Our Relay was at the end of July 2009.  We made "inspirational" necklaces and sold them in the months prior to the Relay at work, along with selling them at some area shops and hair salons.  We raised the price of the necklaces a couple of dollars to sell them in the shops and salons, so that the owners made a small commision for having them in the businesses, but we still made a nice amount for the Relay.  We had necklace displays that we put the necklaces on, and we had a sign on the display that told people that the necklaces were being sold for the Relay.  We were pleasantly surprised at how many necklaces we sold before the Relay!  And then we were *thrilled* with how many of the necklaces we sold at the Relay itself.  We made hundreds of dollars for our team!

Another thing that we did to sell the necklaces was to "open" an Etsy shop online.  We only managed to sell a couple of individual necklaces there, however, a great thing has happened from the Etsy shop!  I had posted in this forum about our necklaces and opening the Etsy shop,  and some of the people that looked at our shop contacted me (through the shop) to see if I would consider selling them some of our necklaces at a lower price so that they could sell them to raise money THEIR Relays!  They have had the same success selling them that we did.  And one of the sales at the Etsy shop was to someone from this forum, and I now sell quantities of our necklaces to someone from HER Relay.  (She told me that selling the necklaces was the most fun she's ever had raising funds for the Relay!)

I've been absolutely thrilled with selling our necklaces in bulk - because even though my Relay only gets a small amount, and the other person's Relay gets a much bigger amount....ALL of the money is going to Relay for Life!  It just makes me really happy to share what I can do with people all over the country so that we can all benefit the Relay together :) 

I just recently decided to add "sets" of necklaces to the Etsy store to sell for fundraisers, so that people know they're available... but up until now all of our sales have been "behind the scenes" and not through the store - which saves the fees and lowers the price a bit for the person that purchases, and ultimately mone for the Relay.

Here's the link to our Etsy store so you can see our necklaces.  We'll be adding some bracelets soon, since we need something new to sell in our area for this year!  I'd be happy to share my sources if you're interested - just contact me.  Whether you make them or I do - the money is going to the same place and we can all be proud of that!

www.naturesgarden.etsy.com

If anyone would like help in setting up a similar "shop" on Etsy, I'd also be happy to give you advice.  Maybe you would have better luck than we did!