What is a 'reasonable' hourly rate for model-building?

[Anonymous]

I have fould myself in a position I never expected to be in: Somebody is interested in buying a scale [HO] model ship I kitbashed. I know how much I spent for the base kit and materials, but I'm having a devil of a time trying to assign an 'hourly' rate for the time I put into it - roughly 200 hours.

I am definitely not at George Sellios' level of talent;
-but on the other hand...-
I don't think I could find a teenager at minimum wage to reproduce what I did![:D]

I just don't want my prospective customer to think I'm clueless and egotistical when I quote him the price (could be serious sticker shock).

Opinions welcome...

[Big_Boy_4005]

Well Ken, back in 1980 I used to build models professionally, and if I remember correctly I was getting $6.25 per hour. Of course the company was billing the customer more like $15.

None of that really applies in your case. Personally, I wouldn't try to assign an hourly rate to the finished model. I don't like an hourly rate, because I tend to be very slow. When I work, I do it by the job, flat rate, no complaints.

You built the model because you wanted it for yourself, and you probably enjoyed doing it. Now that someone else is interested, you need to set a price.

Don't think about the hours, think about what your buyer would be willing to pay. $500, $600, more? How badly do you really want to sell it? Remember, it is worth exactly what he is willing to pay you for it, and not a penny more.

[mcouvillion]

Ken,

Big Boy gives you excellent advice. I have sort of the same problem. A guy in my train club wants me to wire his layout. How much do I charge for my time? If I charge what I think I am worth, he'll run out of money real fast, but if I don't charge enough, I'm doing charity work, and it's not my railroad. I offered to work with him and show him how to do it, more as a tutor to get him started. Your finished product is already a done deal - how much is he willing to pay, and are you willing to let it go for that?

Your problem is one I see in restored autos. The sales price of the finished vehicle usually only covers the cost of the materials. It can't begin to cover the cost of labor. Why do those guys sell their rods? They either need the money for something else or are itching to start a new project. Did you build it for you or to practice your hobby? If for you, that's a tough thing to let go of. If to practice your skills in the hobby, set a fair price and forget about the hours, you been paid in practical experience.

Mark C.

[Eriediamond]

I'm going to jump in here with both feet. I've sold some model aircraft in the past, but to other members of mr R/C club and sold them for what I had in them as far as materials go. I had offers to buy other models, one a J-3 Cub I had built to scale and painted exactly as the one I took flying lessons in back in the 50's. I still have the model as I quoted a price I knew would be refused but worth it to me to sell a model I really didn't want to sell. Now on the other hand I have been asked and have built models for other people. The rule of thumb I use for this is I charge what the kit cost for my labor. If you have 150 dollars invested in the model I would think selling it for 300 is not unreasonable. Ken

[Anonymous]

How long would it take you to build the fiftieth copy if you did it over and over again? That may be a reasonable estimate of time. No one wants to pay for the learning curve.

The apply a rate - perhaps what you make for working for a living, not what the boss bills you out at - as a negotiating point. If you lay all of that out, the buyer at least knows where you are coming from. He/she will also know what is entailed if he/she wants to build his/her own instead.

As far as costs, do not forget an allowance for parts and consumables. Not just the pastic in the kits. Glue. Exacto blades. Sandpaper. (Bandaids and ambulance, LOL) Use of other tools that were not consumed but were needed. Electricity. (Yes, I am an accountant - go ahead pick on the bean counter...)

You are selling something you are proud of, not something at a garage sale. Do not give it away!

[brothaslide]

That's encouraging!!! No body would pay for models that I built. [xx(]

Big Boy gives great advice. If you take this on as a second income, than you have to come to a decision on what your time is worth. If you are doing it for fun and you can make some money off of it, then take what you think is a reasonable price for a model.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I am very small time when it comes to selling built models. Hardly worth the post I am writing here.

I think about the cost of the orginal model.
Cost of paints, adhesives, materials and anything that goes into, on or inside the model.
Finally I think about 20% of that total value is added on as "profit" so I can actually go out and rebuild another copy of the exact same model if I wanted to.

Example:

Model widget 50 dollars
paints, materials and consumeables 25 dollars

value 75 dollars + 20 % for me = $93.50

That was not so bad, if the buyer thinks he can build the same kit to the level he wants he certainly has the option of actually going to the store and buying the kit and building it himself.

I dont look at the time it took to build it.

Take a look at the hobby shop where they have "preassembled" models of railroad stuff. I think a built structure is about 50 dollars where a laser or plastic kit is worth about 15 dollars.

Take the structure to ebay and offer it, if it is a desired model by many people who dont have the time, skill level or desire to spend a year building it will probably drive the price up.

As stated above. The buyer will pay not one cent more money than what the model is worth to him or her.

[ndbprr]

I once met a guy in the LHS who was bemoaning a custom painter charging $25.00 for a single color engine. I siggested I would be happy to paint it for $5.00 if he bought the barrier, paint, gloss and decals. As he gathered up all the materials he decided to go with the custom painter.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ndbprr

I once met a guy in the LHS who was bemoaning a custom painter charging $25.00 for a single color engine. I siggested I would be happy to paint it for $5.00 if he bought the barrier, paint, gloss and decals. As he gathered up all the materials he decided to go with the custom painter.

BINGO! I think this post says it best.

[TurboOne]

In the world of video that I came from the best advice I got was

What do you want done, and how much are you willing to pay for it. If they name their price and you like the price do it. He was a very expensive animater, but he would do some projects for almost nothing if it taught him a skill he wanted to add. One guy got a deal. He paid $500 for a $40,000 animation as the animator wanted to learn a new piece of software.

I think the same applies to your project, if you are going to build one for them. If you already have it built HighIrons formula is great. Good luck and let us know how it comes out.

Tim

[Anonymous]

Thanx for the feedback everybody!

I opted not to sell my model ship, but to build a new one for him without all the superdetailing - best of both worlds! I avoid sacrificing something of unique value to me, and my customer will get a model he can more easily afford.[:)]

[Anonymous]

Some years ago a friend who did freelance PR work for CPR asked if I would be interested in kitbashing a CP SD40-2F for the railway's head office. This is CP's unique cowl bodied SD40-2 model. There was an article on doing such a kitbash in RMC by friend Patrick Lawson, which made the idea practical for me since the project was already described in detail.

I tackled the project as an interesting thing to do. They supplied all of the basic kitbashing items - diesel models and shells, along with a whole bunch of prototype photos and some plans. There was mention that the railway might want 10 or so of the model later.

For the first time I kept a record of my time as I built the model, from the start to the finish, including mounting it in a display case that was supplied. It took me 52 hours to complete. I didn't have a clue ast to how much I should charge for the work. At the time I was eyeing a new zoom lens for my camera, and inquired if my friend could buy me one on his expense account as payment for my model work, and he agreed.

The lens would have cost me around $500.00 if I had bought it locally. So I made less than $10.00 an hour for my model work. I'd done other part time work related to my photography hobby and always figured that my time was worth at least as much as I was making at my full-time job, around $25.00 an hour at that time. But charging $25.00 an hour for the modeling work might have seemed excessive. Guess I'll never know!

Anyway once I finished the model I lost interest in making any more copies even though later ones would have taken less time than the first one.

So my point is that your leisure time should pay you at least as much as you make in your full time job, or even more. If I had to work at my full time job after hours I would have been paid at time and a half rate.

How much is your leisure time worth?

Bob Boudreau

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FundyNorthern
How much is your leisure time worth?

Priceless - since I get so little of it these days!

One neat concept I remember learning in my freshman economics class is "opportunity cost" - i.e., how much could somebody have earned if they had invested their money instead of spending it.

I can easily apply that to my "free time" situation: After I moved into my present house, I got to enjoy my fifteen minutes of fame building unique industrial structures (including the ore boat) - and now, almost 5 years later, there is still nothing but benchwork in my garage. I'm sure I could have laid & wired a lot of track during the time I focused on those structures. (Ask me why I am NOT going to any out-of-town modelers' meets this year, especially not the RRISIG[:D][:D]!)

[sebamat]

As a am also collecting and painting model napoleonic plastic soldiers I followed on e-bay the price of 1/72 painted soldiers, as to have an idea of the market value of my collection. Given the time needed (ca 1h/soldier for me, no idea how fast can others be, but that should be the range) I was quite dismailled to see that the selling price for similar quality is 1-2$/soldier. Really hard to make a living out of it (material cost sis ca 0.2$)!

sebastiano