DSF

probably not paying tax or ni and working out of back room

Some people are just hobby printers and don't worry that much on profit. You can get a cheap nasty mug with a box in some cases for 80p all in if picked up. Dodgy ink and cheap paper cost less than 10p if printing a few at a time. Electricity is minimal as the presses are quite cheap to run especially if you have a dozen or so to do. Mug printed and packed for less than a £1 and a second class stamp. They'll be clearing £1.60/70and if they have 5 or 6 mugs to do at a time £8/10 for probably less than an hours work. The end user gets what the paid for...... cheapest of the cheap and the seller will continue to scrape around at the bottom rather than trying to establish a decent rep.

Anyone who spends a bit of time on attention to detail and creates design options and overall a better finished product is not really competing with ebayers like that. Not worth worrying about as they are always out there.

* Forgot about ebay/paypal fees so down to clearing a £1 at best.

even at £1 a mug cheapest post would be £2.16. Plus. Ebay fees 50p paypal fees 25p I make that nearly £4 not including labour or incidentals

Nah. Busy fool

Im just trying to draw any comparisons with Amstrad and Sugar - he had a pile em high mentality and it didn't do him any harm - in fact quite the opposite....NOT THAT I SUPPORT THIS AT ALL......Im just throwing my 2 pennies worth in..!

I think Lee you will find Amstrad (Sugar) didnt do that. He watched the electronics market and then found a product that everyone wanted but he could be cheaper than everyone else was selling. He then flooded the market with sometimes crap products but people bought them because they were cheap. He had them made cheap and had a decent margin but more importantly a big market.

Tesco however was the original pile it high and sell it cheap. Bear in mind Supermarkets could probably sell all their items below cost because the turnover they have and keeping suppliers on a 30 - 60 day wait means they have absolutely masses of cash to invest and use. As long as people dont stop going in their doors they cant go wrong.

He definately DID pile em high and sell em cheap by looking at what was out there and setting cost targets to his suppliers......according to his own published words

I defer to your knowledge

The pile em high scenario is down to mass production allowing for a lower cost whilst seeing a tidy enough turnover/profit. Individually personalised items must be doomed to fail if going for that scenario.

The last stack um high and sell um cheap was Netto's , they've been bought out by Asda. It doesn't work with personalised items as there's too much goes into it before its actually made.

I agree, the fact that items are personalised allows us to charge a bit more - otherwise why would people buy mugs for £5,£6, £8 etc when they could get one for a quid.... IMHO...