If you are going to sell bows you should charge a decent price otherwise you are just undercutting a professional bowyers business.
Then you will get a ton of orders for one of your cheap bows, and soon realise you are working for peanuts. It either won't be worth your trouble, or you will have to drastically increase the prices, and people will still complain even if they are getting a fair deal.
People like a bargain, but they also won't value something if they think it was cheap.
There is a risk of someone suing if it breaks and injures the shooter, but that would be the same whether the bow was a gift or purchased.
I haven't heard of anyone getting sued from a self bow breaking. I have bought quite a few bows from professional bowyers all a round the world without any reservations, about them breaking. None have broken in my possession.
You definitely will need at very least verbal and/or written instruction about how to care for and not abuse a self bow or all wood bow. Otherwise you are asking for trouble. No dry firing, overdrawing, worn strings, too light arrows etc. Refunds will only be given if you get evidence the bow breaks from a fault in the materials or workmanship of the bowyer. Its pretty easy to tell how and why a bow breaks, from a bow autopsy.
Materials for bows are select material, with straight grain, free of knots, not run of the mill boards. A lot of hard work goes into selecting, cutting, splitting and drying wood until its suitable for bowmaking. That free stave of yew or osage you cut has retail value of at least $100-$250
depending upon the quality, so your final price needs to accurately reflect those values. Even a stave of ash, hickory or maple is worth at least $40. These prices have been the same for the last 25 years with no inflation.
$300 US would be a bare minimum for a quick to make reasonable bow from a whitewood. Decoration, heat treating, and or recurving, the price increases accordingly. Yew, or osage bows I have seen for around $500 up to around $1200. There are quite a few bowyers of incredible talent on this site that should be able to charge in the higher bracket. Most bowyers seem to charge a lot less. They aren't relying on it as a main income, and their "real job" is subsidising their semi pro hobby. Some bowyers are letting functional and artistic masterpieces of bows go for a bargain.
Eventually the Govt is going to notice your business, and they are going to want tax. Are you factoring that into the price?
When it comes down to it selling bows is a business like any other and if the figures don't add up, you aren't going top make a profit, and you will stop selling bows pretty quickly becaues the motivation is gone. I have seen this happen to many talented bowyers.
