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Pricing art...so hard to figure out! *UPDATE* (PICS)
AlyceInWonderland
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alrighty, so my boyfriend is making a chainmaille vest for a mutual friend of ours. He's put in around 150 hours into it, and he's still not even done with it. This decision on how to price it wouldn't be so difficult if it wasn't a friend, and even otherwise we wouldn't want to charge too much or too little, especially with the amount of work and effort he put into it. It's a beautiful vest made out of bronze and antique finished aluminum rings (for weight reasons), and will be adding a trim to the edges.
What I'm asking is how would one price such a thing? We would really appreciate any help, thank you!
What I'm asking is how would one price such a thing? We would really appreciate any help, thank you!
AlyceInWonderland on
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By hourly wage you gotta decide on what the "friend" labor costs would be. 10$ an hour is pretty low for labor, but that brings it to 1500$ right there. Not sure what you're general price range would be but that might be a bit high?
Arbitrarily coming up with a price off the internet seems a bit strange when it all depends on just how good a friend this person is.
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Anyway, what you should do is figure that out first of all. Then, look online and price out your competition - what are other craftsmen selling their similar works for, based on materials and craftsmanship? Then, you can knock off maybe 10-15% of the price for a friend.
Thank you, Rubacava!
That's kinda what I thought, but you just feel guilty no matter what :P
I'm half thinking of just asking him to just name a price.
Keep in mind, this is a guy who spent a good 15K to buy and customize a motorcycle to make it look like a dragon. (this is his bikers vest. It's fashioned to look like scales)
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Yea, you might get more money if you tell him how much time was spent and asked him to name a fair price, and that you'll accept whatever he offers. Some people get guilted into paying a lot. Considering he paid that much for the bike, you can probably get at least 1.5k without feeling bad.
Pictures. Please.
1500 sounds really expensive. I'd ask him what he thinks was fair, then say you'd run it by your boyfriend.
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otherwise, hourly rate x hours + material costs.
The material is already paid for, which is good. A relatively common "freelance" price is $40 an hour. For a friend, maybe $20. considering this is his first piece so it's obviously taking longer (and he's learning how to do it) and it may not look as good as if it were a "pro" piece, you can subtract 5-10 an hour (because it's more of a negative at the start of the piece, and towards the end the worker is more skilled, so a flat deduction of like $5 is fine.
Assuming he still has some time left to sink into it, your boyfriend should argue that the piece cost $2500. He should, however, have the friend bring up price. Your boyfriend should say, when he's just about done, "hey, I'm just about done. I've put like 160 hours into this thing, and I think it's looking pretty nice. How much were you thinking of paying me for this anyway? I hadn't really thought of a price, but now that I'm almost done and about to hand it over to you, I thought I'd bring it up." See what the friend offers.
Since the friend is, uh, a friend, your boyfriend doesn't need to try to swindle him; he just needs to argue from the POV of someone who's time is worth something. So if the friend says "Well I was thinking maybe $3k," your boyfriend can say "Nah man, you're my friend, how about $2500?" And if the friend says "Oh I dono, thousand bucks?" your boyfriend can say "huh I dono man, you know it did take me a long time here and I some some pretty big blisters, I was kinda thinking double that, but what do you think? Do you want to come see it and we can talk about it? I don't want you to feel like I'm ripping you off man."
Incidentally, this is why my wife, who is quite a good seamstress, never sews clothes for anyone (myself included). For most items of clothing, the amount of time it takes to create a single garment is quite high, and you'd have to price it so low for it to sell in competition with often higher quality clothing that it's essentially impossible. For example, to sew a pair of pants would take her at least 4 hours, from cutting the pattern to making the final tailoring, and assuming her time is worth at least $10 an hour, that's $40 in labor -- plus material costs, making a pair of pants really expensive compared to just going to GAP. She had contemplated selling some stuff on Etsy when they first rolled out but ended up just selling some unique bags (that don't need to be fitted to an individual), rather than actually sew items specifically for sale. Which is probably why there's so much thrift store stuff up there, but I digress.
Point is, this depends entirely on how much your boyfriend values his time. If he spent 150 solid hours working on this, he should be expecting a fair chunk of change. If his total time is 150 hours but that actually included eating, sitting around on the computer, taking a break for an hour to play video games, etc., then that's cool but should be included in the calculations (as in, it's not actually 150 hours, it's less).
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It would be very very hard to tell you a price without pictures, because for all we know your boyfriend is just really slow or not using any time saving methods that some chain mail makers use.
The guy could be expecting it for free/very cheap if he's taken care of materials. That could be quite the awkward conversation...
Also I don't know anything about bikers vests but should the piece not have some sort of safety rating so it doesn't rip him alive if he comes off of his bike? Or is it more of a decorative piece?
Either way I wanna see pictures, it sounds awesome!
Does your boyfriend have any other metal-working contacts he can ask, find out what they'd charge? Have you tried checking on-line to get an idea of other's prices? "Good friend" price would be about 50, 40% off.
edit: Quick search found this guy charges $200 for a small titanium chain bag.
Thats why its so hard to give a price, there is so much that could/should raise the price of a chain mail piece.
Hell, are the links soldered, riveted, or just bent into place?
The vest he's making has this pattern
He bought all the jump rings, and bent them in to place one by one.
And to give a rate that he works at, he did this bag for me in 30 hours (but this was his first actual chainmail project, so his speed may have changed with practice)
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It's aluminum. It won't exactly be a comfy sweater, but it won't be too bad.
Putting in a second request for pics when it's done. Preferably worn by this Lone Biker of the Apocalypse on his DragonCycle.
Thank you, Rubacava!
How much do you think the bag I posted pictures of would sell for?
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Renfaires are tough if you're dealing cash only, since there's a limit to how much cash people will carry. But I used to work in a sword shop (Bloodbath and Beyond), selling broadswords to adventurers, and nerds eat that chainmail shit up. You can really just charge what you want, man.
Thank you, Rubacava!
I don't even know what to say about that.
As for selling things, considering how long it takes your BF to make this stuff you're going to be putting out what, 3-10 different things each month? Dunno if that seems worth it to me. Does having a spot cost money?
EDIT: If the bag is worth $150-300 and he spent 30 hours on it that doesn't sound like time well-spent for a business.
You don't. You just throw up the horns as you see this man of men drive past you.
Is your 'friend' Tim Schaffer?
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However, outside of the internet a Renn fair is pretty much the best place to sell chainmail.
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We're also going to be getting a free spot due to people we know there (aka, dragon rider friend and another guy)
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Wanna shield too? :P
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I haven't been there in nearly four years, one of those flower girls had a thing for me. Shame I was leaving the state the next day...
Do expect to have a lot of left over merchandise though. You would also be wise to get a credit card machine from somewhere.
Don't be afraid to put some shiny pride on that. Price is status. When someone asks buddy where he got his shit, he'll be like yah, good friend of mine made it for me. Cost a couple grand,(yup yup) worth every penny.
This is not unreasonable. I have boots that run a grand, and it always gives me a kick when someone asks about them.