> A lot of people will think that this means you have a mark-up of > 50% since they will assign $0 per hour for order fulfillment. That would actually be a very low markup for a product that might sell a few 100/year, although I know hobbyists don't understand that. > Tracking time by project, I know how (unreasonably) long it takes > to take orders, pull & pack product, deal with shipping, handle > all of the little problems that crop up, etc. You might consider > farming out order fulfillment. I do. That's already arranged for a flat fee of $2/unit. > I think a lot of hobbyists would spend days of effort and live > with a "works 1 out of every 3 tries" method instead of spending > 60 cents to buy a robust solution. Doesn't make sense... Yeah, that's what I am afraid of. Any idea how to counter that? Emphasize the no hassle, all included, just works advantages, or just give up? > Offer the first batch as pre-orders for $59 with cancellation > clause. If you get 34 orders, proceed (34 * $59 = $2000 cost for > 50 kits). Out of pocket expenses are covered. Orders beyond 34 > are "profit" to cover the time it takes to fulfill the orders. > All you are risking is the time to pack & ship the trial batch. > After the first 50, you can adjust price as dictated by experience. As I said in another post, I tried this with the ProProg and it didn't work. In the end I talked to enough people and was convinced it would be accepted, even though very few were willing to buy up front. I have meanwhile gotten a reasonable number of orders, and the first production run is already 70% subscribed. I will probably kick off a larger run as soon as I get units from this one. ***************************************************************** Embed Inc, embedded system specialists in Littleton Massachusetts (978) 742-9014, http://www.embedinc.com _______________________________________________ http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist