Maker agreement

1.1This agreement is between Mermade Market LLC ("Mermade", "we", "us") and the maker named in the signed application ("you").

1.2It covers one show: Fall 2026, November 13-15, 2026, at the Dana Point Community House, 24642 San Juan Avenue, Dana Point, CA 92629.

Your acceptance email and the show record on this site carry the hours, the booth fee, the commission rate, the load-in times and the payment window for your show. They are part of this agreement. Selling at one show gives you no claim on the next one.

1.3Version. This is version 2026.1. When you sign, we record the name you typed, the version you signed, and the date and time. That version governs your show even if we publish a later one.

2.1Applications are juried and the curation is our judgment. We take one to three makers per category, so a strong application can be declined because the category is full. We read every application and answer either way.

2.2There is no application fee. There is no charge to be looked at, and no charge to be declined.

2.3An acceptance is an offer, not a booking. Your space is confirmed when the booth fee is paid in full. You have 48 hours from your acceptance to pay. After that the offer lapses, the space goes back into inventory, and it is offered to the next maker waitlisted in your category.

2.4Applications for Fall 2026 close September 20, 2026. The roster is announced September 25, 2026.

3.1Your booth fee is on your acceptance, with any add-on you asked for and we granted: a shared space, a corner or endcap, one of our tents. Add-ons are part of the fee and are due with it. This show’s prices are in the fee schedule at the end of this page.

3.2Cancelling. All spaces are non-refundable. If you cancel, for any reason, at any time, the fee is not returned. Cancel in writing to hello@mermademarket.com. It takes effect when we receive it, and your space is released to another maker.

3.3How you pay it. Your acceptance carries a payment link. Pay by card or by bank transfer, whichever suits you, and the space is held the moment it goes through. We do not take payment by any other route: nobody from Mermade will ever ask you to send money by Zelle, Venmo, a wire, or a link that did not come from us.

3.4Transfer. Your fee is not transferable to another maker or another person. Section 4 and section B6 are the only places it moves to another show.

3.5Your sales are not our promise. The fee buys you the space, not a level of sales. We do not refund a booth fee because you broke even or lost money. What sells is down to your product, your prices and your display, and the guidance on the maker pages is there to help you with all three.

4.1The show runs in ordinary bad weather. Rain, wind or cold on their own are not grounds for a refund, and the floor inside runs in almost any weather.

4.2If we postpone. We may move the show to later dates if, in our reasonable judgment, weather or another condition outside our control makes it unsafe, unworkable, or seriously damaging to attendance. If we do:

• your fee moves to the new dates at no extra cost;
• if you cannot make the new dates, tell us in writing within 7 days of the announcement and we will credit the full fee against any Mermade show within 18 months;
• we announce a postponement as early as we reasonably can.

4.3If we cancel outright. If we cancel the show and do not reschedule it, your fee becomes a credit against any Mermade show within 18 months. Ask for it when you apply and we apply it to that booking. We are not liable for anything else: travel, lodging, stock you made, or sales you expected.

4.4An outdoor day cancelled for weather is covered by section B6, which is more specific and governs.

4.5Force majeure. Neither of us is liable for failing to perform because of something beyond our reasonable control: fire, flood, earthquake, severe weather, a public health order, an epidemic, an act of government, civil unrest, terrorism, war, a utility or transport failure, a labour dispute, or loss of the venue. Our liability in any of those is limited to section 4.3.

5.1The person who made it is the person who applied. You may sell the goods described in your accepted application: goods you make yourself, goods made under your direct supervision in small batches, and, where we accepted you on that basis, goods you have sourced or curated and described to us honestly. What we do not allow is a maker selling someone else’s work as their own.

5.2You may sell only the categories and product lines in your accepted application. A materially different line needs our written approval before the show.

5.3Not permitted:

• goods presented as your own that you did not make, or did not source and describe the way your application said;
• mass-produced or imported merchandise passed off as handmade;
• multi-level-marketing and direct-sales lines, unless we accepted you for a product you make yourself using those materials and your shop name does not carry the company’s name;
• artwork or product imagery generated by AI.

5.4Verification. We may ask you at any time for reasonable evidence that your goods are made the way you described: process photographs, studio images, where your materials come from. Misrepresenting it is a material breach under section 12.

6.1Outside makers: seller’s permit. You sell for your own account, so you must hold a valid California seller’s permit, or qualify as an occasional seller and give us a completed CDTFA-410-D. We ask for the number, or the declaration, on your application or once you are accepted, and we need it before load-in. Applying requires neither.

Our part is to obtain that record and keep it. Revenue and Taxation Code section 6073 asks us to obtain it, not to check it, and section 6073.1 treats an operator who obtains it as having complied. We do not verify your permit and, under Business and Professions Code section 21663(c), we are not responsible for the accuracy of what you give us. CDTFA checks the numbers itself and tells us if one of them is wrong. What you give us has to be true and yours to give.

The penalty falls on a record we did not keep, up to $1,000 for each seller we cannot produce one for, which is why this is the one piece of paperwork we will chase you for. We keep these records for four years.

6.2Inside makers: seller’s permit. We take possession of your goods and sell them in our own name, so Mermade is the retailer of record for those sales under California Code of Regulations title 18 section 1569 and CDTFA Publication 114. We collect and remit California sales tax on the full retail price. You do not need a seller’s permit for the sales we make for you. Your own business stays your own responsibility.

6.3Food and treats. Food makers hold the Orange County health permit that applies to them. Cottage food operators hold their CDPH registration. Treat makers on the shelf by the register need a Temporary Food Facility permit. Send it to us before load-in.

6.4Business licence. Any city business licence the venue’s jurisdiction requires of you is yours to hold.

7.1Mermade carries its own policy for the event. It covers Mermade. It does not cover you, your goods, or a claim brought against you.

7.2We recommend you carry commercial general liability insurance of your own. If the venue or your acceptance requires a certificate for your show, we will tell you, and you send it before load-in naming Mermade Market LLC and the show venue as additional insureds.

7.3Insurance on your own goods, equipment and display is yours to arrange. Section A8 is how loss is handled on the floor inside.

8.1Except as section A8 provides for consigned goods, we are not responsible for loss of, damage to, or theft of your property, or for injury to you or anyone working with you, however caused. You take part at your own risk.

8.2Our total liability to you arising out of this agreement, on any theory, will not be more than the fees you paid us for the show, plus, for inside makers, any consignment proceeds properly owed to you and not yet paid.

8.3Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits or lost sales.

8.4Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited under California law, including liability for gross negligence, wilful misconduct or fraud.

9.1You will indemnify, defend and hold harmless Mermade, its owners, staff, volunteers and contractors, and the show venue and its owners, against any claim, loss, liability, damage, cost or expense, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of:

• your goods;
• your acts or omissions, or those of anyone working with you;
• your breach of this agreement;
• your failure to meet any law, permit or tax obligation;
• a claim that your goods infringe someone else’s intellectual property.

9.2Product liability sits with you. You are the maker. Nothing in this agreement makes Mermade the manufacturer of your goods.

10.1We photograph and film our shows and we will keep doing it. You agree that we may use photographs and video taken at the show that include you, your space, your goods, your business name or your marks, to promote Mermade Market: on this site, in print, in email, in press, and on social media, now and later, without payment.

10.2Where we post an image of your work and you have given us your handle, we will make reasonable efforts to tag and credit you.

10.3You confirm that our use of these images will not infringe anyone’s rights, and that you have permission from anyone identifiable in material you give us.

10.4You keep every right in your own work and your own marks. This is a licence for show promotion, not an assignment of anything.

10.5What we do with the information and the photographs you send with an application is set out on the privacy page.

11.1Your display has to be presentable from every angle a shopper can see it, including the back. Your business name has to be visible. Tables are covered to the floor.

11.2We may ask you to change, cover or remove any display element, sign or product that in our reasonable judgment is unsafe, misrepresents your goods, breaches this agreement, or is out of keeping with the show.

11.3We may refuse entry to, or remove, anyone whose conduct is unsafe, abusive or seriously disruptive. Removal for breach is without a refund.

12.1Material breach includes: misrepresenting who made your goods; selling something section 5.3 prohibits; failing to give us a permit or certificate we asked for; abandoning your space; not appearing after confirming; and conduct under section 11.3.

12.2On material breach we may remove you from the show without a refund, and may decline your future applications. We tell you the reason in writing.

12.3No-show. A confirmed maker who neither appears nor cancels forfeits the fee, is recorded as a no-show on their maker record, and may be declined or asked to prepay in a future season.

13.1You may not assign this agreement, or sublet, share or transfer your space, without our written consent.

13.2Someone working your space for you. A friend, a family member or someone who works for you may run your space on a day you cannot be there, selling your goods under your shop name at your prices. Tell us who to expect. You stay responsible for the space, for everything sold in it, and for everything in this agreement. What you may not do is hand the space to a different shop selling its own goods.

13.3A shared space is available as an add-on. Both makers apply together, are juried together as a pair, and both sign this agreement. That is two shops in one space, which is a different thing from someone working your space for you.

14.1Independent contractor. Nothing here creates employment, partnership, joint venture or franchise. Except as section A1 provides for consignment, neither of us is the other’s agent.

14.2Governing law. California law governs this agreement. The state and federal courts in Orange County, California have jurisdiction.

14.3Notices. Notices go to the email addresses on the maker record. Ours is hello@mermademarket.com.

14.4Entire agreement. This agreement, your accepted application, and the show record are the whole agreement between us. They replace what the rest of this site says and anything said in email.

14.5Severability. If a provision cannot be enforced, the rest of the agreement survives.

14.6Survival. Sections 8, 9, 10, A6, A8 and 14 survive the show.

A1.1You deliver goods to us. We merchandise them, sell them at the register in our own name, keep a commission, and pay you the rest. You are the consignor and we are the consignee. You do not need to be at the show.

A1.2For the purpose of selling your goods at the show, we act as your agent. We hold your goods, and the money they make, in trust for you.

A2.1You send us your inventory list with prices at least two weeks before the show, and you deliver the goods at your load-in slot. Load-in for Fall 2026 is Thursday 12 November, 1-7pm. We count your goods in against your list, and the counted list is the record we settle against.

A2.2Tagging. Every item for sale carries your Mermade ID and its price, like MM7 $18. There is no barcode or SKU for us to scan, so that tag is the whole of what the register reads. Printed tags are always better than handwritten. Do not make a tag larger than the item it is on.

A2.3Prices, and changing them. The prices on your inventory list are the prices we enter into the register. We will not discount, mark down or bundle your goods without your say so. If a price changes, or you add a new item, hand a written note to Elise, Cambi or Hillary, or to whoever is running the register, and we will try to change it that same selling day.

A2.4Marking down. Same goes for marking prices down. If you want to take 20% off, do the maths, change the tags yourself, and give us a new list. Not "20% off everything": we enter your prices by hand, and a blanket instruction is a hundred chances for one of us to get it wrong.

A2.5We may decline to display an item that is unsafe, materially different from your application, or unsaleable as it arrives, and we will tell you which and why.

A2.6Deductions. The only amounts we take off your settlement are our commission and anything we supplied on your behalf, charged at what it cost us and itemised on your statement with its reason. An item that arrives untagged is tagged by a member of staff, not charged for.

A2.7Display items. Put a sticker reading "display use only" on anything at your space that is not for sale. Our staff sell what is tagged, and an untagged item is treated as stock we need to tag. We are not responsible for a display item that sells because it was not marked.

A3.1Merchandising is ours: where your goods sit on the floor, how they are grouped and staged. That is the service you are buying. What each item costs is yours, and A2.3 is how it is set and changed.

A3.2You are welcome to restock during the show, in the slower hours. Everything you bring is priced and tagged before it goes out, the same as everything you delivered at load-in.

A4.1Mermade is the retailer of record for these sales under California Code of Regulations title 18 section 1569 and CDTFA Publication 114, holds the seller’s permit, and collects and remits California sales tax on the full retail price.

A4.2Sales tax is not taken out of your proceeds. Commission is calculated on the pre-tax retail price.

A5.1We keep 20% of the pre-tax retail price of each item sold. The rate for your show is stated in your acceptance.

A5.2The rate is fixed when you book and cannot change for that show. If we change the rate for a later show, yours still settles at the rate you were accepted at.

A5.3Outdoor sales carry no commission.

A6.1Money from the sale of your goods is held by us in trust for you until it is paid, less commission and anything agreed under A2.5.

A6.2Within 10 days of the show closing we send you a statement showing units sold, retail price, sales tax collected, commission kept, any deduction with its reason, and the net owed. We pay the net into your own bank account in the same window.

A6.3Setting up your payout, once. Before we can pay you, set up your payout account with Stripe, who handle the money. It asks who you are and where the money goes, takes about ten minutes, and you only do it once: it carries to every show after this one. Your bank details go to Stripe and not to us, and we never see them. If your account is not ready when statements go out, your money waits for you rather than going anywhere else.

A6.4If a statement looks wrong. Tell us in writing within 14 days of the statement and we will reconcile it against the counted inventory list and the register record. After that the statement is final except for a manifest error.

A6.5A statement is never deleted. A correction is issued as a new statement that supersedes the old one, and both stay on your record.

A7.1A customer may return an item during show hours only, and only with the electronic receipt from our register. Nothing comes back once the show has closed for the day it was bought.

A7.2We set that policy and we apply it. A return inside those limits comes off your sales for the show in the ordinary way.

A7.3If a customer returns one of your items after your statement has been issued, we absorb it. We do not take money back from you after we have paid you.

A8.1Title to your goods stays with you until we sell them to a customer.

A8.2We take reasonable care of your goods while they are in our possession. The room is staffed during open hours and there is security between show days. Beyond that care, and except where section 8.4 of Part I applies, we are not responsible for loss of or damage to your goods.

A8.3We are not responsible for:

• shoplifting, and stock unaccounted for at the end of the show;
• damage from customers handling goods normally;
• damage in transit to or from the show;
• a defect or fragility in the item itself;
• loss caused by fire, flood, earthquake or anything else beyond our reasonable control.

A8.4Stock that cannot be accounted for. A show of this size loses a little stock, and we do not credit it. Your statement pays you for what the register recorded as sold. If a count comes up short we will tell you and show you what we know, but the shortfall is not a credit and not a deduction either: it is simply not a sale.

A8.5Our liability under this schedule is subject to the cap in section 8.2.

A8.6Insure your own goods if their value would hurt to lose. Our policy covers Mermade and does not cover your stock, and nothing here obliges us to insure it for you.

A9.1Unsold goods are yours. Collect them at take-down, Sunday 15 November at 5pm sharp, or arrange something with us in advance.

A9.2Goods not collected within 14 days of the show, after at least two documented attempts to reach you, may be treated as abandoned and given to a charity of our choosing. We will not sell abandoned goods for our own account, and we will not carry them to another show without your written agreement.

A10.1You are responsible for your own income tax on what we pay you. If we are required to report a payment to you, we will ask you for a W-9 first.

A10.2Makers under 18. A JR space is for makers 14 and under. A parent or guardian applies, signs this agreement, and is the person we pay. A maker between 15 and 17 applies for an ordinary space, and a parent or guardian signs.

B1.1We grant you a revocable licence to occupy the space assigned to you, for the days and hours stated in your acceptance. It is a licence, not a lease, and it gives you no interest in the venue.

B1.2You are the retailer. You sell your own goods for your own account, take your own payments, and keep 100% of your sales. We take no commission outside.

B1.3Because you sell for your own account at our event, CDTFA Publication 111 applies to us as the operator. That is why section 6.1 needs your permit or your 410-D before load-in, and it is not negotiable.

B2.1Your space is the tent we put up for you, in the size stated on your acceptance. Dimensions are on the outdoor maker page. Everything you bring stays inside your space and out of the aisles: tables, racks, signage, stock, your chair. Nothing goes in front of the tent, because that space belongs to shoppers and to getting out in a hurry.

B2.2You are set up before doors open and staffed by someone over 18 during all published hours. Hours for Fall 2026 are Friday 13 November, 9am to 6pm · Saturday 14 November, 9am to 5pm · Sunday 15 November, 9am to 5pm.

B2.3No early take-down. You may not start breaking down before the show closes on your last contracted day. It is the most-broken rule at every outdoor market and the one shoppers see most.

B2.4You may not sell an inside maker’s goods from your tent, and you may not add goods to an inside maker’s space, whatever the two of you have agreed between yourselves.

B3.1Tents are weighted at every leg, to the weight stated in your load-in instructions. Stakes are not permitted unless those instructions say otherwise.

B3.2You must have a backdrop. Your space has to look finished from every side a shopper can see.

B3.3Open flame, generators, propane and anything that produces heat need our written approval in advance, and may need the fire marshal’s.

B3.4The tent is ours to put up and yours to look after while you have it. We may ask you to lower or remove a tent that has become unsafe in wind.

B4.1Load-in and load-out happen at the times you are assigned. Vehicles move to maker parking before doors open.

B4.2Leave your space the way you found it and take your rubbish with you.

B5.1Tents, tables and chairs you rent from us stay ours. You are responsible for damage beyond normal wear.

B5.2There is power at each space. Bring your own extension cord with your shop name on it.

B6.1When we call a day off. The call is ours and we make it as early as we can. We call a day off when conditions or the forecast make it unsafe to put tents up or to have shoppers among them, or when the venue, the city or the county closes the site. Rain, wind or cold on their own do not stop an outdoor day: section 4.1 says the show runs in ordinary bad weather, and it does.

B6.2If we call a day off, your fee for that day becomes a credit towards an outdoor day at any Mermade show within 18 months. It is not refunded in cash.

B6.3Ask for the credit when you apply and we apply it to that booking. If the day you want costs more than the day you lost, you pay the difference; if it costs less, the balance stays on the credit until it runs out.

B6.4If we run the day and you decide not to come, there is no refund and no day at a later show, whatever the weather was doing. A day we have not called off is a day that is going ahead.

B6.5If you cancel a day yourself. Section 3.2 governs: the fee is not returned and it does not carry to another show, whatever notice you give us. A day we are still running is a day that is going ahead, and section B6.4 covers deciding not to come to it.