Round Sublimation Coasters

[Andrew]

Without having read the whole thread....... is the standard coaster with hardboard back not that popular then? Do you all add extra backings?

[Justin]

No, from what Martins said sales are 50/50 but generally I would have thought most users opt for the non-backed due to costs.

[bms]

Most sales are for plain backed coasters. That's by far and away the most popular. But JSR's right that if customers want the option of plain, baize or cork then currently they have to buy each with the backing already supplied and I agree that to be able to mix n match makes sense which is why we're offering the UniSub coaster (which is a popular coaster) with an option to buy the backing separately to see if customers are willing to go down the DIY route of putting backing on to satisfy different markets. The backing option for the UniSub coaster hasn't been available before whereas the backings are already available for the smaller coasters. Hence the "experiment" that JSR refers to.

We can buy the baize backing separately for the smaller coasters already, but ironically to buy the plain coaster and then the backing separately would work out more expensive! The baize option on the smaller coasters costs us whatever the difference is between the baize and non-baize versions. Therefore by the time we pay extra for delivery to us then add a margin the costs are going to be:
Plain Coaster Xp
Plain Coaster with Baize Backing already fitted Xp + (say) 36p
Plain Coaster with Baize Backing to DIY fit yourself Xp + something more than 36p!

So the UniSub coaster with an option to buy baize is a dip in the water to see if customers are willing to do this (and bring a new variation to the market). If this proves viable then we can get the tooling made for the smaller coasters and then buy in a large volume of baize backings for those coasters which should enable us to get the DIY option with the smaller coasters to a lower cost than buying it already fitted.

[Ian M]

Or follow the link & DIY them http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=self ... m270.l1313

[Justin]

Just ordered a piece of this baize to have a play with, see how it looks and compares to the cork sheets.

[JSR]

Without having read the whole thread....... is the standard coaster with hardboard back not that popular then? Do you all add extra backings?

For me, plain backed ones are the most popular because they are the cheapest. There was a time when backed coasters only cost 20p-25p extra and I sold quite a few once upon a time. Now it's almost 40p premium, and the backed ones rarely sell. I sell some cork backed ones to a semi-regular customer but my main customer of baize back coasters didn't come back when they asked for the price recently. Coasters have gone up, backing has gone up, and for that customer it was a double-whammy which killed a nice order of a few hundred.

I have a few UniSub coasters on my shelf which I think have been there since the Dark Ages. They have a nice smooth back with excellent curved edges. The last thing I'd want to do is to slap a piece of backing on it. The cheaper coasters, however, are basic and the flat edges can lead to scratching of delicate tabletops. These are the ones that need affordable backing options but the recent price increase on backing is making them less affordable.

[JSR]

We can buy the baize backing separately for the smaller coasters already, but ironically to buy the plain coaster and then the backing separately would work out more expensive! The baize option on the smaller coasters costs us whatever the difference is between the baize and non-baize versions. Therefore by the time we pay extra for delivery to us then add a margin the costs are going to be:
Plain Coaster Xp
Plain Coaster with Baize Backing already fitted Xp + (say) 36p
Plain Coaster with Baize Backing to DIY fit yourself Xp + something more than 36p!

It's bizarre to think that 10cm backing is 20p while 9cm backing is 36p. How odd. I remember a few years back when you sold me a large reel of green baize backing - which I think was about £70 for 500 pieces (about 15p a piece). That served me well for ages but, when I ran out, I couldn't restock.

Nevertheless, even if the price matched the current offering, it might still be worth a gamble.

At the moment, a cork/baize-backed coaster costs £1.04 and if, when pressing, we make a mistake then that's £1.04 in the bin. If we put on the backing ourselves then, if a mistake is made, we've only wasted a 66p plain-backed coaster.

Or, to put it another way, if we were to sell a backed coaster for £1.99 and we waste a coaster in printing, then we run at a loss when printing a replacement (2x£1.04 = £2.08). If we have separate backing and we waste a coaster in printing, then a second one can be printed with no loss (2x66p = £1.32 + 36p backing = £1.68).

So there would still be some slight benefit at this price.

It's cork that I'd prefer, though, as I already have a recurring customer for them.

[Ian M]

For the cork http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Self-Adhesive-Cra ... 5641897cc6

[JSR]

For the cork http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Self-Adhesive-Cra ... 5641897cc6

Even if I had some way of cutting that to shape, which I don't, that's twice as thick as the backing that's currently on the coasters. 2mm thick is almost as thick as the coaster itself.

The price is right, though, so clearly there must be something available. I can't believe that, in the 21st century, it's so difficult to get affordable pre-cut self-adhesive cork.

Listawood have been able to get self-adhesive round cork - although no one else seems to stock it - so the same thing in square size should be obtainable from somewhere.

[bms]

Listawood have been able to get self-adhesive round cork - although no one else seems to stock it - so the same thing in square size should be obtainable from somewhere.

Getting to the source of these supplies always needs a detective mindset...