mug pricing structure

[soulclaimed]

I have a friend who has advised that he would like a small run of mugs but wants to know my pricing structure before stating the quanitiy, i was thinking something around

price per single mug under 10 units £5
10 mugs £40, each additional £4
20 mugs £60

is this a reasonable pricing structure as i don't want to put myself out of pocket and don't want to charge him so much he cancels.

thanks

[WorthDoingRight]

Well, perhaps the trouble with this pricing structure is what price would he expect for 50 or 100 mugs? Also the trouble with this structure is that if he wanted 15 mugs he may as well buy 20 as it is the same price to him. Best method may be to work out what the minimum price per mug you would want regardless of quantity so if you are happy with just £3 a mug then that should be your bulk price and then put the other mug cost above that. Alternatively charge a setup fee for any size order and then a cost per mug - this would be a better pricing method if you are expected to deal with artwork layout.

So if you said that you charged £20 for artwork and then £2 a mug then 5 mugs would cost £30, 10 mugs would cost £40, 20 mugs would cost £60 and at no point would 15 mugs be as cheap as 20 mugs!

[logobear]

your prices are way too low, especially for single mugs.
try 1 = 10
10 = 6
50 = 5
100 = 4.50
250 = 4
500 = 3.50
1000 = 3
imho ?

[RogerC]

your prices are way too low, especially for single mugs.
try 1 = 10
10 = 6
50 = 5
100 = 4.50
250 = 4
500 = 3.50
1000 = 3
imho ?

Just re-read the OP....as it is for a friend then if a good friend I would drop the £10 price and go from there.

After dropping the £10.00 the rest looks about right to me.......in addition I found that 'not' adding a set up/artwork charge acts as an inducement to getting the go ahead. I do this as long as the set up/artwork is relatively non time consuming.

Also for me those prices would include the polystyrene mug packaging for which I normally charge extra.

[WorthDoingRight]

We talking about trade prices or retail prices? I cannot see you getting those prices from trade customers. I seriously doubt you can get much more than £3.50 a mug on significantly lower quantities.

[soulclaimed]

My friend has his own roofing business and wants to give them out to customers or potential customers and would only require small quantity i don't think he would pa ten pound per mug and considweing ebay sellers have personalized mugs around 5 pound thought that bout right i can see what u mean about the rest

[gorgall2]

Wish I could get £10 for a mug.

[Andrew]

As it is a friend would they be interested in a reduced cost to also have your details on the mug "Printed by ......" £2.50 per mug regardless of quantity. Covers cost with a small profit and hopefully generates further business.


In the past we went through a few scenarios of printing mugs for some cafes for free with a good design incorporating their branding and then our details neatly added. Certainly worked out worthwhile and had business come our way for over a year.

[logobear]

I am interested to know what price members of DSF will go on mugs....... ?
TRADE.
Lets say an ex vat price, so we are not confusing those members who are registered or not, .....
It might be here that the few pence a mug difference between licenced/sawgrass, and CISS unlicenced might actually make the difference, .....
I buy my mugs by the pallet, 28 boxes at a time, so I don't imagine i am missing out on mug price, mugs take about 3 to 4 min a piece per press.
A mug box is an optional extra for bulk orders, - do they cost about 16p - so we sell for 25 tp 30p add on.
As mentioned in a previous thread, with 2 or 3 mug presses, we struggle to do more than 250 mugs per very full day, .....(9 hours)
What do you do/charge ?
Am I doing something wrong ?

[WorthDoingRight]

Well I price my trade mugs at £3.50 each if that helps (but then I am a hobbyist lol)

[mrs maggot]

soulclaimed, if you have a neat logo then as Andrew says the addition of your logo (small) on his mugs would be a way forward, it is too easy to fall into the trap of favours for mate customers, are you putting it together with an order for clothing for him - nice large logo on the back of the hoodies for when he is up a ladder ?? then around £3.50 a mug will be right but tell him he needs to order 20 for that price - if he scoffs then you know he is perhaps not as serious as you thought he was - just dont undersell yourself, by thinking well mugs are 70p bit of paper bit of ink will press them when im watching tv so no cost, so can sell them to him @ £1.50 and have made a bit.

[pisquee]

If he is good mate, he will/should see the value in supporting your business. Fair enough to make a friend a mug for a birthday present, but if it's a few for his business then it's different. Unless he can give you some of his trade at equally discounted percentages in return.

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Guys

Although I am not going to share my prices, I will say that a few years back I was asked to quote on some mugs for Michael Jackson. They wanted approximately 5000 and they had quotes fom China that worked out at £1.35 per mug including delivery. I seriously considered the job as it meant a profit of around £1750.00. I was then going to get a girl I know to work nights for me to complete the order while I could fulfil other orders during the day. Probably would have cost me about £300 for her time but then £1450.00 profit while I sleep seemed okay to me :wink:

[pisquee]

Our thinking is along the same lines as Social - we look at a bulk/trade order by the profit of the order, and amount of time it will take us, rather than profit per unit. We sell our mugs for around £10, and our stockists the same - for them to be able to sell them, they need to be able to buy them from us at a price which gives them enough markup.

[socialgiraffe]

Agree with Pisque

As an example I was asked to do 1000 framed pictures. These were to be individually signed by the band. The size of the frame was 16x20 inches and had a mount inside the frame. Also as they were going to be shipped all over the world they need to be individually boxed and had to be acryllic not glass. My main customers are very open and we discuss prices on an individual basis. These frames were going to be sold for around £50.00-£70.00 each so to reach their targte mark up they needed them to be less than £10.00 per frame. I then go away and see if i can work to that.

So if you are selling bulk for retail I would say the absolute minimum a retailer wants to work to is 3.5-4 times mark up. At £10.00 a mug £2.50 would be in the ball park. If you are selling to a company then it might be that they want it even cheaper as they are generally giveaways, on bulk orders I think anything over £1.50-£2.50 per mug is a good price bearing in mind you are selling 1000+ and are geared up to banging out 1000+ a day. But it does all depend on your set up etc. I have the ability to print that many a day and do other things. If however you can only do 250 mugs a day and without the ability to produce other work, your prices will reflect this.

[pisquee]

We have some retailers (shop based) who want at least a 2x markup, but on the whole they seem to want a 2.5-3x mark-up. It does vary on the kind of shop they are, where in the UK they are based, and which of our product lines they are wanting to resell.

[WorthDoingRight]

We have some retailers (shop based) who want at least a 2x markup, but on the whole they seem to want a 2.5-3x mark-up. It does vary on the kind of shop they are, where in the UK they are based, and which of our product lines they are wanting to resell.

Well then if they are selling at £10 a mug that makes your price to them £2.50. I think there is a world of difference between orders of say 1 to 100 mugs and orders for 1000s. On smaller orders the artwork layout time is a factor on large orders it is not.

[pisquee]

There's no way we'd go as low as £2.50 on them. There is also a ceiling price for a product, so they can only sell them for a certain amount. Some items they can mark up more than others, and they've got to work out the value of having a product which they can not mark up so many times, in the scheme of how those products make their shop look, and what up-sell potential they have, as there are other products in our range which have a higher profit margin/mark-up potential than our mugs do, but design/colour-way wise they all complement each other. Most of our stockists buy in a range of our products, and display them that way, rather than just buy in one product line.

[Andrew]

There's no way we'd go as low as £2.50 on them. There is also a ceiling price for a product, so they can only sell them for a certain amount. Some items they can mark up more than others, and they've got to work out the value of having a product which they can not mark up so many times, in the scheme of how those products make their shop look, and what up-sell potential they have, as there are other products in our range which have a higher profit margin/mark-up potential than our mugs do, but design/colour-way wise they all complement each other. Most of our stockists buy in a range of our products, and display them that way, rather than just buy in one product line.

So if a customer asked for 10,000 sublimation mugs of the same design you wouldn't go below £2.50 to secure the order? For the right size order there is plenty of profit to be made from jobs and going well below that price point.

[socialgiraffe]

Agree with Andrew here.

I understand how pisquee's has priced his items and it works well for that particular route to market, but it wouldn't work on a quote for 10,000 as Andrew suggests. I suspect Pisquee might be able to look at his prices should the oppurtunity to sell that many come about :eek:

[pisquee]

Each of our mugs are a one-off unique design - like an original painting, so there is only so much we can reduce the price by for larger orders, as the same workmanship/artistry/time goes into each mug, whether we are making 1 mug or 1 million. Obviously larger orders enable us to buy blanks in in bigger quantities, so there is a saving to be made there, which can be passed on in the quote. If we were offered an order for the 10000 and they wanted them at £2.50 each, then, yes, they could, but they would be reproduction prints of a few designs, rather than 10000 different original artworks.

[socialgiraffe]

Aha, if they are all one offs then £2.50 is cheap but I totally understand that market forces somewhat dictate the price.

[Andrew]

Hi Guys

Although I am not going to share my prices, I will say that a few years back I was asked to quote on some mugs for Michael Jackson. They wanted approximately 5000 and they had quotes fom China that worked out at £1.35 per mug including delivery. I seriously considered the job as it meant a profit of around £1750.00. I was then going to get a girl I know to work nights for me to complete the order while I could fulfil other orders during the day. Probably would have cost me about £300 for her time but then £1450.00 profit while I sleep seemed okay to me :wink:


Wow! £300 for printing 5000 mugs. Has she got a sister that wants a job?

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Andrew

Based on £6.00 an hour @ 100 an hour.

To be honest it may well increase to £350.00 all told.

But even if it doubled. its still money while sleeping :-)

[Justin]

I'd sleep all day as well for that money! lol :wink:

[Andrew]

Hi Andrew

Based on £6.00 an hour @ 100 an hour.

To be honest it may well increase to £350.00 all told.

But even if it doubled. its still money while sleeping :-)

Wish I could find someone who could print 100 an hour. Sounds like you have a great one there. Nightshifts usually spend half the night kipping.

[WorthDoingRight]

Nightshifts usually spend half the night kipping.

Where do I sign up for this type of work. Unsociable hours pay and the ability to kip!!