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FairieSnuff wrote:To be honest why not do both prices???.... £5 for a quick reading of tarot, £5 for a palm or £10 for both palms and tarot......

Best of both then....... lol..

I would say a fiver is best for village fairs..... but to be honest your very experienced and good at it, so hook em in and make sure you advertise your private readings..... that would ultimately make more in the long run?/..

F x

That's actually what most of us do.

I've started charging $50.00 for my standard 15 minute session but still do $10.00 quickies when working events or busking.

I would price tarot at £3.97. I dont know why I just would.

It's easy at a psychic fair - you just charge £20 like all the other readers. At a "craft" fair it's a little different, as people are not specifically coming along to get a reading as they would be at a psychic fair. I experimented with some craft fairs late last year, my thinking being that rather than being one amongst many at a psychic fair I could the only reader at a craft fair. What I found was that when charging £10 (for 15 minute readings generally) I would have half a dozen clients all day, whereas at £5 I would have a dozen plus - so although I was busier when charging £5, I actually didn't make any more money.

The fairs I'm starting at on Sunday are in Bakewell, Derbyshire. The average punter there is either 30's/40's aspirational middle class or elderly upper middle class. I've decided to take 2 signs with me. One that says £8 and one that says £6. I'll start at £8 and if all goes well, fine. If however thigns are a little slow by lunch-time I will switch to the £6 sign.

I'll let you know how I get on!

oddly enough were doing a bootsale next week charging a 5'ver a throw for tarot or runes, don't expect to make much but will be able to give out business cards for home readings.

All this talk of cheap £5-8 tarot readings has got me thinking (and it hurts my head). What sort of person pays £20-30 for a tarot reading? (Apart from a rich one).

Quite a few Reppi..... it all depends on the venue.... Hense why I travel some distance to some.... tis good money even in a recession...

F x

Craig Browning wrote:seems the gent in question had made a few dozen purple penii (that is the proper plural for penis, isn't it?)

Nope, it's penises. Or, if you want to get very technical and Latinate, penes (pronounced "peenies").

I am amazed at all the cheap prices quoted. I am not greedy by any means but even 20 pounds sounds terribly unimpressive to me. At psychic fairs in Canada I charge $60 and I am by no means the most expensive. My readings last around 20 minutes.

mark lewis wrote:I am amazed at all the cheap prices quoted. I am not greedy by any means but even 20 pounds sounds terribly unimpressive to me. At psychic fairs in Canada I charge $60 and I am by no means the most expensive. My readings last around 20 minutes.

Yes, at the average psychic fair (village hall style) the normal price for a reading would be around £20. Anyone undercutting the other readers and breaking the status quo would be given some very hard stares from the other readers.

At the large psychic fairs (arena style) the readers tend to charge more - £30 - £40 plus. But then they have HUGE stall fees to recoup. One very large psychic fair held at an arena charges close to £1000 for a readers stall for the weekend.

The clever money at these events is made by the organisers. No matter how well the stalls do or how many punters walk in through the door, they still make their money.

At "craft" fairs it's a little different. On Sunday (for example) I didn't want to charge too much and scare away any potential casual business, but then there's always the danger of charging too little and working like a dog for little reward.

Anyway, I bottled it and went for £5 for a 10 minute reading.

The morning was fine and I was doing okay. But then the rains came, and this seemed to scare away all the tourists. The afternoon was dire with all the stallholders walking around chatting and no punters at all. Stupid weather.

Anyway, even with only charging £5 per reading and having no afternoon business, I still made enough to cover the cost of the stall and buy a chinese takeway and a bottle of red for me and the wife. So mustn't grumble!

I strongly suspect that the best psychic fairs in the world are in Canada. Even superior to the US fairs which sound awful. Psychics often make anywhere from $1000 to $1600 in a weekend. To make two grand on rare occasions is not unknown. Bear in mind that the spending power of a dollar is not far off from the spending power of a pound nothwithstanding the exchange rate.

Perhaps I should move to Canada??

I've never been to one, but I was wondering do the punters think you are following a legitimate method eg "my little finger has three wrinkles which always means that on alternate thursdays I'm lucky with money" (which anyone who has read the finger-wrinkle-book would know) or do they think that you have an extramundane power that allows you to intuit that "alternate thursdays are good for me" (which only someone who lives on air would know)?

If the latter, do they make for better subjects as you can let rip with your creativity?

I'll set aside any question of objectivity of course.

[as far as the original question goes, I'd happily pay you for an example of cold reading/divination/ju ju ... next time you are in London ...]

I would say that some believe it is an established method (eg "my mum used to read the cards as well"), some believe it is a gift ("my mum used to have the gift as well"), whereas some are just sitting in front of you because they are interested ("I've never had this done before, but why not eh?").

I find the ones who think they are experts in the field are the easiest to read for, although I do take an odd pleasure in reading for sceptics who plonk themselves down in front of me and say "Go on then, tell me something I don't know".

As far as the Paul Bell craft fair experiment goes, I attended another on Wednesday (a midweek fair no less) in Skipton, which is a nice old market town that attracts coach loads of punters during the summer. This time I went equiped with a sign that advertised £5 for a quickie, £8 for a deeper session (BINGO!).

I found that the £5 quickie drew people in, but then they thought "ooh, for an extra £3 I might as well have the full monty". It was quite a succesful day, more so than the Sunday market I attended. I turned over £100, which after petrol and the cost of my stall meant I made a profit of around £65. No-one's going to get rich working at these craft fairs, but at least it provides a bit extra when needed.

One nice point was that on arrival I did readings for the ladies who ran the cafe and I only charged them a couple of quid. All day long I got free coffee delivered to my table which is a service the other stall-holders certainly didn't get. The power of the reader!

I know that it is not quite related to the rest of the thread, but last night (inspired by necessity) I took a gig for a group at a hen night. I did a brief show, then sat down and read the palms. I have done Tarot before, reasonably often, but this was my first time doing palms. I enjoyed myself, they loved it, and most of them took it seriously. Holding their hand was a lot more intimate than reading the cards, and I found the whole process more satisfying. And I didn't need a table and a deck. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more of it.

Yes, palm reading can be a very intimate experience. I've often thought about combining palm reading with hypnosis, using the hand to face induction. Often when doing palm reading I do find the whole situation leading to induction by itself - you and the sitter begin to mirror each other, your breathing becomes synchronised, you speak rythmically, how simple it would be to point out a spot on the palm, get the fixation, then move the palm towards the face for the induction.

As for tarot reading in walkround, what I do is use a bridge size pack of tarot and just deal either one card or three cards into my hands. No need for a table. Strangely enough I find it better to do a one card reading than a three card - it seems more accurate in a weird way. You would expect the opposite. The three cards represent past, present and future whereas the one card represents all three plus hopes, dreams, spirations etc. Squeezing more out of a single card just seems to work better.