Making A Living

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting another one of my fellow artisans at the Jewelry Cafe. He was a skinny man, scarecrow style. He had greying strawlike hair in a ponytail down his back, and he was either really unshaven or just had an unkempt beard. He reeked of cigarette smoke, and sounded like it too.
I was there working on switching over my tags to my new logo, and he was there to meet with Laura about a style of earring he wanted to bring in. This man has been in the jewelry business for over 30 years.
I wanted to ask him how his hands were....heh.
We got to talking because I needed some advice on what to put on a price tag. I had brought in some of my sterling ear wires, not the finished earring, just my ear hooks, to put up for sale alongside the JC's tiny little bead bar. Now I've been selling these ear hooks for $3/3.50 a pair, but figured I could get more at a place like the JC. But how much more?
Laura was too busy, so I got a chance to talk to Scott. And he had lots of questions for me. "How much wire is used per pair?" "How long does it take to make a pair?" These are questions I have thought about, and answered. But he had more. "What about your overhead?" Overhead??? Gods...how do you figure that one out?
I make my own tags and labels. I don't think about the cost of this in my final price. Scott asked me, "If you had to pay someone to make these tags, and then pay someone to put them on, how much do you think you would spend?" I have NO idea. But it adds up. The ink, the paper, the time.
Scott mentioned, back in his "heyday", he sold wholesale. BIG wholesale. Department stores. 5000 items made in 3 weeks type of orders. So he had to hire people. Some one to cut the pieces, someone to make the tag, put the tags on, etc etc. Costs a lot of money.
I don't think I want to do wholesale. Ever. I want my jewelry to be one of kind, and with my findings, I could never make them fast enough to wholesale at big orders like that and still make money.
I don't know if jewelry making is Scott's only income. He has really been making a living of it all these years? Can I do it?