Jonespeed, on August 03, 2006 03:12 pm, said:
Jab,
Do you have plans for sale for your buildings so that the enjoyment of building such good examples can be shared.
Mick
Hi Jab,
Just wanted to say first off, that I think your bridges look great. You have obviously put a lot of thought and effort into them. I think you are also doing the right thing by offering them up for sale. Its a good way to recoup a little of the cost of this wonderful but frightfully expensive hobby of ours.
Having said that though, I would like to offer a couple of small bits of advice, if you don't mind (so please don't take this as personal criticism, just some ideas to consider).
I know the quality looks quite high, but I wonder if you may be setting the price a little high? I would think most people would expect to pay a little less for scratch built items than they would for a genuine article. As you can pick up original Scalex Goodyear and Dunlop bridges in good condition on ebay for under $20 (if you are patient), perhaps your smaller 2 lane bridges should be around the $15 to $20 mark. Your 4 lanes bridges are a different matter though, as I think there was only one 4 lane (rubber?) bridge made by scalex, so $25 - $30 is probably reasonable for them.
I don't know how much it costs you to make them, but a rule of thumb I was given once for selling hand made items, was that the most you could reasonably expect to sell an item for was double the cost of the raw materials. It doesn't matter how long it takes to make, you have to look at it critically and think about what someone else might reasonably expect to pay for it.
If you really want to make this into a nice little pocket money earner, then you should probably look at ways to either reduce costs, or make it quicker and easier for you to produce. Perhaps making several of the same design up at once might save you both time and money, rather than turning each one out lovingly, one at a time (I am making a mighty lot of assumptions here, so please forgive me if I am way off the mark!).
Another thought is, have you considered making up detailed plans, to scale, with clear instructions on how to make them? It may take you some time & effort to develop, but once you have worked it all out, the only cost to produce and sell them is the cost of the photocopy paper. And I bet a lot more people would like to build their own, rather than buy one, but have no idea how to go about it. Even things like the size, shape, colours, etc, can be very difficult to work out for most people. I think your designs and scales are excellent, and would certainly consider buying plans for a couple of the bridges, if you went in that direction. Being a closet woodworker, I would much prefer to buy a plan and build my own, than buy the bridge itself.
Another idea to consider is selling them in kit form at a cheaper price, so people just have to glue them together and paint. This would also save yourself a lot of labour.
Anyway, something for you to think about, I hope.
Regards,
2
I was really disappointed in the buildings etc available for slotcar tracks. I found most of it to be old-fashioned and I'm into building a modern track. I made a pit building/control tower and a brige or two, most of my mates thought I'd bought them and after discovering I made them, suggested I make some to sell. Eagerly taking up their suggestion I made some pedestrian bridges and put them up for auction in eBay, some sold, some didn't.
