i have now been making plugs for a few months starting last fall. now i want to see if anyone would actually want to buy any of my creations. I am thinking of selling a popper or two on e-bay or see if anyone will buy one from my local tackle shop (Tropicland). does anyone have any tips for me as in price or basically anything that would help me. i would really appreciate any help. thanks.
christian

try posting some pictures here on the board and you may just well sell them here, I think John might be willing to accept his commissions in plugs ;-).

Christian basically you have to be able to make your plugs cheap enough to meake a profit. A commercially made wooden plug retails for 8-17 dollars. 17 is the high end of the market. Not too many people are going to pay 17 bucks for a plug. An unknown plug is a hard sell. I would say that if you could get 6 or 7 bucks from a shop you are doing well. We have'nt seen any of youur plugs yet got any pics.

i'll have some pictures soon just have to scan them at my friends house. thanks for the advice.

Hello Christian, Have you cought fish with the plugs you made. Or is it you enjoy building them? If you have cought some fish with them how about some pictures of the fish with the plugs
Good Luck !!

i have caught a few fish with my plugs but no photo worthy fish... yet. all have been small stripers.when i say few i mean like 3. im sure i'll get a blue soon and hopefully a something a little bigger.

I may be able to help out with this one. The market for custom lures is actually pretty big (about $200 million/year) and customers are willing to spend more for custom lures. The key to selling them is the finish.

To get a "sellable" finish, you need to use transparent lacquer paints and ALWAYS apply a starter coat of transparent pearl over your base white coat and under your actual finishing colors. Then add some holographic glitter to your finishing coat. These types of paints will blend with each other during the airbrushing stage and make an incredible finish. And the finish truly sells the lure!

Also, if you're thinking of selling them commercially, you should think about making a turning wheel to dry the lures you paint. They're pretty cheap to make (less than $300) and seriously speed up the manufacturing process.

In a nutshell, a turning wheel has a rotating shaft with round foam "frisbee" shaped discs along it. The disks rotate when the shaft motor is turned on. You paint your baits on sticks and then slide them between the foam pads to dry.

If you need help getting started selling, drop me a line and I can point you in the right direction. We work with a lot of custom tackle makers to sell their products. :)

- Erik

Here's a close-up to show the difference that a transparent paint and top-coat will make.

http://www.tacklemaking.com/images/members/gills/3a.jpg