Really nice throw pillows can be so damn expensive. I'm not sure why two squares of fabric and some stuffing cost cost as much as they do and if I were at all crafty I would just make my own skull pillows and they would be fabulous. Until then, these skull and crossbone pillows from Bed Bath and Beyond are super cute and totally within my budget!
BB&B has some other nice skull items including the great Sin in Linen™ sheet sets in black, pink and white. I haven't been able to find any skull sheets that will fit a 18"+ mattress though, if anyone else has please let me know!
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I believe the name of the store is Bed, Bath and Friggin' Beyond : )
ReplyDeleteThink about it ... You can't really do it for this price if you're going to sell them...
ReplyDelete-Buy some pretty plain material for $10 a yard so you can make two 16"-18" pillows.
-Buy a 5 lb bag of stuffing for $15 (you only probably need a 1/2 pound of stuffing for each pillow)
-Buy some thread for $3.50
-What is your time worth? $10 an hour? If you're really good at sewing you can probably bang them out in an hour.
So what do you we have?
$10 - fabric
$15 - stuffing
$10 - time
$3.50 - thread
$38.50 for two (square) pillows.
If you make 10 pillows, to make your stuffing and thread worth it's while, you can probably get two pillows for $23.70 ($50 for material, $50 for time, $3.50 for thread, $15 for stuffing DIVIDED by 5)
So at best, you're looking $11.85 per pillow. Woohoo, look you saved yourself $18.10! (29.99 - 11.85)... OR DID YOU?
-First of all, you've only paid for readily available, and likely quite plain, fabric. Do you want custom fabric with your own copyrighted design? Now you're looking at, at least $18 per yard (from spoonflower.com).
-Secondly, you're probably not an ace sewer are you? So to make this more complicated skull and crossbones design, you're probably looking at - at least - an hour per pillow of time.
-Did you think about the costs of selling your pillow design? You have some overhead because you have to pay for a website, and a payment service. But let's say you don't and you're selling your pillows wholesale to someone else.
NEW PRICE CALCULATIONS
$90 for material to make 10 pillows
$15 for stuffing
$3.50 for thread
$100 for your time
= $208.50 for 10 pillows
= 20.85 for 1 pillow
$20.85 is your WHOLESALE COST
Your seller, sells the pillow with a 100% markup - this is normal, sometimes it's more if they act as a middleman.
So now your pillow costs
DRUMROLL PLEASE
$41.70
Get yourself some cheap overseas labour, build a factory, get volume discounts on fabric, and minus your new overhead, you *might* be able to sell them for $29.99
-T. Shawn Johnson (Whystler)
UH OH ... did I forget to build in a profit for yourself above working costs? :)
ReplyDelete-T. Shawn Johnson (Whystler)
Your pricing doesn't factor in economies of scale which is why your numbers are so high.
ReplyDelete