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Making models for commission...


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Hi guys,

As the title says, i was wondering how much a decently made model for commission costs?

I know its a vague question but, lets say i want to sell this model i've made a year ago... what would be a good price?

Tamiya 1:32 Spitfire Mk.IXc with a lot of scratch built parts...

IMG_4244.jpg

Many thanks,

Alek

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If you paid for the model and supplies yourself, I would start an Ebay auction at $450 + shipping (which can be tricky) and see where that goes. Getting the word out there would be important to drive the competition. So difficult to put a price as there is not a well-established market for it, so depending on the scale, subject, build quality, detail, and - most importantly - how bad somebody wants it, it can range from less than $100 to a few thousand dollars.

If you are making this for one particular individual, I would factor in: the kit's price, supplies, after market details, decals etc. + how many hours you spent on it + if the person is your buddy (cheaper) or a stranger. You need to put a price on your hourly rate. $10/hour maybe?

Edit: With me, I tend to give my models away for free. Most of my models have a "shelf life" and I have limited shelf space. So, when a new model comes in, an old one has to go. One thing I heard is commission builds tend to take the fun away, especially if you agree on a price, schedule etc (perhaps because it turns into 'work').

Edited by Janissary
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Personally I'd start with what is it worth to you. Are you someone that enjoys the building more than the displaying, or will selling it off leave an empty space for you? Selling it to a private collector or to an organization where it will be on display?

If you are mostly into the building, then all you have to worry about is recovering your costs.

If you actually want to make some money at this good luck, you will be more successful making money flipping burgers.

Say you actually get $450 for it which seems like a fair price to me. How much time did you spend on it 50, 100 hours? $100 for the kit, and say $50 for supplies, now you are making $3-6 / hr. Kids mowing lawns can do better than that.

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Before the crash of the US economy I had a friend who on a regular basis sold 1/48 kits with basic details for a minimum $500 US.

He had regular clients and advertised in Military History magazine.

Personally, I wouldn't sell that Spitfire for anything less than $750.00

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I guess it depends on your reason for selling it. If you need to turn it into cash quickly, you'll have to settle for what you can get.

If it's anywhere near as nice as it appears, (and I'm sure it is) I would not take less than 1100.00 USD for it.

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Hi guys,

Many thanks for all of your nice comments for my Spitfire and advices and thoughts on this matter!

Most of you made an excellent point by saying that making models just to give them away take away all the fun and thats something i would not trade for any kind of money.

Making models has always been just a hobby and alot of fun for me, however, recently i started publishing my works and that really gives me a lot of 'ego food' and satisfaction.

A few times i did consider making models for commission but thats not a thing anymore, also thanks to your comments and advices!

Many of you are also right by saying that there is no money here.

I would use this post to, proudly say that my new book is finally out and can be ordered here:

http://adhpublishing.com/shop/store/products/new-the-modellers-guide-superdetailing-painting-and-weathering/

Maybe a win-win situation for me would be more publications which brings a little money and a lot of satisfaction + i keep the model :-)

thanks again guys!

Alek

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I'm not sure that I understand how some are saying that there's no market, or that there's no money to be made in doing commission building. I worked from home this past year doing commission work alone, and my lights never got turned off. I did four contract projects for Lockheed Martin, and the rest were works for private collectors. If you're building for yourself, and just trying to free up shelf space, then sure...set a reasonable price, and see where it goes. But where you're going to make your money is when you can satisfy full customized orders for people by adding personal touches such as customized decals, and intricate novelty items that were only shown on a particular plane. Pricing can be a funny business, especially if you're an honest person who understands that the people paying you for your time also work hard for their money. As you start getting a client base started, you have a little more room to maneuver on pricing, since you can essentially begin to pick and choose what projects you want to participate in. Again, if you're strictly holding on to just selling what you like to build, then you have to be more willing to take the offers that are given to you, but when you're essentially working for someone else's vision, then you're simply only asking them to pay for what they're getting.

Here recently I was getting really burnt out on Hornets, and Tomcats, plus I had a lot of other work in the backlog to work with, so I wasn't in a hurry to worry about where I'm going to get my next business. With that being said, if I'm tired of building a hornet, and someone really wants a hornet, you can ask for additional money. If they're not willing to budge on it, then hey....I wasn't really interested in building it anyways. If they are willing to pay the additional rates, well, then the money makes up for the inconvenience. Overall though, you have to remember that it doesn't just start and stop on the work bench. You have to also account for your time spent getting information from the client, which is usually a pretty lenghty feature when you're trying to offer them all the aspects of a plane. If you include the time trying to find hard to reach decals and kits, the quote process alone can sometimes take a couple of hours in and of itself. How about time spent researching reference pictures??? That itself is part of the build process, and should be accounted for in the time span of everything. As was already mentioned, the parts and supplies come with it as well. As a rule of thumb, the person interested in the commission buys all the parts, including the kit up front. You'll account for your supplies in the final price, so be realistic on what you'll end up spending on that so that you can factor that in. Some people seem baffled that you charge them for the kit, and the work, but if you take your car in for new brakes, you would still purchase the parts there as well. The main goal behind that is that if the guy backs out at the end and says "I don't want it no more", then you aren't out the 150 bucks that it cost to buy the kit, decals, and any other goodies that were required. Just basic business sense.

Last, and most important...be willing to spend some money to properly ship a completed model. It's not cheap, so factor that into your costs. Early on, I sold a Hasegawa F-22 on ebay that went for $40. I was happy that it sold, but in the end it wound up having to go to Hawaii. By the time I paid shipping, and ebay fees, I was in the red. So lesson learned. All that being said, shipping isn't a guarantee that items will arrive 100%. But what I've noticed is that anytime something shows up with a missile that fell off, or a loose canopy, they can't dispute the fact that I did my absolute best when shipping after it takes them nearly ten minutes just to even get to through all the packaging. And for the love of god, insure everything. Anyways, that's kind of my take on it. There is money to be made, but it can sometimes feel like work, especially if you're rent is due next week, and you're cutting it close to the deadline. I've spent 14-18 hour days at the work bench when doing it, so it definitely can get daunting at times, but its taught me that if you're passionate enough....you can make money doing anything.

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I have made a few commission builds. For me my price is based on the customer. It might sound like I'm price gouging ... Well that is true depending how you look at it. Face it! You will never get what the model is worth based on the ammount of time you put in it. Long story short my rule of thumb is 200%. Example, I made a few F-5s earlier this year. They cost me $25 each between the kits and materials. I charged $50 and they were gon in two days. But over the years I have learned everyone is different and so are their budgets. Work it out with the customer up front and get half of your agreed price down. It helps them commit if they are invested.

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I've sold a few built kits on eBay. They were nothing spectacular and I was just looking to free up space and get some extra cash for more models. I'd usually start the bidding at a reasonable price around maybe what the kit cost unbuilt and then let them go. Several of them only went for the initial bid cost but I did have a RF-4B that bid up to 125$ or so. I think I started it at 30$ which is what I paid for the kit which was mostly oob.

There's only one kit that I value highly and that's my 1/32 Academy F-18C. I've always said I wouldn't sell it for less than 700$ as that's what I feel it's worth.

Finding someone to pay that is a different story.

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Aggressor, that isn't price gouging. You're simply asking people to pay a percentage of what they think their money as well as your work is worth. I too vary my pricing at times depending on subjects. If I'm pricing in such a way that's creating a lengthy backlog, then my price is too low. On the flip side, if I'm only getting one client a year, then I'm shooting too high. You have to find the delicate balance that keeps you employed as well as fairly paid. There's several ways to approach it, but only one way that truly works for everyone. As I said in my initial post, if a person tasks me to build a unique subject that I haven't been able to do yet, then they'll often get a great deal in it. One they're allowing me the opportunity to add a new subject to my portfolio which helps draw new clients in the future, two, it's sometimes a win/win because I get to finally try out about that I've been excited to do, and get paid for it, and it opens up new avenues to other like minded folks who may be curious as to whether or not I'm capable of said build. However, the high issue I had this year was experiencing burn out die to repetition of the same planes, sometimes even the same exact kit and markings. To make up for that, I set prices much higher for those subjects. If I've built four super hornets in two months, I obviously don't care to build another one unless the price is right. So as you said, the guy who pays for the fifth one may very well pay twice as much as the guy who paid for the first one. There's no loss in that approach, because if the price is too high, then they don't want it anymore than you want to build it. However, if they do still say yes, then you can validate the work with the payment that's at the back end of it.

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Nice Spitfire. I can't really tell you as I've never done commission work and build only for fun but that was in the past - my current situation doesn't allow for it at the moment. Sounds like you built that Spitfire without a client in mind so selling it now would require more time finding that right customer. Your best bet would be auctioning it on ebay or other like sites. I have seen some pro-builts go from what other have mentioned above some seem to stay around these auction sites while others get a bidding war. You may get more than you expected but then again you may get less but I'd consider it as your work looks very good and maybe a Brit is really into your Spitfire. I hope this helps a little and good luck on finding that Spitfire a good home.

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Work it out with the customer up front and get half of your agreed price down. It helps them commit if they are invested.

I think this is one of the best advices so far.

Another thing I would like to suggest is to try first your 'local' market like museums or other organizations (even coffee shops. Yes, believe it or not, a coffee shop owner once asked me to build an F-16 in order to display it in his shop!) that have an interest on scale models of any kind (airplanes, cars, ships, etc), especially since your scale modelling level is so good!

Edited by SERNAK
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The problem with taking half the payment is that what happens if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? What I ask for up front is them to cover the costs of parts. That in itself is an investment towards them committing, often ranging from 80-150 bucks depending on the subject. The good part about that is if anyone flakes out and disappears, then you're really not out anything. Even if you turned around and sold it on eBay, you'd still be in the positove because it cost you nothing to acquire parts.

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I Just like to build and have no interest in keeping or displaying them hence I sort of trade sell my built models for a kit of the same plus the cost of after market parts that I bought so far it's worked out pretty OK for me as I keep pretty busy model building I've done a few commission jobs that worked out OK too.

Paul

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