Hobbyist..What defines one?

Lets talk a little bit about what defines a hobbyist as opposed to a vendor. It can be hard to tell I suppose. I have a web site, I have an Etsy Store, I have twitter and facebook and this blog. For all intensive purposes one might assume I am a vendor, however in my mind I am clearly not.
Why, some might ask. You sell products, you use social media to market, sounds like a vendor. I totally understand that let me explain why I consider myself a hobbyist.
I thoroughly enjoy making the products I make. I started out making them strictly for my own personal use. Very quickly a couple things became apparent. 1- It was costing me a substantial amount of money to get even the minimum quantities of high quality ingredients I wanted to use. 2- I would have enough product to last me for several lifetimes. I soon began giving products away to friends and fellow wet shavers I knew in person. The feedback was phenomenal. they all suggested I start to make the items and sell them . I felt I could make them even better with some more work and experimentation but that meant more money. I was enjoying it so much I figured there were worse things I could spend my money on so I pursued it. I soon began working with several "tester's" if you will. Supplying them with sample products and getting feedback. They ranged from people who had wet shaved since their first shave to people who had just started weeks before.  All the feedback was invaluable.
I finally came upon final formulas I felt worthy of sharing publically. Ill be honest, not only worthy but I felt were superior and different from anything else out there. No one, no artisan, no company was going to lengths I was to procure the absolute best quality ingredients and then taking it even further by for example filtering all the oils to 100% sterile through a .22um filter. This is unheard of. Why, because it takes a lot of money to buy the ingredients of that initial quality and it takes a ton of time to filter them or distill them to make them 100% pure and sterile. No one could do that and offer a product at a price point that would allow it to sell.
Well there is one way someone can do that. That is if they do not factor in their time expenditure in the sale cost of them item. Why on earth would someone do that you might ask. Well what if it was a hobby? Something they truly loved and enjoyed. A passion they loved doing so much it is akin to golf or fishing to some people. There you have it. There is the difference between a vendor and a hobbyist. A vendor MUST charge for their time and their employees time. it is overhead and they have to make a profit. It is how they pay their bills. A hobbyist loves what they are doing, for what they are doing. The concern is simply covering the cost of the ingredients and the packaging and the shipping materials and the website etc. Thats what makes a hobbyist, I will never get rich, but I am not $ driven, I am passion driven. I need my costs covered and a little bit more so I can experiment making new products.
Now someone might be reading this saying yeah right, but I challenge you to go and seek out the ingredients in my products at the quality level I use and in the smaller quantities I must purchase. Add everything up. Don't forget all the disposable items such as the 22um filters and the plastic pipettes for essential oils and so on. Add it all up and the packaging and the bubble wrap and the envelopes and the packing tape and the labels etc. Then look at the time it would take. Its akin to 3rd word countries paying 25 cents an hour, but that's ok, because I love it. As long as I can continue to do it and cover my costs plus a few extra dollars I will. The goal is to share the fruits of my labor with as many people as will try them. It what I like to do. Its my Hobby. Thanks to those that allow me to continue to pursue it. I am extremely grateful.
Jim@WetShaveObsession