How to Price a Kit

 

- VS -

I've seen a couple of post recently on Hack-a-day and Twitter about my Geek Spinner (and US based kits in general) being priced too high.  As both a maker and consumer of kits, let me first say that I am sensitive to this issue. When I price a kit, the first question is always, "would I pay this much for it?"  Consider the following:

• I publish my BOM and PCB files along with instructions and firmware, so you don't need to buy anything from me.
• I sell kits to cover the cost of my developing them.  I usually build at least three versions before I'm willing to put it out there for others to try.
• I price the kits to cover the cost of materials and my time for packaging the kits.
• I enjoy designing and making kits and helping others make them.  I do not enjoy kitting or selling them. It is a lot of work.
• I'm selling at very low volumes, usually in multiples of ten, where the scale of economy has barely begun.

I think, in general, what we fail to recognize when we look at the price of kit, are the intangibles:

• Well documented, well supported.
• Quality components from known sources.
• Design files and schematics so we can understand or modify the design to our own purpose.
• Tutorials and examples files.

I've sold enough kits to know that I'm at least in the ball park.  I'm making enough so my wife doesn't need to see the credit card bill for the weekly Digi-Key delivery, or to sweat making a medium-run OSH Park PCB order when I'm ready to face the public.  I'm also sure, that if I total it all up, I'm  making below minimum wages.  But then again, I'm doing something I enjoy.  For the most part.

So, vote with your dollar.  But also ask yourself, "is the seller adding any value?"