I'm not engraving 5,000 pens......

[Steve Clarkson]

Someone asked me for 5,000-8,000 pens with their company logo on it......for under $1 each.......anyone have a good source (I assume a promotional products company) for something like that? She almost keeled over when I told her how much an ENGRAVED pen would cost.........

[Brian Robison]

Hi Steve,
National Pen Corp, Shelbyville Tn
I'm assuming she wanted the pen also at the $1.00 price?

[Steve Clarkson]

Thanks Brian......that was exactly what I was looking for.

[Dan Hintz]

Sheesh, Steve, what a bargain... you could quote her $0.99/pen, have them made by a company for $0.49/each, and bank several thousand for practically zero work on your part. Man, I want orders like that to come in!

[Brian Robison]

Sounds like a plan.

[Brian Robison]

Steve, if you wait a minute I'll get you a number for a sales rep I know there.

[Steve Clarkson]

OK.....thanks!

[Martin Boekers]

Steve,

You might want to check with I-Mark also, If for nothing else they have a great line of pens (much better selection than most awards suppiers)

and the they are resonanbly priced enven for 1 up blanks.


Marty

[Harry Radaza]

Steve that is exactly the jobs we do here in the philippines. At the rate we are offering, she can probably get them cheaper if we were to do it here. And that's inclusive of shipping back and forth!

[Brian Robison]

Hey Steve the rep I was thinking of was promoted but referred another person. Tamera York 1-888-672-8114

[Albert Nix]

Steve you might want to check with imprintor.com, they sell a pad printing rig for close to 2k. you could buy the pens for 15-30 cents and more than pay for the printer. Then you would have a new service to offer. I have been waiting for that same chance but it just hasnt come along.

[Mike Null]

I would advise being very careful when considering pad printing equipment. There is no business I know of that's more competitively priced. There are also EPA concerns.

Be prepared to work on margins as low as five cents.

[Scott Shepherd]

If you're quoting $1 per pen on a job like that, you're way off. You can do them in a row, probably takes less than 10 seconds each to do and you do a table full at a time. You could easily do them at 20 cents each and make $60 per hour on a large job like that. It's easy work.

Just my opinion. I'd take the job for 20 cents each. That's about 14 hours worth or work for $1000. I'll take $1000 for a long days work.

[Tim Bateson]

Scott, I have a jig setup to do wood pens in batches. Even so, you are way under valuing your services. I have a regular customer that pays $10 each. $2 more if color filled. They ship them to me and include a prepaid mailer for the return.

[Bob McGinn]

As the replies above indicate, there are a number of options to make money on this type of deal even as a pass through.