I feel like crying into my cereal..

[Andrew]

evening all o dear and omg, i think i need to slap myself silly, i sell (and only sell on ebay) so i have a lot of competition, i sell my mugs for £4.00, i know i undersell myself and i've done joblot orders of 100 mugs and charge them just £1.75 and they asked if they could be cheaper, i thought that was a good deal, but obviously not, im way underselling the product, i think i need to go to business school, i know im gonna get shot down for this sorry peeps

If that pricing helps you get volume orders and you are confident you are making money then all is good.

100 mugs is easily completed in about 3 hours if you are set up for it.

[John G]

100 mugs is easily completed in about 3 hours if you are set up for it.

I know this possible, but I'm thinking Colglyn has "one single mug press" and assume, therefore, it would be more like 20 per hour - 5 hours minimum to print 100 mugs.
If people are happy doing runs of mugs for £1.75 each - well, thats up to them - I just wondered whether colglyn knew how much he was actually making.

Cheers John

[JSR]

I do wish I have a louder bleeper on the mug machine from when I'm in the shop ( the machine is in the work area at the back ) and sometimes I miss the beeps. Mad panic attack. Tried a timer but most times I forget to set the dam thing, and would be welcome suggestion. Apart from run faster.

I have a stopwatch on my wristwatch so the time is always with me. Start the oven, start the stopwatch.

In the past I've used a countdown timer app on my iPod, so it beeps even if I'm listening to music.

[colglyn]

Hi John
wow a lot of info but quite happy to provide some but not all and the only reason can't provide all is cause i wouldn't know the price
mugs from coralgraph 72 mugs @ £60.98 x 2 = £121.96 divide by 144 = per mug cost £0.66p
paper from ebay funky leopard 500 sheets for £40.00 divide by 500 = £0.08
ink used (not sure) was using the epson stylus 1400 with CIS system (so sorry not sure how much per ink per mug cost)
looking at this it looks like £0.0.74p per mug
but i would say it would be more like about £0.90p per mug if you include ink
it took me about 8 hours to do cause i got 2 single mug press which i used and also have mug oven holding 4 each time
obviously i don't know the price for the day of using electricity

don't get me wrong but i know i way undersell myself and the products, and hearing from friends and other sellers what they sell there items for i know im going wrong somewhere
but as stated i sell on ebay only cause i do a full time job and this is a side line business (hoping one day it will be able to be my full time job) but not at these prices
before we got the iphone covers, personalised iphone covers use to sell on ebay for around £20.00 to £25.00 (fantastic)(not by me) but ebay has now been flooded with personalised iphone sublimation covers (which is great) (and im not saying i wish they go away or anything) and the prices now are like £6.59 and i've seen some for £3.00
it is a crazy market out there

anyway i've totally gone off the question, i know the wholesale price i charge is crazy, but stated i even get the buyers, can i give them a better price
so really i can't win but never mind

hope this answers your question but get back to me
thanks
harry

[John G]

Hi Harry,
Thanks for the info - your calculations are off a bit though - £121.96 divided by 144 = £85p per plain mug, not 66p you have quoted.
Your paper would be either 2p or 3p as you'll get 3 or 4 per sheet.
Ink - I haven't a clue, as I haven't seen the design, but at a guess, i'd go with £0.40p per A4 so 4 up @ £0.10p or 3 up @ £0.13p

So without your time and electricity deducted - I'd estimate one mug would cost you £1.01 in total leaving £0.74p profit per mug. Total on 100 mugs @ £74.00.

If you took payment on this with paypal you would loose around 5% so minus £3.70 - or if you took a cheque, and run a business bank, there would be charges of around £1.38 to deposit.

Your profit for 8 hours graft @ £70.30 - if you are running this as a business you'd have to pay rent, water, rates, insurance, phone, internet, electricity, depreciation on equipment, income tax - the list goes on.
In summary, people running it as a hobby would be pleased at £8.78 an hour - Anyone running a business, including me, would be bankrupt doing this.

Thanks for sharing Harry, hopefully you'll be able to put your prices up but I can fully understand that at the moment - a job is a job.

[Andrew]

Well spotted John. Also a fair assessment. As it's a sideline out of the house I would guess it ticks along. I still think it's achievable for people to operate at these costs if they are getting the volume through even when starting out if they have the demand. Factoring rent etc would dent the figures but with having 4 or 5 presses would allow a 1 man (or woman) band to easily produce 300 mugs a day and that's allowing time for setting up to print on pc and packing etc.

All I am saying is I wouldn't discount someone being able to run this way and tick along on a tidy enough living. I'm not saying the OP's prices are correct as I do think they are slightly to low for the quantity (especially as you pointed out the error).......... but there is a large market to tap into at this level. Most on here don't seem to think it is viable though. It might not suit the majority but if people can do it correctly then it's an option.

[John G]

Most on here don't seem to think it is viable though.

I agree that at that level its possible to tick over and make a little money - the problem arises when you run out of ink, the printer or press breaks, or the letter arrives on your doorstep from the inland revenue. :biggrin:

4 or 5 presses would allow a 1 man (or woman) band to easily produce 300 mugs a day

That's the problem though Andrew - Qty/timings seem to be out by either you, or Harry - he was running 2 presses and an oven but only turned 100 mugs over in 8 hours.

[colglyn]

Hi yes my figure was out slightly it what you get for trying to work figures out first thing in the morning at 4am, i do understand what you are saying but i did make a profit not much, and it is a side line business for me and it is ticking along ok for the time being, and it is run from my home, and it is just me doing it, so apart from the outlay as notied above there isn't much else
i think it is slightly different on this case as the person i did them for wasn't selling them he gave them away as a gift/thank you for returning customers at the amusement arcade he owns
obviously he was selling them for £10.00 big difference and i would have to relook at the prices, did another order where i gave a 25% discount of the retail price so slightly different there
and in regards to putting prices up as i said ebay is a cut throat business so many sellers trying to undercut everybody, so i have to see what is out there but if i had a stall or shop premises so to speak it would be a lot different
thanks all for comments it is interesting to see and know and running a business is a constant learning curve some good and bad so i do thank you all
harry

[colglyn]

i say 8 hours it could be less i didn't really time myself

[accdave]

Hi yes my figure was out slightly it what you get for trying to work figures out first thing in the morning at 4am, i do understand what you are saying but i did make a profit not much, and it is a side line business for me and it is ticking along ok for the time being, and it is run from my home, and it is just me doing it, so apart from the outlay as notied above there isn't much else

Presumably you do your own tax returns otherwsie the accountant would probably cost more than the small profit you make