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Posted by Trevor Jones on November 26, 2006, 11:57 am
Please log in for more thread options Chilla wrote:
> Andy Dingley wrote:
>
>> Trevor Jones wrote:
>>
>>
>>> So make him a hundred or so strikers. See if he's willing to pay more
>>> than they can be got for from India or China.
>>
>>
>>
>> Let's suppose that the Dum Dum Arsenal is selling them for $20 apiece
>>
>> Well if you're expecting to compete with the imports, you're going to
>> have to knock your prices down - say 10%
>>
>> Now this is a big order for 100, so you boys ought to knock a bit off
>> your price for that, maybe 10%
>>
>> And you're only doing this as a hobby, so you don't need to make as
>> much on them, another 10% off
>>
>> If you're only amateurs, then it stands to reason that they won't be as
>> good either. Another 10% off
>>
>> So lets see, that's about $13 each....
>>
>>
>> Now who, as a small-scale craftsman selling to this type of market,
>> hasn't heard all of this?
>
>
>
> Hi Trevor,
>
> I've heard these arguments before.
>
> If the customer wants a piece of mass produced merchandise then sure.
> The point of making things by hand is to ensure that it's hand made.
>
> It's how a knife can be sold for hundreds of dollars, when a similar
> machine made one will cost you about $20.
>
> If the going rate is $20 for a striker, then a good smith can make a
> striker... 4 curls, probably about 10 minutes worth of effort for 1, but
> making multiples the time can be reduced. Say 2-3 minutes to do the curls.
>
> Cover the cost of a bending jig, fuel, and time, probably cost $10 to
> make the final product, so if you sell them for $13 you're making $3
> profit.
>
> May not sound like much, but $3 profit over 100 = $300 in the hand, sure
> the seller makes $7 profit, for on-selling your product, but that's
> business ;-)
>
>
> Regards Charles
>
From a personal perspective.
I decided a while back, that doing my hobbies, for other peoples
profits, made my hobbies into work, thus not a relaxing way to spend my
time.
Very occasionally, I have made small runs of parts for other people,
but I sold them at full retail, or otherwise got what I felt my leisure
time was worth to me out of them. On some occasions, I have been able to
trade my goods for goods that others had that they were not willing to
sell at any price (at least not any I was going to offer), and we were
both satisfied with the deal.
I figure that a guy could jig up and do these in a couple minutes
each. A die for the taper, a jig for the bends. They all would look like
production ironwork, and I would not want to own one, for that reason.
If they were each made start to finish by handwork, I would expect to
spend about 20 or a bit more minutes each making them, say 25 minutes
total including a nice finish, each. 2500 minutes, a bit over 41 hours
for a hundred, even at half that, that's still 20 hours work for $300.
I'd have to be drooling over something that I could really not afford
otherwise, to spend 41 hours working on a pile of parts for someone
else, and the price I got would have to justify that, too.
At the end of it all, I would hate spending time in my shop. That's a
tough thing to feel about a leisure time activity. It becomes not fun.
Since I do the stuff for fun and relaxation, that kinda ruins the
whole vibe.
Cheers
Trevor Jones
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