, so a tag in front of the item works. On a riser at chest height they look horizontally, so tie it on or clip it to the front edge.
• Attach, do not rest. Ten minutes into a busy table, the loose $12 tag is sitting in front of the $30 item.
• String tags for anything with a handle, strap, hook or neck. Punch the corner and keep the loop short, so the tag hangs against the item instead of swinging.
• Front edge, not the top. For prints in a browser or soap in a crate, price the front face or a divider card, where a browsing hand does not cover it.
• Same corner every time. If every tag sits bottom right, shoppers learn where to look after the first item.

4. Sightlines: tent versus table, and the eye-level rule

Under a tent the ceiling is low and a shopper in the aisle is looking into shade. Before the fair opens, stand in the middle of the aisle and look at your stall from about 12 feet. Whatever you cannot read from there is invisible to passing traffic, usually the big board, hung too low and blocked by your tallest product. The best space in a tent is the front face of the canopy and the back wall, roughly 4 to 6 feet off the ground: eye level for a standing adult, and nothing on the table blocks it.

Outdoors, glare is the other problem, and a sign angled slightly back catches less sky. Then crouch to the height of a seated shopper and look again: a tall board is hard work from down there, which is another reason to pair it with tags on the items.

5. Price tiers: three price points make deciding fast

Shoppers do not compare twelve prices. They sort your table into cheap, middle and special, then choose inside one band. Do that sorting for them. Pick three price points, say $6, $18 and $45, and group the table that way: a basket of $6 items at the front edge where hands land, the $18 range across the middle, a few $45 pieces raised at the back with space around them. One category sign per group, so a shopper reads three numbers instead of twelve.

Round whole numbers help throughout, because change is faster and a second item is easy to add up. If you have not worked out what your prices should be, start with how to price handmade items for markets.

6. Type size and contrast: 3 feet versus 10 feet

The size of the number has to match the distance it is read from. A useful anchor: the ADA Standards set minimum character heights for visual signs against viewing distance, 5/8 inch up to about 6 feet, plus another 1/8 inch per foot beyond that, measured on the capital letter I (US Access Board, ADA Standards, Chapter 7). Those are accessibility minimums for wayfinding signs, not rules for a craft stall, so treat them as a floor.

Point sizes vary between fonts, so print it, tape it up and walk backwards. Three things help more than raw size. Contrast: near-black on near-white, or white on a dark background, because mid-grey on kraft brown vanishes at 10 feet. Weight rather than style: a bold sans-serif beats a thin script, so save the script for the shop name and let the price be the biggest thing on the tag. And matte rather than gloss, since glossy card mirrors the sky.

7. Materials that survive wind and rain

Cardstock around 200 to 300 gsm (roughly 65 lb to 110 lb cover) is the sweet spot: stiff enough to stand and cut cleanly, still fine through a home printer. Inkjet ink runs in rain, so laminate the standing signs if drizzle is likely. Mini clothespins and small binder clips attach tags with no adhesive, and museum putty holds tented cards down without marking anything.

8. What goes on a tag besides the price

• The item name as you want it repeated. "Cedar and moss candle", not "candle".
• One detail that closes the gap. Scent, size in inches or ml, the material, the wood, the fibre.
• Care, if it changes the decision. "Hand wash", "food safe", "burn 3 hours max".
• Your shop name and handle, in a form a stranger can type. The tag is the only part of your stall that goes home. A QR code works if you print it at least 2 inches square and test it on your own phone.
• Nothing else. One price per tag, no struck-through numbers and no discount maths.

Tag dimensions, how many fit on a sheet and what card to buy are in craft fair price tags: sizes and what to print.

9. The payment sign, and card minimums

People decide whether to approach partly on whether they can pay. One small sign near the front edge, listing what you take. If you cannot take cards, say so there rather than at the end of a conversation.

A card minimum goes on the sign, not on the shopper at the till. In the US, federal law lets a seller set a minimum dollar amount for accepting credit cards, as long as it is the same for every issuer and network and does not exceed $10; that allowance does not extend to debit cards (FTC, New Rules on Electronic Payments Lower Costs for Retailers). Rules on surcharges, and on how prices and tax must be shown, vary by state and city, and your processor's agreement may be stricter. This is general information, not legal advice.

Decide before you print whether tag prices include sales tax, and say which on the sign. "Tax included" with whole-dollar prices keeps the maths simple.

10. Bundles and multi-buy, done honestly

A multi-buy sign turns a one-item decision into a two-item one, which is why it is probably the most effective single addition to a market table.

Two rules keep it honest. All the terms go on the sign at the outset: which items qualify, how many, and the single price. The FTC's guides on bargain offers make the same point about "buy one, get one" style offers, and are explicit that an advertised former price should be a real price you genuinely charged, not an inflated number invented so the reduction looks bigger (16 CFR 233.4, 16 CFR 233.1). And one offer per table: three competing deals is the same as none.

11. The pre-fair printing checklist

1. Write the full item list with final prices, whole numbers where you can.
2. Count how many of each item you are bringing, so tag quantities match the stock.
3. Print a tag for every item that needs its own price, plus about 10% spares.
4. Make a category sign for each identically priced group.
5. Make the big board: shop name, what you make, the three price points.
6. Make the payment sign, the card minimum if you have one, and one multi-buy sign.
7. Print at 100% scale, not fit-to-page, so tags cut to the size you chose.
8. Tape a test sign up and read it from 10 feet. Fix anything you squint at.
9. Cut, punch and string the tags at home, with a trimmer or good scissors.
10. Pack spares: blank tags, a marker, twine, mini pegs, tape, putty, scissors.
11. Attach tags before doors open. Anything untagged at opening stays in the box.

The rest of the packing list is in the first craft fair checklist, and the Etsy seller's guide to in-person markets covers what changes when the same stock lives in two places.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to price everything at a craft fair?

Every item needs a price a shopper can find without speaking to you, but that does not mean a tag on every object. A tag per item, one sign per identically priced group, or one board covering the table all count. What loses sales is an item with no price anywhere. Vendor packs sometimes set display rules of their own, and consumer pricing rules vary by state and city, so check both.

How big should the numbers on a craft fair price sign be?

Match the size to the reading distance. Using the ADA Standards table as a floor, that is 5/8 inch capitals up to about 6 feet, plus 1/8 inch for every extra foot, so roughly 1 1/8 inch at 10 feet and 1 3/4 inch at 15 feet.

What should go on a craft fair price tag besides the price?

The item name, one short detail that answers the next question (scent, size, material, care), and your shop name or handle so the tag can bring the buyer back to you. One price per tag, always.

How do I keep price tags and signs from blowing away?

Attach rather than rest. String tags, mini clothespins and small binder clips beat loose tented cards in wind. Weight standing signs, use heavier cardstock, choose matte over gloss, and keep blank tags and a marker in the till.