If you’ve come to this page, you’re no doubt wondering why the price of some of my items are priced a little on the higher end.
I wanted to create this page to provide more transparency about pricing so that you can make a more informed buying decision.
Tl;dr: The slightly higher price is because the item is handmade and higher quality than most of what’s out there.
To start, when I created the httpkoopa Store, I decided that I wanted to have quality items that I would enjoy wearing and using. As a small operation, I also didn’t have the means to create and hold a whole bunch of inventory.
When it came to designing all-over shirts, as an example, there were really two options:
- Dye-sublimation on a pre-made shirt ($26 for the smallest size)
- Dye-sublimation on a single sheet of fabric, cut and sewn into a shirt ($28 for the smallest size)
I went into more detail about the differences between hand-sewn and pre-made shirts, but generally speaking pre-made shirt printing leads to streaks and other weird artifacts on the edges and underarm area of the garments.
I decided to go with the hand-sewn option, even though it was slightly more expensive, knowing that the quality would be better than what was out there.
So, we have a $28 shirt to start.
Many businesses, once they have their manufacturing cost will multiply this value times 2.5 to come up with a product price. This markup allows businesses to market their products, grow, and better serve their customers.
For a $30 product, the total price would be $75. Knowing this was too far outside the realm of what’s realistic, I looked to add a margin that was more in line with expectations. This was how I came up with the 30-40% margin.
Now the shirt is the price you see $40.99.
Though I would have liked to make the price even lower, a business (even a small one) has to make money somehow. This small margin allows for this to happen which in turn creates some flexibility for marketing, sales, and developing cooler products.
Consider for once that an average front-designed, shirt made in bulk might cost $10 to manufacture. $10 times the 2.5 multiplier equals $25—the average price of many quality shirts out there (like those on Threadless).
These businesses have the benefit of scale to produce items at a lower cost. Lower production cost results in lower end-customer price as well.
I wish to get to this point. In the meantime, I hope this helps shed some light on why the price is what it is.
If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask. Also, if you’ve read up to this point and still really want something that I designed, but are strapped for cash just reach out via social media. I’d be happy to help figure out something for a fellow cosplayer, gamer, maker, geek, etc. ☺️