What are people willing to buy?

My dad says that just because people like my jewelry, it doesn't mean that they will actually buy it. He seems to think that no one wants to buy my jewelry because it's "cheap lousy" stuff, since it's not made of precious materials (and also because I made it. You can decide for yourself by seeing a picture of a necklace that I made many years ago here. My other work is quite different, but about as complicated.) He always emphasizes that the market is most important: You need to make what people are willing to dish out money for, not whatever you want to make.

His perspective is from an electronics engineering one. People conduct marketing research, to find out what people want. As soon as a new product comes out, other companies scramble to make their own. If they don't do it within a certain time frame, or if they don't keep making improvements to the already existing product, then the competitors will have beat them to it. By then, it won't be worth as much if every company is capable of producing it. The consumers don't want last season's model. That's why constant innovation on a tight schedule is necessary for survival, and the product must be functional or no one will buy it.

My guess is that the market for jewelry is quite different from that for consumer electronics. However, I am aware that it's necessary for fashion designers to go with trends, which is not something that I would want to do. My designs come to me on a whim; they are original and unique.

I was thinking about this, and here are my thoughts. Correct me if I'm mistaken. When selling something, the important question isn't so much whether or not someone actually wants to buy it, as it is how to get enough people to know about it. Out of a large enough number of people, there will be someone who is willing to buy.

People buy all sorts of crazy things, though some are more popular than others. If you've seen some things that are for sale during Woot-Offs, you'll know what I mean. Admittedly, some are heavily discounted and still take a very long time to sell out, such as the USB-powered pencil sharpener. There was something more bizarre, but I can't remember it because I wasn't even sure what it was. (My only experience with Woot! was during summer 2008, when my housemate was waiting all day and night for a computer mouse to appear for sale. I was just a spectator. Things probably have changed since then.)

Going back to jewelry, I'll be blunt and say that the vast majority of the pieces I've seen on Etsy are boring and I would definitely not buy them. Granted, I haven't spent much time browsing Etsy, but I've only found three jewelry shops that actually impress me. The boring jewelry still sells, however, so is that what people really want? I'm sure pricing matters, too. Such sales, whether of impressive or boring jewelry, aren't enough to make a living with. My dad says that all the seller feedback and stats are fake; that they got their relatives to do it for them. Is he being overly skeptical?

Just because you don't like something doesn't mean other people don't like it, either. Heck, there are plenty of people who like rap "music" when I can't stand it. I'm sure you can come up with your own examples.

The problem is, just getting one or two people to buy isn't sufficient.