What do you think? A niche business for this woodworker?

[Larry Edgerton]

Yeah, way over priced Come on people $600 barely gets you two boxes with doors from IKEA. I just saw a thread on this very forum were wer some guy filled his shop with those plastic Borg work benches which cost a couple of hundred a piece. Plastic!How many guys on this forum have $400 router tables, a box of light gauge angle that they have to assemble themselves. It's disappointing to hear these opinions on a forum that so loudly proclaims the value of American workers then derides the cheapening of goods due to race the bottom pricing. Nothing irks me more than hearing people itemize the value of someones craftsmanship based on the suspected cost of raw materials.

Let me leave before my rant gets ugly

I'm with ya buddy.......

[Richard Wolf]

It's what I say to at least one customer a week, "It's always more than you want to spend, and less than I want to make."

[John Gregory]

I appreciate your comments. It is always interesting to find out what others think about a subject. I think it is over price NOT because the guy is greedy, but because I doubt the market will support that price. It might have in 2007 when the economy was raging, people were buying very nice homes with reckless abandon. I think if you factored in his cost, capital investment for tools and his time, his profit would be OK, not fantastic, just OK. I admire the man for trying to find a niche market.
Woodworking for me is a hobby. I have done work for others that I have seen a profit, meager profit. My wife and I work together in this hobby, I am pretty anal about our work and my wife is way more anal than I am. We spend so many hours on any project, trying to achieve perfection, we could NEVER earn a living doing this. For someone to make good money in woodworking, my opinion, the product needs to be highly custom or very unique. Today it seems very few people are willing to pay a premium for quality woodworking.

[Tom Walz]

A basic law of economics: A thing is worth what someone will pay for it.

It is often seems to me that a great number of woodworkers try to sell on price when the customer really doesn't know what things cost.

[Andrew Joiner]

That's a tough sell. Selling woodwork to woodworkers. Many of us see products in the marketplace and say" I can make that better and cheaper myself". Even if we can't really make it better or cheaper we gotta try to find out,so we don't buy the product. I'd find another niche.

[Link Van Cleave]

Hi all. I must say I am amazed by the reposes especially coming from woodworkers who know how long it takes to do something. I am a pro. There is no way I could make that for $600 and make any money. In fact I would lose money on that. I am a fully equipped one man shop. I pay my own health insurance, shop rent, power, tooling and supplies, etc. Materials for that bench have to be close to $200. I would estimate 20 hrs. for that job including driving to the yard to buy materials. I can't run my shop for $20 per hr. You are comparing his price with Ikea. There is not a domestic cabinet maker anywhere who can compete with Ikea $ wise. I would challenge anyone who thinks this is overpriced to make one. Keep a honest record of your time, materials, Including glue and screws and then tell me he is overpriced. I am not meaning to put anyone here down but come on. It seems like folks are being a bit cavil. BTW it looks like a nice little bench. I think he needs a stretcher to connect the two drawer units.
L.

[Jim Rimmer]

A basic law of economics: A thing is worth what someone will pay for it.

That's kind of the crux of the issue. Like when I watch Antiques Roadshow and they say something is worth $XXX (granted, they have an experience base for the estimate) but it's only worth that when someone is willing to cough up the cash. I've seen things on there that i would gladly pay their estimate for but others (and now we get into taste or wants) seem way overpriced to me. As for the cabinet in question, it's not a matter of what price he has on it; it's a matter of someone buying it for that price.

[scott spencer]

Not worth $600 to me either...

[Greg Portland]

Premium garage systems (Gladiator, etc.) charge $600 for a maple top + thick steel legs + a power strip. This guy is giving you a hardwood top + two stacks of drawers @ a slightly lower quality level (IMO @ a reasonable price). He should devise a $499 model or price it in parts (top = $125, legs = $75, drawers instead of legs = $200, etc.).

[David Weaver]

Not worth $600 to me either...

Neither is it to me.

I think the word craftsmanship has been used a little too liberally in this case.

I also think that some folks are getting needlessly offended because they're applying the criticism of a plain ply and MDF bench to troubles they may have had getting folks to see value in their own work.

it's not about the number of hours that it would take to make the bench. Something can still be overpriced and not worth the time for anyone to make it professionally. I think something like this falls into that category.

But as Tom W says, the market is made when the transaction occurs, not based on my opinion or the opinion of someone who may pay more than the guy is asking.

[Brian Kent]

Could someone please show me a link to a heftier bench with cabinets and drawers for a lower price. I am having troubles finding one.

[John Lifer]

I remember about 10 yrs ago, meeting a guy who was turning out simple shelves. You've all seen them, about 4-6" width by 3 or four ft long. Cheap pine/fir or what have you.

Guy was selling for maybe $2 over material cost. Was making a killing, couldn't keep up, But going broke with every one he made. Is this overpriced, not if someone will buy it, better to start high and go lower than start too low and be broke!

[Peter Kuhlman]

I totally agree with Greg Portland. He needs to offer it in a basic no cabinets version and then option it out. The casters look way to small to be practical for the load or a rough floor. He also should show and sell it with some simple easy type finish like wipe on oil for initial appearance. I am just a hobbiest so don't really know the cost to make. If anything, I feel the price is to low for the time needed.

[Jim Finn]

I remember about 10 yrs ago, meeting a guy who was turning out simple shelves. You've all seen them, about 4-6" width by 3 or four ft long. Cheap pine/fir or what have you.

Guy was selling for maybe $2 over material cost. Was making a killing, couldn't keep up, But going broke with every one he made. Is this overpriced, not if someone will buy it, better to start high and go lower than start too low and be broke!

////////////Some folks, like me, have a free or almost free source for materials. I have some toys that I make $20+ per hour making even when I sell them at a cheap price. I sell a lot of them but I can make them with free materials a lot faster than I can sell them. Making many crafty items is a bit easier and quicker than selling them is.

[Chip Lindley]

A basic law of economics: A thing is worth what someone will pay for it.

It is often seems to me that a great number of woodworkers try to sell on price when the customer really doesn't know what things cost.

The builder of the yellow pine workbench won't be selling it to another woodworker. Not for $600! But, he only needs to attract one buyer on Kazaa or CL, or at a local craft fair who really NEEDS that workbench.

Any one-of-a-kind piece is time consuming to create. If the guy were to cut out pieces for 10 of the workbenches, he could probably make a profit at $400 each. Henry Ford taught us all about the efficiencies of mass production.

But, there must be buyers in line even for 10 workbenches at $400 each. Those buyers won't be woodworkers. The buyers will be spouses or supportive in-laws who want to endow their woodworking family member with a workbench like this. Those buyers have not a clue (as Harry Woodworker does) that the workbench is only yellow pine, and palls in comparison with European beech workbenches complete with two vises! The benevolent family member simply saw the bench on display, OR advertised somewhere. Their purchase is an impulse purchase; spur of the moment. Not, a purchase involving research and deep consideration. That is how over-priced, under-made wares are sold; to impulse buyers!

over 15 years ago at Branson Missouri's Silver Dollar City, I looked through a craft shop among all the red cedar trivets and plaques, and hillybilly memorabilia to find a solid walnut blanket chest. The chest had an arched top, nicely belt-sanded to a smooth curve. But it had air-nailed butt joints all around. Not a dovetail, one! It was totally walnut inside--no cedar lining, no shelves, no nothing! Price tag was $500 in '90's dollars. That would be a lot more today. I wonder if that walnut chest is still there, and what the price is today? Or, did some city-dweller take home a piece of real Ozark furniture?