I would try to sell to the right end consumer.
If this is a niche you want to explore, meet your target audience. Try a ren fair, comic con, and the likes. But go as a visitor first, get a feel for the scene, compare prices.
The type of swords is really important though.
If you want to sell to ppl who want to use it for more than a prop to mount on a wall, look into eastern European blacksmiths. Or at least check the quality of the work of the supplier you found.
Well… if he has to drive you to the post office to send off orders, the customers don’t seem to think they are ‘shitty’, do they?
I get your frustration.
For me, it was my inlaws… i should get a ‘real job’, and do my ‘little hobby’ on the side.
I mean… I went to fashion school to become a fashion designer/tailor, and that is what I do.
I can go sit at a cash register at a dollar store, just to have a ‘real job’, but how would that make anyone happier?
The only revenge worth pursuing, is to be successful. And even then… when I had so many orders I asked MIL to help me pack them, she kept saying over and over and over again how she ‘never thought I was going to be this successful’.
This year, for the holiday season, you arrange for an eye catcher in the spot where she usually parks her van. Or you get someone who is a true friend/family to man a stand there with hot coco or gluh wine, or whatever works where you are. Or spread your business outwards, and meet your customers outside with your goods. ‘Friend’ rolls in with her van, redirect her somewhere else. ‘From now on, we’re taking the spot in front of the store ourselves. But there’s plenty of other spots in town. Hope to see you tonight, to catch up’