Anyone doing "Big Heads"? Not to be confused with "FatHead"

[TheSnowman]

Had a local photographer who does all the schools around here and nationwide contact me about making these. They really were hoping I could do it so that they could offer them, but I don't see how anyone can do them for $15. Take a look. Anyone doing these?

http://www.stumpsparty.com/party/Big-Heads.cfm

 

[CS-SignSupply-TT]

Kraig, what COST did you come up with when you priced it?

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Where's the profit?

 

[TheSnowman]

I didn't come up with a cost. Apparently these things are in the realm of 36" X 36". Even just setting up the file individually for every single one, and having to give it a cut path I wouldn't be able to do it for that cost, let alone whatever the substrate and ink cost is.

They had just called me wondering if I had a solution for another way to do those. I don't know of anything I could run through a cutter that would be rigid like that. Seems like a CNC machine issue or something of that nature. I don't see how you can fire up a CNC for $15.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

See they already have everyone's head already printed and cut in stock from googles database so when you order they just pull it from the shelf and ship it. It's all made up in the quantity. Very simple.

 

[J Hill Designs]

See they already have everyone's head already printed and cut in stock from googles database so when you order they just pull it from the shelf and ship it. It's all made up in the quantity. Very simple.

heh

 

[TheSnowman]

Yea, seems like a huge investment. I wasn't sure how they were done, let alone how you go about organizing that many orders to the point where you make equipment payments at $15 a pop. Cool item...I guess, was just wondering if anyone else was doing them, and what materials.

I assumed it had to be a flatbed deal of some sort. Shipping those must be a nightmare too.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Someone missed a zero somewhere....or they figured their average order would be for 10 or more of them and they take a loss on 1. (Not sure how they would make any money at 10 either tho).

 

[J Hill Designs]

actually, on the site it says orders of 99$ + get a 25% discount...so at 8 heads they are only 11.25 each...just wowzers

 

[Atomic DNA]

You'll probably have someone come in locally asking if you can do it cheaper. People like this crack me up.

 

[rubo]

Cheap substrate (cardboard) + ganged runs on a production flatbed + ganged runs on a zund cutter = ridiculous retail prices. If they're doing it all day long I'm sure they make it work but you have to realize that they need probably around 500K in equipment to bang those out efficiently.

Not my cup of tea that's for sure.....and for the record those things are creepy lol.

??? 500K ??? I just did one for the heck of it - here is the cost / time breakdown:
board $3
printing on Epson 9700 took under 4 minutes
cutting by hand - under a minute
let's say the total cost is $5 - $10 profit in 10 minutes is not a bad deal - it's $50 per hour ( counting incidentals). I'll do it.

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

You'll probably have someone come in locally asking if you can do it cheaper. People like this crack me up.

I actually did last year. They wanted to know if I could do them for $10. Remind me to return that call will ya.

 

[TheSnowman]

I'll do it.

I'm going to just tell them $20 each and sub them all out to you then. Normally they are ambitious with their numbers and they think we'll sell 100's of them, and that slowly comes down to like 10 a month, so I just don't see anyway of touching that price. Not to mention, this place is kind of local to me that's producing these. About 15 minutes from my house, in the next county over.

 

[rubo]

I'm going to just tell them $20 each and sub them all out to you then. Normally they are ambitious with their numbers and they think we'll sell 100's of them, and that slowly comes down to like 10 a month, so I just don't see anyway of touching that price. Not to mention, this place is kind of local to me that's producing these. About 15 minutes from my house, in the next county over.

I guess I don't care enough to get into a pissing match. If you want, PM me and we'll talk.

 

[TammieH]

If you have to bust your butt to find a way to do a job like this at a ridiculously low cost, its probably not worth it. We use to print Bench Billboards in the 70's and 80's and not until the owner died that we were asked to re-quote...we found out that we were losing money.

 

[Ragin Cajun]

I didn't come up with a cost. Apparently these things are in the realm of 36" X 36". Even just setting up the file individually for every single one, and having to give it a cut path I wouldn't be able to do it for that cost, let alone whatever the substrate and ink cost is.

They had just called me wondering if I had a solution for another way to do those. I don't know of anything I could run through a cutter that would be rigid like that. Seems like a CNC machine issue or something of that nature. I don't see how you can fire up a CNC for $15.

You sell it to him for $15 and he will sell it for $85.

Most photographers sell an 8x10 for at least $50.