About Handmade Products, Pricing, and Shipping…
The Beginning
Let me explain a little about where Back Roads Mercantile began.
In 1998, my wife and I bought a mobile home and moved into it. We lived there until a couple of years ago. We kept foster children from 2003 to 2005, and later adopted two of them and raised them as our own.
Through the years, the house showed its wear and tear. It also developed several serious problems. The biggest was that the roof leaked in several places, causing the sheetrock in the walls to deteriorate. Insurance would not cover the damage.
We had resolved to stay in the house until the company holding our note sold it to another company—the fourth time the note had changed hands. This new creditor immediately sent us notice that we were six months behind on our payments. They said we had not paid them.
That was not the case.
Apparently, the new company either did not receive complete records from the previous creditor or something else was going on. I still don’t know which. We informed them that we did not owe those payments and would not pay them again. They amounted to several thousand dollars—money we simply did not have.
They repeatedly threatened to repossess the house, and we believed they might actually come and take it.
With the possible repossession of our home hanging over our heads, I built a storage building and we moved many of our belongings into it. Then, on credit, we bought a tiny building, finished out the inside, and moved into it.
It’s very small, but it’s home for now.
We can still see the old mobile home through our window, only about 20 feet away. A few things we owned were still inside it, but there was no activity at all from the creditor.
After a couple of years, I finally called and asked when they were going to come get this huge eyesore.
The man flatly told me they weren’t coming. They were not going to do anything about the house. He told me to do whatever I wanted with it.
So there we sat, next to a decrepit mobile home.
It is in bad shape. We never had the money to repair everything that went wrong with it. My son also had mental health difficulties, and during some very difficult episodes he caused additional damage to the house.
Altogether, the house would certainly qualify as a “dump.”
And it was just sitting there, unused.
I have been fighting injuries and physical problems since being released from the hospital in 2020. The story of that episode is on my personal website, tedgresham.com. The problems I face have not stopped me from trying to move forward and do things on my own. In fact, I have improved a great deal.
But I needed something to do.
I needed a purpose.
Why not set up a place to sell things I make?
I began a conversation with ChatGPT about what I wanted to do, and it helped me lay out the business that became Back Roads Mercantile—backroadsmercantile.shop.
I decided to use the old house as the place to get the business going. The condition of the interior didn’t matter nearly as much if I was simply going to use it as a workshop.
I moved all my equipment, tools, and parts from my old, very small shop into the mobile home’s large living room. The room that was once the master bedroom became another workroom, where I can press shirts, produce booklets, and operate my laser engraving machine. The other rooms are used for storage.
So here I am, turning out wood products and offering shirts and other items as I am able to produce them.
It may not be a fancy workshop, but it is functional, and it gives me what I need to build Back Roads Mercantile into a thriving little business.
In the future, I hope to open a small storefront somewhere nearby where I can offer all of my goods for sale locally.
Products
I have been crafting things from wood since heck was a pup. I have no idea how many things I’ve made over the years. Woodworking is something I truly enjoy.
All of the handmade items listed here are my creations, although inspiration can come from all sorts of places. Some of them are a little rustic, but they are finished products—not junk. I take pride in what I build.
What you find on this website includes original ideas and handmade items produced in my own shop. These particular creations are available from Back Roads Mercantile, and I hope you’ll enjoy owning and using them.
If there is ever a problem with something you receive, please contact me through the contact form in the menu above.
And if you have an idea for something you would like me to make for you, send me a note about that, too. I’m always interested in hearing what someone has in mind.
Thank you for stopping by!
Pricing
When I decide what to charge for something, there is always a balance between what the item costs me to make and what I think is a fair price to ask for it.
I often hear woodworkers and craftspeople on YouTube say that they put high prices on relatively simple items because people will pay those prices. My work is as good as theirs and might sell for those higher prices, too.
But I don’t want to price things that way.
Like I said, my products are not junk. I take pride in what I create, even when there are small imperfections that give a handmade piece some character.
Sure, I could charge more. But I don’t want to price things so high that people living on a real-world budget can’t afford them. I want to make a profit, of course. A business has to make something. But I also know what it is like to look at something you would enjoy having and realize that it simply costs too much.
I’ve been there in my life, and I’m living on a limited budget now.
So I try to keep my prices reasonable.
If you think I have overpriced something, please tell me. Pricing handmade goods can sometimes be a hit-or-miss activity, and sometimes I might miss.
Tell me what you think.
Shipping
There are places on the internet where people advertise something at a low price and then make up the difference with ridiculous shipping charges. eBay is one place where I’ve seen it, and there are plenty of others. I have also found that many large providers of custom products use the same approach.
A few days ago, I was going to buy some items that couldn’t possibly cost very much to ship. By the time I got to checkout, the shipping charge was higher than the cost of the items themselves.
Wow.
I don’t do that.
When you order something online, it has to be shipped to you, and somebody has to pay that expense. I try to keep my shipping charges as close as possible to what it actually costs me to get your order to you.
Most of that cost is packaging and postage, with a little left to cover the materials and work involved in preparing the order for shipment.
I do not use shipping charges as another source of profit, and I don’t hide them.
Many product pages will show both the price of the item and its shipping cost. On others, shipping may be calculated or added at checkout.
Think of it this way: the product price is roughly what I would ask for the item if it were sitting on my table at a craft show. The shipping charge is what it takes to get that item from my table to your home.
That’s it.
One of my future plans is to open a small local store where my products can be available in person. When that happens, anyone will be able to drop in, look around, and buy something without worrying about shipping.
Until then, if you live in the East Texas area and would rather pick something up than have it shipped, send me a message. Most of the time, we can arrange something.
Thank you for stopping by!
