Pricing....

[Lee]

Hi there
Being very very new to this, I wonder if someone can guide me on the the typical cost price to produce a mug, using trupix paper and the Ricoh 3300.... until I know what I typically use I don't have any info to calculate...
Cheers!

[mrs maggot]

you bought your printer from a good supplier, i expect they give a ball park pricing per printed sheet magic touch work theirs out at 87p per A4 sheet - obviously more if its a full photo wrap.

you have bought mugs - add the VAT & carriage onto the mug price - then divide the total cost between the number of mugs bought - different people use different mugs = different prices

you bought paper - do the same as above

now factor in - your time, not just the mug press time, but the artwork time, ie from start to finish, the electricity to run the equipment for the time you spend.

finally look at the prices people sell them from on places like ebay etc from 3.99, 5.99, 7.99 and you will be able to see you can make a profit how much depends on you, what market you are aiming for - how saturated it already is - but if you are aiming to do it as a business, if you have bought all of the equipment you should be able to work out how long it will take to recoup the money and then perhaps make a profit

[Lee]

Many thanks for your advice! At the moment I bought the starter kit from BMS so its all in really..so wasn't able to do calcs until I buy supplies again, but was just trying to work out what I should be trying to sell a mug from, approximately for now... you have definately given me something to work on...!
Ty

[mrs maggot]

everything on their website is priced, so look at the qtys you will need to be re-ordering in ie 36 mugs etc, and take it from there

[purpledragon]

work on about £2.20 a mug cost (10 oz bms rn mugs) and you wont be far off

[Lee]

Thanks for the info - I think the cups are 11oz, but if I say £2.50 a mug, and anything else is profit.... (would you say £2/20-£2.50 is the average between logos / full wrap?)

I also need to find a good way to photograph them for the web...or would you say jsut use a photoshop image of a cup with the image imposed?

Apologies for all the Q's!

[purpledragon]

I tend to add 50 per mug to allow for the print always assuming its a full wrap that way its less complicated to work out . this allows for the paper the ink and the electricity to print and press the item . As for photographs i use photoshop to super impose the picture on the mug the trick is to make it look like its been printed on the mug this sint as easy as it sounds. I assume you will be selling through ebay which is why you are asking about photographs(i may be wrong) one thing i will say is the public are funny creatures they do tend to think the image will be exactly as the picture depicts so if the image you advertise is a lot more vibrant for example remember the customer will expect that. Other points to remember when selling online
1. dont fall into the trap of selling copywritten items its not a case of if they will but more a case of they definatly will catch up with you some warn some sue i have heard of horror stories of being fined £600 for a 5 quid mug.
2. the tax man does keep an eye on ebay sales he's someone else who will catch up with you eventually.
3. Dont be tempted to sell cheap its easier to drop prices than it is to raise them
good luck any help i can give feel free to ask
Brett

[mrs maggot]

and anything else is profit

well depends on what your actual overheads are and what you are taking out of it, if its a part time hobby to pay for extras in life then yes i guess it is, if its your full time job like a lot of us, then no, its tax, NI, wages, food etc etc

[purpledragon]

yep all of what mrs maggot says and as im finding out when you make a move into a physical shop then the costs mount up ever more to be honest ebay doesnt help at all our prices are fixed by those who sell inferior cheaper items and who dont pay tax etc ...but hey ho rant over

[accdave]

Did you not get a ball park figure of costs before buying equipment ?