I know we have discussed various ideas for packaging, etc.  My question to those of you selling at craft shows, conferences, etc.  What kind of bags do you prefer to put the merchandise in once it is sold?  Clear poly bag, plastic bag with handles, paper bag with handles, shopping bag (think Wal Mart style), or    I use sew in labels on my puppets to identify them. Anyone else do anything different (such as add a label to the top of a poly bag, stick on labels on the shopping bag....)?  Do you make it a practice to include a business card with the sale or is your info n your receipt.   Just trying to be sure I am covering all bases for further sales.  Thanks!

Always yes to the business card! I as a consumer tend to throw my receipts away pretty fast but I have a stack of business cards!

My personal choice on bags would be go cheap, go paper and offer them but do not automatically put them in a bag. They may very well have a bag already they can use or think of the advantages of them carrying the puppet around so it is seen by others. Part of my answer is motivated by conservation... do we really need more trash?

This is a great question because I've been wondering about that too. I was thinking of heading to a local craft market and window shopping to see what kind of packaging people tend to use. Mostly I'm concerned about weather protection, but I was thinking: how many places do you go to where they offer anything other than 'box in a bag', 'paper bag', or 'plastic bag'? I figured that most businesses let the customer worry about how to get their items home in one piece once it leaves the store.

I think I'm going to go with paper bags with handles, mostly because I can probably get those easily and cheaply. I'm also going to make my own stamps (see http://lifeandscrapping.typepad.com/lifeandscrapping/2007/02/how_to_make_sta.html) and just use some paint to stamp the bags with. Actually, the other reason I'm using them is they're more recyclable.

I agree with Shawn too. Here in Oz, all supermarkets are *required* to offer biodegradable bags. These are basically heavy duty reusable, washable bags that are stronger than shopping bags and usually carry more too - but you have to pay a dollar or so to use them. Most people buy a few and take them to the supermarket so they don't come home with plastic bags. (We don't have paper bagging here) I quite often go in with my own big bag and hand it over to the checkout person to use instead of the supermarket bags. So if I happen to buy something else - say lunch or whatever - as soon as they start bagging my stuff I say "oh, just use my bag". I think having something to carry the items home in is a good idea, but perhaps offer to bag it for them.

A good idea is also to offer to wrap the item/s if it's for a gift. I know a lot of people do that on Etsy and I think perhaps gift wrapping might be more attractive to customers than just having 'normal' bagging options.

As for business cards, I'm not sure I'm going to bother too much with them. For anything I ship I always send a printed receipt, so having a business card is kind of redundant. It just seems to me to be a waste of money on my end, and then also a waste of paper. I'm not sure about markets just yet. I know that I have two to three full boxes of business cards printed for various other projects - and I'm now sticking them in the bin because I haven't needed them. I think if I get business cards it will be a *very* low amount and only to stick in my wallet or have them sitting on a table at a market stall. I'd much rather have something else really, like flyers or something.

I don't know that most people find them all that handy - maybe it's just me, but I always throw the business cards away if I buy on Etsy or something. To me it's more important that the item itself is labelled somehow - although I have no idea how to do that in practice with shadow puppets

... Actually, thinking about it, one thing I saw a while back: at a market there was a seller who offered customisable lamps. You could write on them or print your own design. Their business cards? Small rectangular cut pieces of index cards, with typewriter font text on them. There's no reason you can't print your own at home and recycle scraps. The cards didn't look 'professional' in the sense of sleekness, but they did look 'professional' in the sense of handmade humble crafting. I like the idea of finding a novel business card that doesn't require going to a printing place and getting a stack of 100 cards that I never ever hand out; especially as a way to save resources.