So what is cheaper??
Making a puppet or buying one!?!?!?

It depends on the puppet. If you've never made a puppet are you going to buy a pattern, make your own, what materials are you going to use etc. Will you be factoring your time into the equation, what all will you have to buy in order to make your puppet? Not a straightforward question.

I started making my own puppets when I couldn't find what I wanted and didn't like the mouth action on the ones I bought.

You can buy cheap puppets, but that is what you get, cheap puppets.

Sue

Wow i didnt know that all came into the question!!
Thanks but where do you buy your cheap puppets?!?!

Sue is right............... most manufactured puppets are mass produced in China and are not of the best quality. It is best that you start out by buying one Good puppet from a reputable puppet builder. The other choice is to learn to make one yourself. You can make a puppet reasonably by buying supplies when on sale.

Billy D. 

it depends on what use for the puppet but if i think in it would mean more to no you made it and id it it teach you more

I agree with everyone else; there's no real guideline of how much a puppet will cost, depending on a variety of factors (some mentioned these above: materials, type of puppet, labour, design, difficulty of mechanics if you want something more complex, like blinking eyes). But making one yourself can be just as expensive. Because you have to make or get patterns, buy a book or research on the net, collect and buy the materials, design the puppet, put in your own labour....

Perhaps it's best to figure out what you want first, approach a puppet maker or two, get some quotes; in the meantime, figure out how much making one on your own would cost. Then do a price comparison.

Don't forget that different people have different costs too, due to what kinds of materials are available to them. Not all countries/people have the same access to certain materials.