I'm not engraving 5,000 pens......

[Steve Clarkson]

Someone asked me for 5,000-8,000 pens with their company logo on it......for under $1 each.......anyone have a good source (I assume a promotional products company) for something like that? She almost keeled over when I told her how much an ENGRAVED pen would cost.........

[Brian Robison]

Hi Steve,
National Pen Corp, Shelbyville Tn
I'm assuming she wanted the pen also at the $1.00 price?

[Steve Clarkson]

Thanks Brian......that was exactly what I was looking for.

[Dan Hintz]

Sheesh, Steve, what a bargain... you could quote her $0.99/pen, have them made by a company for $0.49/each, and bank several thousand for practically zero work on your part. Man, I want orders like that to come in!

[Brian Robison]

Sounds like a plan.

[Brian Robison]

Steve, if you wait a minute I'll get you a number for a sales rep I know there.

[Steve Clarkson]

OK.....thanks!

[Martin Boekers]

Steve,

You might want to check with I-Mark also, If for nothing else they have a great line of pens (much better selection than most awards suppiers)

and the they are resonanbly priced enven for 1 up blanks.


Marty

[Harry Radaza]

Steve that is exactly the jobs we do here in the philippines. At the rate we are offering, she can probably get them cheaper if we were to do it here. And that's inclusive of shipping back and forth!

[Brian Robison]

Hey Steve the rep I was thinking of was promoted but referred another person. Tamera York 1-888-672-8114

[Albert Nix]

Steve you might want to check with imprintor.com, they sell a pad printing rig for close to 2k. you could buy the pens for 15-30 cents and more than pay for the printer. Then you would have a new service to offer. I have been waiting for that same chance but it just hasnt come along.

[Mike Null]

I would advise being very careful when considering pad printing equipment. There is no business I know of that's more competitively priced. There are also EPA concerns.

Be prepared to work on margins as low as five cents.

[Scott Shepherd]

If you're quoting $1 per pen on a job like that, you're way off. You can do them in a row, probably takes less than 10 seconds each to do and you do a table full at a time. You could easily do them at 20 cents each and make $60 per hour on a large job like that. It's easy work.

Just my opinion. I'd take the job for 20 cents each. That's about 14 hours worth or work for $1000. I'll take $1000 for a long days work.

[Tim Bateson]

Scott, I have a jig setup to do wood pens in batches. Even so, you are way under valuing your services. I have a regular customer that pays $10 each. $2 more if color filled. They ship them to me and include a prepaid mailer for the return.

[Bob McGinn]

As the replies above indicate, there are a number of options to make money on this type of deal even as a pass through.

[Steve Clarkson]

Turns out this woman is quite resourceful. Here is a picture of the pen she found for $0.49 each.

No way I'm going to compete with that. THE BEST I COULD FIND was for $0.52 each!!!

Even if I got them blank for $0.20 each and thus would make $0.30 each gross profit or $1,500 for 5,000......would it be worth it? I doubt it.

My 12x24 table might be able to hold 100 pens.....and if the engraving/loading/unloading took 30 min.....that's 25 hours of work (or $60/hour).

Alot of big "if's" though.

I decided to make her a complimentary wood pen box with her logo engraved on it, so she can put her POS plastic pens in it!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!

[Brian Robison]

Please tell me she doesn't work at Cornell!

[Scott Shepherd]

Scott, I have a jig setup to do wood pens in batches. Even so, you are way under valuing your services. I have a regular customer that pays $10 each. $2 more if color filled. They ship them to me and include a prepaid mailer for the return.

Depends how large the order would be. 5000, we'd certainly consider them for .20 cents each. 500, probably not. 100, certainly not.

If we can make $1000 a day off of any laser engraving job, then we're happy. I don't care if it's one piece for $1000 or 1000 pieces for $1.00.

If you overcharge for the service, you're setting yourself up for possible long term issues. One day someone's going to shop around and when they find out they can get them engraved for .20 cents when you have been charging them $5 (or whatever), you'll lose that customer forever.

5000 pens puts you in the promotional product category. If they go to a promotional products company, they will get them for pennies each, not dollars. I'd never want to put myself in a situation where the customer can find out after the fact that I overcharged them by 10-20 times for what they could have gotten them for.

That's just my opinion.

[Albert Nix]

I agree with you Mike but if they are willing to pay close a buck for the pens it would be a deal. Can't be much worse that the trophies market.

[Steve Clarkson]

Please tell me she doesn't work at Cornell!


No.....why? LOL!

She's a hair stylist with 12,000 customers in her database.........

[Tim Bateson]

I decided to make her a complimentary wood pen box with her logo engraved on it, so she can put her POS plastic pens in it!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!

Great idea Steve. Loose this deal, but keep your name in front of them for other work.

[Brian Robison]

No.....why? LOL!

She's a hair stylist with 12,000 customers in her database.........
My sister runs the Campus Store at Cornell

[Phil Salvati]

Al / Steve,

I visited with the folks from That Pad printing company mentioned at the last trade show in Dallas... It is a fairly nice imprinter for the price and doing small orders.... I was impressed for what it was...

My order went in last week!

Steve, if your business starts leaning towards promotional products in large quantities.... a look into ASI ( The one I am a member of) or PPAI would be beneficial.

Phil

[Martin Boekers]

Pens are tough to many ASI dealers out their. I have a consigner in my shop that turns pens and it's hard for him to sell a hand turned pen&pencil set with case for $25.

Steve you might want to check on joining ASI if you delve into promotional products a bit deeper. There is money to be made if you develope your contacts. Plus many of the ASI suppliers sell blanks that you don't normally find in our awards catalogs.

They have an amazing search engine to find just what your looking for.

Might be something to consider!

The other thing to consider is linking up with someone that belongs with the group and sell promotional products then work out a commision plan for those you refer to them.

Just some thoughts!

Marty

[Steve Clarkson]

So Phil, if this lady approached you looking for 8,000 of these pens for $0.49 each, what would you do? Since you have access to ASI, do you think they would have something that would get you the job?

Just curious......I think the promotional products market is a little too competitive for me, but I would like to hook up with someone locally that can do it. If all it takes is a phone call or e-mail to get a small slice of a big order.....I'll take it!

[Phil Salvati]

Steve,

I sure would! I found two pens in my ASI search engine that resemble the one you posted that were a few pennies off off of the price you posted.

I would make 30% on that cost... just for vectoring the clients logo and sending it to the wholesale company!... About 20 minutes work and use of my credit! That's about 1176.00 is my math is right!

There is always a set up fee for all products minimum 25.00 and up to 75.00 depending on color amounts and process.... I usually eat it if they are repeat customers, especially if I am making this much for little input.

The cost of membership is not low...and the use of the search engine is up there as well....but a few of these jobs make it worth the out put.

If you want further information.... let me know... It's card night.....but you can give me a call any time!

[Phil Salvati]

There are a few things you have to ask perspective clients that are shopping prices.....

The power of the internet educates them only so much....

Rarely...do the larger promotional companies mention the set up fees.... which can get high. I wonder if the price you mentioned included them.

Set up fees also multiply according to...

Number of colors,

Per location,

Many have a limit of size... with an extra charge..... ETC.

Then there is the Shipping rates which are always elevated!

All of a sudden you are paying Quality pen prices for that POS!

Phil

[Martin Boekers]

Steve,

Phil is right about the benefits of ASI. The tools they provide are well worth the fees IF you want to bid on these products.

If you already have a client and you treat them right. Sometimes the competitive atmosphere isn't their main concern.

It's their trust in you to provide them a quality on time product!

Selling promotional products doesn't encur any "tooling" expense.
You don't have to buy another laser, a pad printer, a sublmation system, a heat press etc the only time it takes is to do file prep an contact time.

It's a great service to be able to provide for clients. Esp if they don't have the time or inkling to do the research.

Marty

[Tim Bateson]

If you overcharge for the service, you're setting yourself up for possible long term issues. One day someone's going to shop around and when they find out they can get them engraved for .20 cents when you have been charging them $5 (or whatever), you'll lose that customer forever.

1. I value my time.
2. I value my skill.
3. I have a very expensive tool that I've invested in.
4. I have to think about long term maintenance.
5. I'm providing a high quality custom product - I've done a few for free as it was not up to my high standards.
6. The $1 a minute rule doesn't work for me as I don't believe in setup fees. I have no hidden/exta costs, so I charge a little more to cover that.
7. Free or at cost services is reserved only for family & very close friends.
8. I'm not making a living off of this particular customer, so if the business does stop, it's not a big deal. I only do 1 -10 a month for the past year.
9. These are high quality custom made pens they sell for $75 - $100.
10. It was the customer who offered to pay $10 to engrave their pens.
11. I've made twice as much off of referrals from this customer.
12. The market pays what it will pay. In this market I get $10, in a different market I may well only get $5 each. Anything less is a waste of my time & I'd have no problems loosing that business.

Bottom line - There is more to pricing then the 30 seconds your laser is firing. Be proud of what you do and don't be afraid to ask a fair market price for your equipment and your quality and your skill and your time. There are too many customers that will value you for this to worry about the few that want something for nothing.

[Scott Shepherd]

1. I value my time.
2. I value my skill.
3. I have a very expensive tool that I've invested in.
4. I have to think about long term maintenance.
5. I'm providing a high quality custom product - I've done a few for free as it was not up to my high standards.
6. The $1 a minute rule doesn't work for me as I don't believe in setup fees. I have no hidden/exta costs, so I charge a little more to cover that.
7. Free or at cost services is reserved only for family & very close friends.
8. I'm not making a living off of this particular customer, so if the business does stop, it's not a big deal. I only do 1 -10 a month for the past year.
9. These are high quality custom made pens they sell for $75 - $100.
10. It was the customer who offered to pay $10 to engrave their pens.
11. I've made twice as much off of referrals from this customer.
12. The market pays what it will pay. In this market I get $10, in a different market I may well only get $5 each. Anything less is a waste of my time & I'd have no problems loosing that business.

Bottom line - There is more to pricing then the 30 seconds your laser is firing. Be proud of what you do and don't be afraid to ask a fair market price for your equipment and your quality and your skill and your time. There are too many customers that will value you for this to worry about the few that want something for nothing.

Tim, I think you may have missed some key words in my posts. I said if this was less than 5000, then the price would be higher. We're talking about pens that are give away pens. You're talking about $75-$100 pens. Two totally different things.

I think you'd have to agree that any day you make $1000 on your laser is a good day. If you can make them doing 2500 pens in 8 hours or 100 high ends pens in 3 hours, then it's still a good day.

I think we're talking about two completely different markets here.

[Tim Bateson]

Yes, I do agree.

[Rodne Gold]

My take is 5000 $1 pens is a poor PR excercise for a hairdresser - cheap stuff breaks and the negativity associated is never costed in.. the pens have nothing to do with hairdressing and arent even a decent "thank you"
1000 combs at $5 or 1000 pens at $5 or 1000 hair bauble boxes would be a LOT better.
I have drawers of cheap pens , cheap fridge magnets and cheap and nasty keytags at home and at my work...

I hate the promo marking market anyway , customers fickle over a penny and you often dont get paid ..every guy with a laser or any other marking machine is after a slice of that pie.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I agree with Rodne. I have a cup filled with promo pens that I use from time to time yet I could not tell you what businesses they came from.

The salon owner would do much better to select a compact folding brush with mirror, lip balm, nail files, aloe vera, sun block, pocket lint brush and stuff like that.

[Mike Null]

I agree 100% with Rodney. I had a healthy 6 figure budget to buy this stuff before I retired.

If you going to be in promotional products you need to do it full time.

One of the items that was cheap and useful was a fingernail file. The new type with a small plastic holder. The logo was on the holder.