Hello guys!
Say you have a set of dimensionally accurate/having sharp detail/good looking road wheels, a set of goodies for a particular family of vehicles and an improved/upgraded tank turret (all for WWII German Heavy Tanks). How much would an average AM company pay if they were interested in having the masters? I am sure some of you know the answer. Thanks in advance!

Surely the best way to answer this question is to write to the manufacturers who might be interested in the masters you talk about?

Well, it surely is, but there must be a starting point. Ask too much and nobody agrees, ask too little and they may think your masters are crappy and all you want is to get rid of them for a penny...

Hi Paul,

Here's how we would calculate the value. Go and find similar sets to yours and see what their retail price is. From that, calculate an average wholesale price. Then, figure that the company buying them would have to sell 20 units of your product (a complete set of road wheels) in order to recoup the cost of your master pattern and their costs for duplication of that master pattern in order to make the complete set. Once you have done this, that will give you an idea of where you may want to start with a price. This will be a maximum price so you might want to go a little lower than that just so you don't get dismissed out of hand.

Also, you'll need to find an AM company that would be interested in including your product in their line of similar products. Approaching a company that doesn't do a product like yours will either get you ignored or rejected. Hope this gives you an idea of what to do.

Jon

Huge thank you for the heads up Jon!!!

Hey Paul,

One of my friends used to make masters of complete 1/56th and 1/48th gaming vehicles. He was getting paid around $1200usd per vehicle. I've always told him I thought that keeping the master and casting them himself, thereby keeping the IP and having ongoing sales basically forever, or at least anytime anyone wanted one, was a better way to go.

I've no idea what companies pay for 1/35th Parts masters but it's easy to see what such things retail for. So maybe you could cast and sell them yourself. It'd solve the pricing issue as you'd have other things to compare your sales price/quality to.

Another option is what did making the masters cost you, in terms of time researching and building. Charge that time out at an hourly rate you're happy working for and add in some factors for materials and consumables. That's your base cost for the master. You then need to add in something for the ongoing profit/IP of the master .....

You'll soon see what a decent charge might be.

cheers
Brent

Determining your own costs can give you an idea of the range you might aim at with the eventual resin caster/manufacturer -- but the advice that Jon (who actually runs a resin company) gave is more aligned with the final transaction. What if your start up costs simply aren't tenable and you ask for too much? Then your price is beyond what any caster would want to pay.

True but you still need to figure in a return per hour to cover your time and costs to even figure out if you want to be in the game or not.

Of course if the master can be whipped out quickly enough then then there's a lot more wriggle room for what you can accept as a price.

At the end of the day if it works out that you're going to rake in $5 an hour for the time it took you then you're either selling it because you love making stuff and the money isn't important or you're happy with that rate.

There's jobs I can't take on because the customer just doesn't value my time enough to pay and wants top quality at a volume price ....

cheers
Brent

Thanks for your suggestions everyone!

Wow! 1200 USD sounds good, but that's not the case. After reading through everything above I came to a conclusion I was right thinking about 250-400 USD range for a set of road wheels.

Making them myself is tempting (I could have kept the quality under control etc.), but making papers to become a manufacturer/official business maker in my country is too complicated and it's not the right time, so, will have to look for an existing AM company to cooperate with.

Cheers to all of you fine fellows...