Production costs of flat figures vs. market

[Brian]

Cost,    should this part of the conversation be in another thread, Mark?? 

[Brian]

Have to agree Mike, the pricing at BZ is always the highest I have come across, and I have to admit I have never brought from them because of the price.


But after a break down of cost involved are we paying to little for the figures??
I sell figures and sometimes have to reduce the price as it seems far too high! again with Charles' figures we had to drop the true price as we felt embarrassed to get the right %


Jupiter and my own figures are all priced this way so with out big sells we lose big time.


So again are we paying too little for the figures?


Joerg's and my girls £3.00 each is that too little or a fair cost, it has cost us over the thousand to produce!!       


 


   

[Mike G]

I will say the quality and complexity of flat figures never ceases to amaze me. It's fine art before they're ever even painted.  I think the frustration with BZ is that they bumped up the price of the gottstein sets well beyond that of their normal stock. I assume this is because they're selling on behalf of the Leipzig society and do not own the molds, but perhaps I'm wrong. The Hastings set cost several hundred euros and I'm afraid to see what Assyria and Babylon will cost once the molds have been cleaned.  But so be it as it's the only way to get them, and when bits and pieces turn up on German eBay the prices are as high if not higher

[Brian]

"Prices at Berliner Zinnfiguren are really ridiculous  4.5 - 5 Euro for the mounted figure"


Think we have been here before but lets talk about price, lets look at making a figure


You have an idea, then it has to be drawn, cost can be £150 /£200.
Then off to the engraver and your talking another £250 plus for one stone (each stone will accommodate 2  30mm mounted or 5 foot figures) then we come to casting,  tin is around £40 a kg and then you have the casters time.
On top of all this you have post, not to you the collector we have not got that far yet, the moulds again £25 to £50 from the engraver to the caster, another £8 say for the design to be sent to the engraver so it all mounts up.


Lets look at a set, Charge of the light Brigade by Charles King, you are looking at thousands spent to get the figures to the market with no hope of getting anything like that back. so far the set has 10 stones


So are we underselling the figures?   YES we are!! but it is a special market we have and the collector has been very lucky with the low price of the quality figures he can buy today and expects low price.


The figures we produce are not toys but the buyer will only pay toy price


Don't get me wrong, I do not defend BZ pricing but we are going to except that prices will have to go up if your going to want new figures. The Collector will have to pay the money!!!