Pricing on large quanties

[sal shepherd]

Hi All,
I have some customers asking about pricing on pens and duck calls.First on pens, they are made of all exotic wood 30qty first run and 100 second run, more to come in future. also with one color fill. how would you price, and how do you handle return shipping?

on duck calls ,the cheapest one is 30.00. first set is [20] they want to link me to their website, than I will deal with customer on their engraving. Most will want a picture of different types of ducks an name. These will be 1 to 2 at a time.

[Joe Pelonio]

In the sign and advertising specialties industries a quantity discount is based on decreased cost per item when doing a large run. Traditionally this comes from screen printing. Some materials cost less when bought in large quantities, including ink. Then, a large part of the cost is setup. Once the screen(s) have been made, all that's left to consider is the labor to run them, and they go very quickly. Typically price breaks are given at quantities 15, 50, 100, 250 and 500.

When it comes to laser work, or for that matter vinyl signs, here is very little savings for a large run. The time per item including loading/unloading may be a bit less if you are doing 20 across and 8 down, as opposed to one, but then you have to design and manufacture a jig.

Since people do expect quantity discounts, for laser jobs I try to explain the small amount of of savings to me, or lack of it, then will agree to give them 10% off on 100 or more, and that's it. If it's a large cutting job, say with acrylic, then I can pass on any discount I may get for buying whole 4x8 sheets rather than just a couple of square feet. The discount is 50% of what I am getting from my supplier, divided by the total number of items ordered, in addition to that 10%.

[Stephen Beckham]

I agree with Joe - large quantities don't mean reduced price - that means I've got larger number of items to run. If we had self loading machines that etched/spit it out/reloaded/etched.... Then yea - large quantities count.

The way I like to price it is a deck-full. IF I can fit 12 on there (according to size and jig), they get a reduced price when I can run 12. If they come up with 2 - then they get full price because I don't have a full deck. Yea, I'll fudge it with 9-12 of them, but not two at a time... I don't try to get them to promise 100 or more - just a full deck.

The other thing to look at is reduced price for large quantities with different images or names? Nah... Are you doing 100 pens at once or are you doing one pen at a time - 100 times? Typing new names does not constitute quantities... Difference is load once and run 100 or load one over and over and over and over...

With all that being said - there are a couple people that I have a good working relationship. If I do 1, 10, 20 or 100 of an item, because they are regulars that are running things through me to retail on their own... They get low prices everytime to keep it lucrative for both them and me...

[Mike Null]

I agree with Joe and Steve. Don't forget how much it costs to make a jig. With pens, they'll probably vary in style so a jig won't work for all styles. You can easily get locked into a pricing scheme which will not reward you for all the variables you encounter.

[Barbara Buhse]

Whenever someone asks me for a discount on "quantity" I get caught off guard. (You'd think I'd have a pat answer by now... I'm working on it).

I don't see how this is even a quantity order when you will seemingly be dealing with different end-user customers. Especially with the duck calls... they way you're describing it, it seems like they'll be selling them and then sending them to you for engraving, then you send them back, and they send them to the customer... in that case, they should be happy with their markup as is... after all, the reason they'll probably do so well selling them in the first place is because they are offering personalization on them.

Maybe I'm not as experienced with this kind of thing, but you have a service they need. A small discount so they can mark it up is one thing, a quantity discount for a "promise" is quite another.

[Brian Robison]

I hate to do this but.... Steve, are you saying your not playing with a full deck most of the time?:D

[Stephen Beckham]

Brian - only on the second Tuesday of each week! :D

[sal shepherd]

Thanks To All Who Answered,

Great Advice As You Mentioned The Jig Alone Will Take Time.if I Would Screw Up A Expensive Pen Or Duck Call, Could Be Quite Costly. Any Idears On Material And Or How To Build A Large Scale Pen Jig?as Many That Could Fit On Table . I Have A Epilog 24x18 60wat Laser

[Mike Null]

Sal

From my experience you're better off to build a smaller jig for 12 to 24 pens and build two of them.

You can make them from 1/8" or thicker acrylic or several kinds of wood.

A search of SMC will produce some drawings.

[Brian Robison]

Sal, this may be obvious but make the jig on the laser.
Then you can see where your text would be in relation to the jig. Make the jig EXACLTY the size of the table so it won't move around on you. If you have a table saw it's a good idea to get several sheets of material, cut them to your table size for a snug fit and keep them around to use for the future, seems you will always need something in a big hurry.
I also engrave 0,0 in the upper left hand corner along with any notes, speeds, power, hertz, product, placement.......
Put the outline/ hairline (that you just cut to hold the item) on a separate layer and turn off the little icon that looks like a printer. To use, put your text in, take your cursor and make a box to select the text and the outline, push C and E and it should be perfectly aligned inside the outline.

[Ken Dolph]

Here is a formula that I have used for many years. Tweek as needed.

First figure all of the costs of making one unit, including electrictity, paper work , materials (retail), time for everything at a good rate, etc.

That is my wholesale price figuring a $400 to $1,000 minimum order.

Retail (MSRP)is about double that.

Never undercut your retailers.

You say, where is the profit in wholesale? When you start doing large quantities you will find less expensive materials (wholesale) and faster ways to do the job than you thought of at first. This could be 20% to 50% in savings (Profit) to you. If you added this profit to your initial offering it would make the retailers price (they will double it) more expensive and may mean lost sales. With this method you have a reasonable starting point and will still see the profit on top of the pay rate you allowed in the original figures.

In this transaction, it seams like the end purchaser will pay for a lot of shipping back and forth. You may want to negotiate keeping the units that the retailer purchases and drop shipping the final product (in their name) to the end user. The engraving is retail. Of course you would do this shipping and hanldling for a fee.

I hope this helps
Ken

[sal shepherd]

Ken, after reading your reply an the others I am glad to have the Creek on my side!!!

[sal shepherd]

Thanks Mike an Brian , I am doing a search of the Creek. and also printed your reply Brian, a lot of info. Thanks again