On Tuesday 21 December 2004 04:08 pm, Olin Lathrop wrote:
> I have received quotes on getting individual complete kits for the
> EasyProg PIC programmer (http://www.embedinc.com/easyprog).  The question
> now is do you think hobbyists would buy them at $59 plus shipping?  This
> would include the board and all the parts so you could build your own
> unit, plus the wall wart and serial cable - truly all parts you need for
> an operational unit.

You might want to leave out the wall wart since it is bulky, pushes up 
shipping rates, and something anyone could buy cheap/easily locally 
(otherwise put the wallwart under another shopping cart option).
Have you enquired with places like kitsrus or www.dontronics.com or some such 
outfits? some of these places specialize in quantity and have people 
specializing in this type of stuff  (type "electronic kits" into a search 
engine).

> I'm not really trying to make money on the EasyProg, and this price
> includes only the slimmest of margin.  OK I might as well tell you, my
> cost is $31 for the kits in quantity 50, $4 for the boards in quantity
> 100, probably $1-2 in packaging, $2 to have them sent out, for a total
> cost of $39.  It could never be sold as a for-profit product anywhere near
> $59, although hobbyists often don't understand that.  You not only get all
> the parts, but a lot of engineering and verification done for you.  The
> value is good, but the real question is will anyone shell out $60 for a
> kit no matter how good it is?

Put it at a price worth "their" and "your" time. you can't please everybody 
and no matter how cheap you will put it, someone is always going to complain 
about how expensive it is. I read an article about this (tried looking for 
it, otherwise would have sent the link) which simply stated, there will 
always be people complaining about price. You can put out a product for 
free, have it installed for free by Salma Hayek in a bikini, and you will 
still have people who still complain that it wasn't installed by a blonde.

> Any other suggestions for a price?  Even if 
> hobbyist time is considered free, what about hassle factor?  We see people
> here regularly having problems with various dubious "no parts",
> "el-cheapo", or whatever programmers.  Is $60 worth the frustration or
> does that not count?  (I'm really asking).
>
> I'd like to offer the kit, but I don't want to spend almost $2000 (boards
> are already in stock) to find out it is either priced too high to sell or
> too low to ever get my money back.

Put a price chart of what it would cost on average if someone was going to 
get the parts via digikey, total, then your total... hopefully it would 
justify the price your charging and people won't be automatically thinking 
you're out to scalp them.
Hope that helps.
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