Pricing for wholesale

[pinfab]

Hi , Im new here , I have a fab shop in upstate NY . I just purchased a table and I have a few bites with the wholesale market. The problem is doing the work and charging the customer a price that will work for both of us.. Say for example "wind spinners" . He claims to buy them for approximatly $3.00 a piece!! If i use 14ga steel , i can get it for $1.96 a square ft.. but if i figure in the electric , grinding disks , finishing , ect .. what would you think a fair price would be to ask for wind spinners? keep in mind it would be wholesale. The guy claims to want 2000 of them .. im not even sure i can make anything off them doing them wholesale as oppossed to resale.. thanks Perry

[mdwalker]

It doesn't matter what he can get them for. If you can't make them and sell them to him at a profit then don't waste your time on it. The only difference in losing money on 1 verses 2000 is you go broke faster.

Danny

[pinfab]

yeah thats true! I figured out the cost of material and came up with $4.05 a piece, thats not including anything else just material!! I dont see how he is getting them for $3 bucks a piece! I think he was blowing smoke !

[mdwalker]

Probably, but if he is buying Chinese he may be getting them that cheap.

[wickedinhere]

I have heard that story a thousand times, they all say then can get it for 3.00 that seems to be the magic number. Don't do it you will lose money for sure, I have learned over the past year to stick to my prices because my products are worth it.

[AnotherDano]

Maybe my steel prices are a lot higher than yours, (.025/sq") but the wear on the electrodes/tips should be taken into consideration too. Those spinners have a lot of pierces and linear inches of cut. One has 206 linear inches of cut. At $.10/inch, that's $20.60 just to cut it out and that will eat consumables like candy when you get into serious quantities.

I cut mine at just over 10" and provide my customers a lot of options for the figure in the center, in small quantities; sometimes just one or two. I remove the dross with a flap disc and sell them raw for $20/ea. to my powder coating associates. I retail them powder coated at a small gallery and at my show booth for $35. They are 14ga cold rolled mild steel.

Here is what the look like during the coating operation. Look at all three 'spinner' videos.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you ... FORM=VIRE1

[kbenz]

Hard to compete with chinese crap. I don't try. I try to stick with custom work. Can't get that from china

[Gamelord]

The biggest problem that a lot of business's run into is trying to compete with someone else. You cut your margins so much trying to be competitive that you end up working for free - or worse end up paying someone to take your products.

Instead of trying to compete, you should sit down and figure out exactly what your costs are including everything, consumables, power usage, insurance, fuel, wear and tear on your table and especially, a decent wage....after all, if you could make more money working in a convenience store and cutting for free...you should probably do that.

Once you know what your exact cost is, then you can make an educated estimate on what you would be willing to "wholesale" out your goods for. If they can get it cheaper from China...maybe you should ask them for the name of their supplier and just order it in yourself. Kinda defeats the purpose of owning your own table but lets face it, the less you have to cut on your table the longer it will last. I would quote a price that you are willing to work for and if they accept it, great, if not...who cares, If you are gonna work for free, you may as well do your own stuff.

Many people will come off with a low-ball price just trying to see what you would do anyways, not giving you their "REAL" price because they are wanting a better deal than what they already got. Sell them on quality instead of price. If all they are interested in is price then smile and send them to China. Also, don't give it an "All or nothing" attitude. If you can't compete, try to sell them on a partial supply, saying "Hey, how about you carry mine alongside of the others, some people may prefer to buy "100% U.S.A." products for a few dollars more. I could supply you with a couple dozen and see how they go?

Just some ideas. Hope that helps and good luck.

[abmetal]

We've had several customers want us to give them bulk prices but we tell them they're getting the bottom line price whether it's one or 20....which we actually do. In the area where we are, most people wouldn't give a nickel to see a
piss ant eat a bale of hay so as a result a lot of our customers are from other areas/states.

Allen