if you tie and sell your own flies how much do you sell them for? i mean simple patterns. i sold 6 to a guy for $10. I’m not looking to make much, i just want to cover the cost of materials. What would you sell flies for to make back the money you spent on materials?
Any input is appreciated
Thanks
WWFF
WWFF
If you are getting $10 for six flies I would say you are doing very well. What kind of flies are you selling? What kind of materials are you using that makes the fly so expensive? Please don’t misunderstand me … this is not an attack and neither am I questioning your character. I’ve tied a bunch of flies and my materials cost for nymphs and dries might be 20 cents per fly. I’m not using exotic feathers and pearsall thread either. Just curious. I wish you continued success. 
How much is your time worth? How much time and material does it take to ship out the flies?
I figure I should clear as much per hour as I take home at work. Which means I would have to sell my flies for a couple times the going price just to make ends meet. Which means I would never be able to afford to sell flies.
DG
I calculate the price according to the time I spend tying the particular fly
CC
I mix it up based on material and time. Here is an example, normal Quill Gordon $2.15, mallard dyed woodduck wings $2, woodduck wings but on a #6 hook $3.15. The first price is because of the cost of woodduck, it then drops if they want a mallard sub to save money, but if they have a request that takes longer to tie and has harder to find material like a #6 Quill Gordon where getting good hackle can take a bit of time to tie and alot of times I end up paying more for it.
Another example would be with wets. Royal Coachman #12 $2, #6 $2.50, #12 snelled $3, #6 snelled $3.50
I add an extra fee for the larger hook because I do not have as much good material for the large wings, plus I go through it much faster because you take more off the feather. The snelled hook takes extra time to tie and cost more, if the customer wants some odd ball hook this price can climb sometimes if they request a hook I do not use and say a pack cost me $6 I will add a $6 charge to the order in addition to the normal price even if they only order a couple.
This is not a money making business, make sure that your prices cover your cost plus time then look at how little money you are making and try another job
Joe Fox
For any kind of ‘craft’ business, you ALWAYS want to sell stuff for as much as you can get.
(the material ‘cost’ is immaterial).
To figure this out (marketing 101-establishing the market feasibility of a small scale manfactured product):
Start by selling stuff ridiculously ‘cheap’. This will show if anyone even wants what you have to sell.
Begin raising the prices until the demand is where you want it to be, i.e; you are selling at a satisfactory level (making how much money you want) and are able to meet the demand (you decide how ‘hard’ you want to work at it).
Many folks feel that once they have sold something for a certain ‘price’, they are ‘stuck’ with that price, especially for that customer. This is both erroneous thinking and foolish. Prices change all the time. If someone questions a price increase, explain that you are responding to the economics of your business, and if they don’t want whatever it is at the price you charge ‘now’ they are free to purchase elsewhere. Or do what I do, tell them it’s up to ‘YOU’ and that you get to decide what it sells for. THEY get to decide if they want to buy it.
This is where you begin to look at material costs (until then, it doesn’t make any difference, you are establishing feasibility of selling the ‘product’). If the costs are too great for you to clear an acceptable profit, this is the time to figure that out. It’s also the time to look at wholesale pricing for your materials, large quantity purchases/discounts, etc., i.e; cutting costs.
If you never get to that point, then the business will ‘fail’ and it’s not for you, which is good to know.
You might find that since this is a hobby that ypu enjoy, just getting your material costs back (for the flies you sell AND the ones you use?) is satisfactory.
Or, you may want to take it to the ‘part time homebased business’ level, where things like actually making some ‘money’ are involved (don’t forget that you can get some tax benefits here, which can accrue to the profitability of the venture).
Then there is the 'do the full time, you love it and want to ‘be’ a fly tyer.
All doable. But, to be successful, you do have to accomplish the first part: finding how much you can get for your flies and if there is enough of a demand for them.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Not trying to be a pain, but WWFF said he was only trying to cover the costs of materials. He does not include the time he ties the flies as part of the price. That’s why I was so curious about the material he is using.
Well the way I see it, every fly shop I go into flies are $3.00ea and up. Selling six for $10.00 is probably… No it’s definetly underpriced.
I agree with those that say it depends on what you’re tying. What’s the demand? And also to who you plan to sell to. Shops? Friends? Strangers at shows or through ads? Who’s your competition? Bass Pro sells 12 a piece panfish assortment of wet flies, foam spiders etc for $10 and a 12 piece wooly bugger assortment for $20 in a box. You’d have to kinda keep one eye on them I would think.
Personally I get a little ticked off when I look at catalogs and see unweighted wooly buggers or egg flies going for the same $2 as a muddler minnow, or a Quill Gordon. Maybe it’s just me.
I’d starve to death if I had to rely on tying for income, but if you’re trying to recover money for your own materials, and you are tying relatively simple flies for warmwater you might consider selling “assortments” that are differnt from Bass Pro, say 6 for $10 like you’ve been doing, or maybe 12 for $25 (with a $2 box) would be better instead of individual flies one at a time. ( If you have demand at 6 for $10, 12 for $25 may not be too much of a stretch.
Shops would probably be out because you would have to sell wholesale so they could make a profit, and you’d have to really crank it out in volume and compete with professional tyers and half of the third world.
For friends you could offer to tie up quantities of the flies you’re comfortable tying.
For sale to strangers at shows, or through ads, think about boxed assortments of a dozen flies each in assorted colors/styles with more of the easy to tie ones than the harder to tie ones.
To make up some warm water examples, let’s say:
Crappie Killer Kit-bead head marabou flies in 4 each of pink, white, chartreuse and black boxed assortment You may have to throw in more than 12 to make it a deal though after looking at Bass Pro. They sell Crappie Jig flies at $1.50 each and 450 piece grub tail kits for pretty cheap.
Bass Whacker Streamer kit- 2 each conehead olive and black wooly buggers, 2 each all yellow/chartreuse and white/brown clousers, 2 each yellow and black marabou streamers.
If it doesn’t work you could try and sell them individually, but you have to add in the cost of a table at a show or any advertising costs.
Good luck! I hope you can find a way to make it work.
Peregrines
Let me help some of you out. I am getting back into guiding and my web site will be ready in a couple of months and on that site we will be selling flies. Not so many trout flies cause just about everyone sells trout flies. We are looking to sell more bass, carp, panfish, pike, salt and tube flies oh and custom work. I will need several tiers to handle the orders, small orders at first but if it grows like before the orders will get much larger. So don’t go and quit your day job but like many of the posts you will be able to pay off your materials with a little profit on the side. And please don’t start sending me samples. What I will do as time gets closer I will post again about it and I will say for instance Tie up 4 different bass patterns of your liking and send me some pics of the flies and a bio about yourself and from those I will pick a few to send me samples. Then if I like what I see we will arrange a time to talk on the phone and go from there. Any initial thoughts?
WWFF:
I would think that IF you are not trying to make $$$ selling flies that a desired goal should be to cover the cost of your own fishing flies.
While I think that the reality of making a TRUE PROFIT on fly tying is more elusive than making a profit on selling many things; covering your own fishing fly expenses can be easy. You know what I mean; 100 hooks cost $15, package of dubbing costs $3, 100 pack of hackle costs $17, $15 for winging material and throw in $5 for thread, and assorted stuff and you are tying 100 flies for $.55 each. Obviously your time, actual costs depending on pattern and tool investment is not factored in this simplified example but if you were going to tie flies for yourself ANYWAY, why factor it in?
Bottom line, if you can get $10 for 6 flies; that means that using my hocus pocus numbers after you tie 33 flies the rest you tie for yourself are free!
I am not in the business but…
I think wholesale rates are .75 ~.85 cents per fly
Retail is 1.00 ~ 2.00 per fly.
Sounds like you are in the ballpark.
Enjoy,
jed
I was tying a bee pattern, and a secret san jaun variation. For the bee i used a Whiting hen cape, the profit i made paid for that. 
I’m not looking to carge much for time cause i love tying.
the fly pictured toward the top of this page is the bee pattern i tied for the guy.
http://www.troutgetter.com/
pretty easy tie once you know what you’re doing.
if you are really serious about selling flies commercially, check out the spring 2007 issue of fly tyer magazine for an article called ‘tying for dollars’ by al & gretchen beatty. dont forget your federal government papers and irs forms.
not really looking to tie commercial, gonna tie for a craft shop down the road. they said they’ve had numerous people come in asking for flies. i’m gonna try it out and see if i can sell any there. If not maybe for one of the nearby fly shops. They like my flies and are interested in them.