Why resin kits are expensive - with actual numbers

[jwrass]

Sandy,

Thank you for the excellent post and information...... I have a decent collection of cast INDY CARS (I'm sure you know the names) I honestly don't know how they sell their works of art at $110/$130 per unit. IMO they indeed are works of art!

I would easily pay more for the artisanship of these rare gems!

May you have continued success in your endeavor, I wish you all the best!

Much Respect!

Jimmy "RASS"

[keyser]

Robert, it's a great kit. Lots cheaper than the original. Consider the Greyhound Scenicruiser repop. 

First thing I get from my CPA is an itemized time bill. Every single encounter including calls to minions. Same with my attorneys, and auto repair.

Expertise and knowledge isn't free. Your market is the resin buyer, and car modelers are cheap, but resin buyers usually aren't. Sci-fi guys readily pay for quality.

Dave, sell? tell me more of this "sell" you speak of?

Your 300ZX was nice.   

 

[robdebie]

how would you crunch my numbers?

I'm not my66s55, and I'm definitely not an accountant, but here's how I would look at it.

I redid the whole calculation for the complete run of 100 products, sorry for deviating from your 25 product run approach. I made the following listing of cost and hour items, from your data. There's one big guess: the time spent on casting and demolding a single kit. I guessed one hour.

  Master pattern: 0$
  Master changes & preparations: 8h
  Master painting: 140$

  Mold making: 32h (four times)
  Silicone: 1472$ (four times 368$)
  Consumables: 0$    

  Resin: 1360$ (you need 3.4 sets of 10 gallons for 100 kits)
  Consumables: 0$
  Hours casting and demoulding: 100h (***** I guessed 1 hour per kit *****)

  Ebay fees: 1650$
  PayPal fees: 509$
  Handling: 100h
  Postage: 1665$
  Donation: 1650$

If you now add up all the cost items, and all the hours worked, you can calculate the hourly rate:

  Total earned: 16500$
  Total spent: 8446$
  Nett: 8054$

  Total hours: 240

8054$ divided by 240 hours gives an hourly wage of 34$. If you leave out postage (which would normally not be included in the price) and the donation, your hourly wage jumps to 47$.

I would say that the calculation is maybe a bit on the optimistic side, since is are no cost for the master, and the cost and/or depreciation of equipment. And maybe some other items are overlooked, like the kit's box and labels, and the shipping box. Plus you would need to count also the hours spent on Ebay, communication with customers, returns, broken parts.

Rob

 

 

Edited January 27, 2017 by robdebie

[bobthehobbyguy]

Looking forward to the next case study. Enjoyed following the first one.

[Bugatti Fan]

Doing the maths, you can see why many resin boulders throw in the towel after a while! The figures I saw were not accounting for it a moulding is distorted or part moulded and has to be scrapped wasting expensive material. The great advantage of the white metal kit maker is that any defect parts can go back into the melting pot instead of the waste bin.

Many of those guys do this stuff as a side line to their normal job and family commitments, and often get overwhelmed by it all due to the time consuming processes involved. Customers get frustrated waiting, the maker might get complaints and bad press so in the end, a venture that is set up out of enthusiasm starts to face the harsh reality of a commercial environment when the orders and payments roll in.