Former Military members and what they like.

[pete hagan]

Took the kids out to our local aviation museum today to see the Liberty Belle, a WWII era B-17 flying fortress which was a blast! They loved it, I loved it and you could see the proud men come alive reliving those terrifying days 60 plus years ago. If you have served I say thank you for protecting our country and making it what it was and has become today. Our country owes you a great debt.

Talking with these folks it came up that we now have a laser. We have held corporate events at the museum so these folks know what I do and naturally the laser garnered a lot of interest. So I now need to take some samples out and let the gift shop have some idea of costs. Naturally I'm going to cut a picture with this beautiful war plane as a gift but now I need to know what service members and their families have been interested in from your experience. Can you relate what you have made for this type of end customer and what was the pricing structure. I'd like to make some money but would be more interested in helping out the museum as well. We have donated every year and this may actually work out as more money than the little bit we give at years end.
So any advise on products that sell well and about the end pricing I would greatly appreciate it. I've seen several great pieces on the forum.

Thanks

Pete

[Craig Hogarth]

Veterans will generally be interested in products displaying what they did in the military. I spent my time in the Navy fixing submarines and that's what I personally am most interested in. My wife was military police, so a lot of her militaria is focused around that.

Currently, I'm located near a Naval Air Station and the majority of what I make are the EA-6s and P-3s since that's what we have. On occasion I get a request for other planes or ships, but it's from those who have worked on or around them in the past.

[Stephen Beckham]

Pete,

I just retired from and opened a shop right outside of Fort Knox. Do you ever make it down this way? If so, we can get together and I'll show you what kind of things I do around here for our guys.

A quick one might be for you to put some pictures on the black annodized Dogtags. The photos turn out great and the item can be turned into keychains or used as Dogtags. Of course being aviation, they might want blue dogtags... If you want a couple to play with versus having to buy a 100 - let me know.

Anyway - let me know if you're ever down in the area and we can get togther and swap ideas and CDRs.

Steve

[Nancy Laird]

Pilots' wings of gold - aircrew wings - (Navy) Aviation Warfare and Surface Warfare emblems - ship/plane/submarine silhouettes - ship and squadron logos. Just a few suggestions from a proud Navy wife.

Nancy (138 days)

[AL Ursich]

Retired Navy Chief here too. 3 Destroyers, 10 years of sea time, 27 countries in 20 years. I am looking at that market too....

Fire Control Technician: Radars, Computers, Guns, and Missiles.... A FUN JOB..... Plus my electronic training put me into Sony fixing Factory Automation, Fanuc Robots, and more.... For the first 4 years then 4 more at a Service Center fixing Play Stations.... Now it's a Laser Engraving, Sublimation, V Carving Tourist product business.

All the toys you could ever want....

Almost every Military guy has a "I love me" Wall...... Or his MOM does.... a good market.....

AL

[Marc Myer]

Another idea may be military seals or medallions; there are a billion of them for every activity, branch, department, ship, etc.
My day job is with the Navy at Pearl harbor. I have a good supply of logos, ship silhouettes, and other military errata. It's primarily Navy, but am willing to share.

[Craig Hogarth]

Another idea may be military seals or medallions; there are a billion of them for every activity, branch, department, ship, etc.
My day job is with the Navy at Pearl harbor. I have a good supply of logos, ship silhouettes, and other military errata. It's primarily Navy, but am willing to share.

Coins are pretty popular with the military. www.atdesigns.com specializes in custom coins, amongst other things and will set you up with a website (no mention of AT designs) to showcase all products and accept orders.

This is on my very long to do list and I haven't worked with them. But I've talked to sales and they are very friendly.