I’ve been mentioning the struggle for yarn as a casual crocheter myself*, but the yarn and all craft supply issue is REAL and affects more than just @HandmadeAmazon Handmade sellers. Small business Sellers in many fields, categories, and industries are facing serious challenges in maintaining business quality without having to raise prices beyond what shoppers can bear–and in December 2025, that is asking a lot.
DISCLOSURE: I do not sell my crochet makes online, and I am not a Handmade Seller on any online venue, including Amazon Handmade, Etsy, Michael’s MakerPlace, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Faire, craigslist(?), literally anywhere at all. I merely sympathize with Handmakers because I see their (somewhat disproportionate) struggle to maintain profitable businesses in the face of cascading economic influences.
Try gemstones and jewelry. Everything from India (where a lot of silver and gems originate) has a 50% tariff. As I like to tell my father in law who voted for all this…You can’t mine tanzanite in Ohio…
Items from earlier this year are more than doubled, even from US suppliers, as they source from overseas. Combined with silver’s historically high price and tariffs, some items I’ve used for over a decade are now discontinued. The main US suppliers are no longer stocking some things because they don’t want to charge 3x the old price (or be stuck with that inventory because buyers like me fold).
My main gem supplier from India has lamented that the slow orders due to tariffs might make him have to shut down.
In 2020-2021 when there was the cargo shipping issue and Covid shutdown issues, we ordered in what we thought would be a 7 to 8 year supply of our items. It was kind of a crazy thing to do and was looking like it wasn’t necessary in 2023-2024. But now in 2025, we are extremely happy we took the risk back then. We were even able to recently help out a neighbor with supplies without hurting ourselves.
Had we not made that decision back then, we too would be thinking of shutting down because of supply issues that exist now.
we’re number one in flustercuck - we are lucky in a way that despite the major flustercuck going on here and around the world - we have a geography which allows us to function a lot better then everywhere else despite our incredible flustercucking. We shall see.
I have accumulated quite a bit yarn and other craft supplies over the years. These were intended for projects that I had planned but never got around to completing (or even starting on). With the current dearth of yarn and craft supplies that you mention, this may be a good time for me to offer them up to crafters who can actually use them. FYI, I had considered listing these items long before the current tariff crisis. This may be just the thing to spur me into action.
Most of my supplies were ordered on a JIT basis before tariffs. Right now I’m just trying to dwindle my existing stock down towards my exit cause that’s looking like where it’s going. I have not drastically changed my prices yet cause I would not be selling ANYTHING if I had to raise them to be profitable. I have no motivation left to continue playing this game.
And many of the people with the power have no clue about this. A few months back, one congress-critte pointed out the rising cost of a banana; a fellow congress-critter responded back with something along the lines of “well, you should buy American grown bananas”.
Totally clueless.
(yes, they grow bananas in Hawaii; but nowhere near the volume to handle anywhere else (I’m not even sure if they ship out a single bunch). Plus much of what they grow there are varieties other than Cavandish).
The earwires I complained about a few months ago - pack of 100 used to be $50, then $90, last I saw over $160, now discontinued. They have a cheaper alternative, but they are cheaper for a reason.
That’s from Halstead, a long established silver jewelry trade dealer, and I’ve been using those wires since 2011.
I found them at another smaller supplier, for less, for now…
I need to keep this going either way until 65 and medicare for the tax deductions, which at this point might exceed my sales.
Almost all of the chain supermarkets here in NH are now charging the same price as the lowest price in the past few years $.49/lb. The supermarkets owned by the national chains have dropped their prices.
The only truth I see in the reports on the economy is that whatever your position, there are examples that support it and others that contradict it.
Where you live, what you buy, how you shop and how open you are to changing any of them will effect the impact of tariffs and other threats to free markets.
Yeah, I was quoting a politician’s example, which I believe was based more on the fact that you can’t just shift to American suppliers as opposed to an example of a huge price increase.
In my area, they’ve gone up a nickle. But I also think that it’s one of the items that stores make pretty much no profit on anyway, so I don’t think it’s a good example of increasing costs.
OTOH, my Reese’s Peanut Butter cups have gone up more than 50% in the last year. Now THAT’s an important issue!
Good to know. I sold a lot of stuff like this before the pandemic, the it really took off after lockdown; but seems like it had run its course after 2022 or so. Would be nice to see it pick up again, as I still have a fair amount left (and quilting too, I’m selling 2-3 a year on that now.)
Not exactly a free trade issues, but back when I was volunteering at a local FOL, circa 2008, craft books, cook books and DIY medical books flew off the shelves.
Not sure what sells at FOL sales to civilians these days.
Not sure about craft and DIY medical books, but one sale I go to often has three sets of pricing; some books “as marked” (and it’s not always the best stuff!), Hardcover and Trades $1, except cookbooks, which are 4/$1, except the times that they put them on sale for even less.
My guess is that the internet pretty much killed the cookbook market; even I use Internet recipes more often than ones from books.
The few cookbooks that I’ve found worth selling seem to have rather short lives. I sold one by Chrissy Teigen for about $25 or so few years back (at that point, I had never heard of her). Now the same book is nearly worthless. A few other “trendy” ones seemed to follow a similar path (grilling/BBQ books were great for about a year; not now).
The only ones I find that are actually worthwhile are Kosher cookbooks; they not only demand a decent price in many cases, but actually hold value long enough to sell them.
Re: cookbooks. I sell the odd one here and there mostly recently published. Professionally oriented ones still sell. I sold 3000491422 “Chocolate-The Reference Standard” a few years ago for $225., but it goes for about $90. now.
I own hundreds of cookbooks, but usually plug my ingredients into Google to find recipes, or get them from various blogs and websites.
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