I'd like to take a moment to address these questions, and attempt to explain why I have the prices I do, and why I don't fear Wal-Mart or your friend putting me out of business. (And please do note that I am NOT an economics expert, I have a general layman's knowledge of how it works, which has been added to by my own experience running a business. So you can't quote me on any of this except the bits about my own work.)

First, you need to understand the difference between hand made, factory made, and sweatshop made. Something that is hand made is created entirely by a single individual. Occasionally you'll find a partnership or a small group, but generally it's just one person that does every step in the creation process, from beginning to end. A factory made item is, of course, made largely by machine. Some factory made items have a step, perhaps two, that involves a human being. I, for example, use to put the plastic beads on Chums eyeglass holders. But that does not make a Chums eyeglass holders hand made. Now there are indeed some items that claim to be hand made and are very cheap. These items I call "sweatshop made" because that's how they're produced. Human hands do all the work, but they might as well be machines, because items made like this go along an assembly line and each person adds their bit on, ever individual doing the same task over and over. China is notorious for making things this way, as is Mexico and many other countries where hiring labor is cheaper than buying machines.

Now let's look at an item and show you some examples that explain why these different methods have different price tags attached. Let's look at a small plush, something the size of one of my own Loonakits. When I set out to make a Loonakit, the first step is to buy materials. Admittedly many of these are made from pieces left over from other projects, but I still had to buy the supplies at some point. I, as a buyer, must purchase things at retail rates. A yard of quality MM fox fur, a fur I use a lot, at retail price costs around $30. Then I must also get thread, and needles, and scissors, and chalk, and a few other odds and ends. I use these on a lot of projects, so they only add a few cents each in cost to an item like a Loonakit, but the costs add up. And, of course, I need to buy the eyes, which I also get retail, at between $0.50 and $10, depending on the specific kind and color of eyes purchased. Plus another dollar or so for the polyfill that I stuff the plush with, and all supplies are accounted for. Now I have to start working. I take around an hour to sew a Loonakit. I go fairly slowly because I'm working entirely by hand, and being careful to make neat, even stitches. I don't use a machine for these, though that's my own choice, because I enjoy taking my sewing with me various places, so I hand sew most things.

A Loonakit sells for $25. $5 of that is my shipping costs. (And if I sell one at a convention and hand it to you, it costs me something like a thousand dollars to get plane tickets, hotel, convention membership, and booth space! That $5 for shipping just became heaven knows how much in con expenses, so my profit at cons may be even lower!) Another $5 of so is the total cost of materials put in, though on some of the deluxe and custom models it may be as high as $25, and on a few of the basic models it might be more like $3. Loonakits are, in fact, my highest margin item, and I love them for it, because I make a lovely $10-$20 per hour making them. That's so nice! Assuming I sell all those I make (and I may not!) I can actually rack up a couple hundred in profit in one day, if I work hard and steady. And every single one of those Loonakits is 100% unique, no two are ever quite the same.

Now let's take this same critter as made by factory. First of all, the factory can turn them out in minutes each. They can produce hundreds, perhaps thousands a day. Each of those thousands of plushes are exactly the same, down to the last stitch. Because they make so many, they buy their fur not at wholesale rate, but at the even better manufacturer's rate, because they have it made specially for their use, which is around $9 a yard for the same fur I'm paying $30 for. They pay not even pennies per item for thread and incidentals and only a few cents at the very most for stuffing. They pay a few human beings to keep the machinery in line, and possibly to perform some step in the process that machines don't do well, but there are hundreds of items produced for each employee there, and most of those employees will make little better than minimum wage.

They will sell a plush of that size for probably $5, and will sell hundreds every day. Their total materials cost is probably less than $2 per plush, and at $3 profit each, they're raking in thousands of dollars each day, only a little of which has to go to pay the factory workers.

The story for sweat shop items is much the same. They probably don't produce as many things as the factory does, and may buy fabric at a $20 wholesale rate, but they often pay their workers pennies per hour, and once again every item is the same, all exactly alike save for a few tiny differences that you'd have to carefully go over them side by side to spot. They'll call their items "hand made" and sell them for $10 each, and are still probably making a very good profit at that price.

This is a basic principle of economics that everybody ought to learn. Something mass produced is, by its very nature, cheaper to make than something made one at a time.

Now consider the rest of the things I make. A full fursuit takes me a month of work to complete, and I probably spend at least half of my time during that month working on it, and the other half doing tails and Loonakits and so on. How much do you make in half a month of full time work? I get approximately $800 profit on a full suit. I may well put in twelve eight hour days to create one. That means my sewing is paying me a paltry $8.33 an hour. That's not much above minimum wage in some states. Some suits I get done faster, and that's great, but I'm still not exactly raking in the dough.

The bottom line here is that I'm not ripping you off, and I'm not living high on the hog on your dollar. I work hard, I make ends meet, and that's about it.

And think about what you get for your dollar. Yes, you could go to Wal-Mart and buy a plush for cheap. You could place an order at Marylen's and get a fursuit for a few hundred. And if you do, you'll get something that is not yours alone, because hundreds, thousands, even millions (in the case of Wal-Mart) own that exact same item. Not only that, but many mass-produced items are low quality! They cut corners on buying cheap fabric, on using less thread, on cheaper stuffing that clumps and gets nasty. If you get something from me, it's made from the best stuff I can find, with care and attention to detail, and nobody else on the face of the planet will have one like yours.

Which is why I'm not afraid of factories and sweat shops. They can undercut my prices all they want, they will never be able to deliver what I can. I take your descriptions and drawings and make something that is yours and yours alone.

Now I'll take a second and address the issue of "your friend so-and-so" who makes things cheaper than I do. I will bet any amount of money that "so-and-so" either lives at home, supported by parents, or has another job. There is nobody out there who does this kind of thing for a living who can do it much cheaper than I do. I am probably one of the VERY cheapest fursuit makers on the planet, at least as far as full-time professionals go. Your friend can afford to make only a dollar or two profit per item because your friend doesn't have to pay the bills with his sewing. He only takes money at all to make back his costs in materials. It's a hobby and not a profession. Hobbyists are in it for the fun, not for the dough. And though hobbyists are a bit of competition for me, they're not something I worry about. Many of them are far less experienced and skilled than I am, and those who are at my skill level can only devote an hour here, a weekend there to their hobby, so they don't make enough items to really cut into my market.

So I'm not going to be put out of business by Wal-Mart, your friend, or blind nuns in China any time soon! My prices support me, and are fair prices for what you get.

If you can't afford my things, I'm sorry. Really I am. I wish I was rich so I could just sew fursuits and give them away. But I'm not, and the rent has to get paid somehow.