For the life of me, I cant work out Retail $ for Decals?

[cherrybomb 0]

So I'm ready to hit eBay with my decals. But for the life of me I cant work out how every ones getting there estimates for decals? (eBay Australia)

Ive tried JoeCamaros idea of calculating the square inch to the cost of materials. And the $1 to every inch method also. but either my estimate is way way too high or unrealistically low!

So Im unable to find how these guys are getting there retail prices per decal.

Hears some examples:

120mm x 85mm $2.49

120mm x 120mm $3.75

500mm x 70mm $7.50

710mm x 276mm $39

All in Aussie dollars and all single colors... Simple text or graphics.

know I admit I'm not the smartest with math... Hell I'm hopeless.

But I'm able to use a calculator..

Do those prices seem reasonable? To me they seem low??

I'm calculating from using Oracals 751 cast opaque Vinyls and app paper.

And its costing me $11Aust per meter of 24"

Can any one help hear?

[haumana 1,221]

pricing seems to be one of the biggest "what should I do" questions here. I can't say that I have any really great advice, nor have I really received any (not to the fault of this forum). I guess what it really boils down to is that if you're planning on selling on eBay, than it's really hard to set a "retail" price. You should either price competitively with others, or just go cheap and hope for a small bidding frenzy. Just know what your actual cost is for time, materials, wear & tear, and postage, and the rest is gravy.

When people ask me I just usually respond with, "How much do you it would cost at (insert name of a store that carries that type of decals)?"

Sorry I couldn't give you better advice. Good luck!

[cherrybomb 0]

Tykite when you put it like that, its sounds reasonable.

But what if I wanted to calculate from my materials for a new dimension/ size?

This is where I'm falling over.

I understand the square foot per cost theory as Joecamaro pointed out, which was: multiply your length to your width to get your square area. Then divide the Cost of Vinyl by the square area ..

But when I calculate this for materials that I can purchase for less then, say my original $11.

To some thing like $7. The calculation reads Higher per square inch... Not lower, As I need!

How do we get around this?

[haumana 1,221]

example: Suppose you can buy your vinyl at $3.75/foot (based on a 15" width). For 24" that would cost you $7.50. Chances are you  are not going to cut something that large, so find out what the cost per square is 15x24= 360 sq.in.; $7.50/360 = 0.02083333.... If the design you cut is say 4" x 4", then just make sure that you charge more than (16 sq.in. x .21 = 3.36) your actual cost of vinyl. Now that doesn't take into consideration your time and wear and tear on your machine.

If you can buy vinyl cheaper then use the same principle. Same goes if you use vinyl more expensive.

A lot of times I just guess at what it would cost if they could find the design in in the store for. If it's a complicated design that takes a lot more weeding, than increase the cost. Only you can decide what your time and effort is worth.

[cherrybomb 0]

Haum, Wild. Thanks for your help guys.. Its all become clear to me now!

I see I was calculating backwards. which was giving me very odd numbers.... I did say I was poor at Maths didn't I? 

[Guest Schramm]

Ok, I dont consider myself smart by any scense of the word....  However when it comes to Ebay I am somewhat an expert.  Though it seems genius to hit the internet and pop your stuff on ebay, the fee base is not the same and by the time you do all the figures on anything that you physcally have to make you will find you do not make any money!  I used to be a PowerSeller for 8 years on ebay and I can tell you first hand from someone that sold 1000's of items that ebay wins in the end!  I was fine on ebay but only because I bought out unpaid storage units, broke the contents apart and everything that I sold was just cake money!!! 

Some advise if you are going to sell on Ebay and it is only advise given because I dont want to see you loose your can, build a website using a template based website like www.3dcart.com, they are intergrated with PayPal, Google Checkout, you can link your Ebay items to the site and vise versa.  I did this when I did the storage unit thing and I can tell you for each 3 sales on ebay I had 1000 hits on my website which turned into at least 5-10 sales with no fees!!!  Each and every package as well that you send out should have a card in the box directing them to your website!

I can tell you if you stick with Ebay and use them as a sales tool insted of a single place to sell you will in one year find yourself in a great position!!!

[mustangconv85 0]

example: Suppose you can buy your vinyl at $3.75/foot (based on a 15" width). For 24" that would cost you $7.50. Chances are you  are not going to cut something that large, so find out what the cost per square is 15x24= 360 sq.in.; $7.50/360 = 0.02083333.... If the design you cut is say 4" x 4", then just make sure that you charge more than (16 sq.in. x .21 = 3.36) your actual cost of vinyl.

wouldn't that be  16 sq.in. x .021 = $0.336 in material cost

[cherrybomb 0]

Ok, I dont consider myself smart by any scense of the word....  However when it comes to Ebay I am somewhat an expert.  Though it seems genius to hit the internet and pop your stuff on ebay, the fee base is not the same and by the time you do all the figures on anything that you physcally have to make you will find you do not make any money!  I used to be a PowerSeller for 8 years on ebay and I can tell you first hand from someone that sold 1000's of items that ebay wins in the end!  I was fine on ebay but only because I bought out unpaid storage units, broke the contents apart and everything that I sold was just cake money!!! 

Some advise if you are going to sell on Ebay and it is only advise given because I dont want to see you loose your can, build a website using a template based website like www.3dcart.com, they are intergrated with PayPal, Google Checkout, you can link your Ebay items to the site and vise versa.  I did this when I did the storage unit thing and I can tell you for each 3 sales on ebay I had 1000 hits on my website which turned into at least 5-10 sales with no fees!!!  Each and every package as well that you send out should have a card in the box directing them to your website!

I can tell you if you stick with Ebay and use them as a sales tool insted of a single place to sell you will in one year find yourself in a great position!!!

I've read about this integration using eBay a few times around U.S Forums. It shouldn't be any surprise that I've never seen any one hear do such tho.

I didnt really have the intention of selling strictly on eBay. The plan was to use them as the stepping stone to sell some Vinyl. Maybe get a job hear and there out of it when I've got the confidence of this Vinyl and how it all go's together. Then start to advertise on my car, friends, etc.

I've always had the thought of selling on a dedicated site of my own, As I want to sell my own Tshirt designs and airbrushing.

So your input has got me interested Schramm. Very interested.

Infact I was going to ask a qeustion about eBay, but thought other wise about it. Maybe I should start a new thread, I'd be interested to hear any advise and knowlage you have.

I too was a trader on ebay some time ago, but was never lucky enough to reach the status as you had (I can thank my ex-girlfriend for that!).

Dan

[haumana 1,221]

wouldn't that be  16 sq.in. x .021 = $0.336 in material cost

Mahalo Stang! I didn't do all that well in math either 

[Guest Schramm]

Dan,

I with you on the X-girlfriend thing as mine chased me and my wife out of the State of Illinois where we were making well over 100K a year in profit buying those units and brokering it out on ebay and private sites.

I know quite a bit about cross marketing products but the biggest win win is when you do links on sites, the more the merrier!  I am leaving back to Illinois at the end of the month after 4.5 years in Florida.  Plan on going back into the unit deal and hopefully can rebuild the empire within a year.

Another way to really drum business to a website that most do not think about is students walking flyers.  I have a copier and I pay 20 high school students to walk fliers around many subdivisions.  At the top of the flyer it says if you do not need the service please give to a friend.  20% of the calls that I get out of doing that say "my friend gave me your flyer".  It really does work!!!