Ok, First off, Profit from Raw Materials and Net Profit after all expenses is not the same thing, My example was purely of raw materials, not including time, labor etc. There should be very little labor, as these are shipped unassembled, the buyer is the one who will spend two/three hours assembling so theres no cost there. In fact, the only cost besides raw materials will be the use of the machine (again, unless they have free access, or own a machine) and then packaging. Other costs will be Quality Assurance, and if these is done, there should be little loss of profit from warrenties.
So, I am well aware that it cost money to rent use/time of a CNC Mill, however there are several other routes as well. Mills are no longer the expensive price they used to be, one can be had for less then the price of a new car. If you own your own mill, then cost of manufacturing/cutting is not a factor save the maintenance of the machine and the electric bill. Also, if you do have something milled for you, they usually either charge you for a run of them (cheaper that way) or for the time the machine runs, if the design can be manufactured quickly that reduces the cost as well, i.e. simple designs are cheaper to do then complex designs.
Ive had very complex designs milled on the sides of computer cases for less then 50 Dollars a pop, and these were very complex. I will even give the benefiet of the doubt, and say it costs 100 dollars to cut each cabinet. Now, aside from Transportation, that increases the cost of the cabinet to $435, thats a bit closer to the average of 200% Markup on the low volume market, but it is still not a "tempting" offer, for the fact that you could build the same thing for less then half the cost (assuming you have tools to build), and if you dont have tools, then you can still build it for just over half the cost, and then have tools that you can use for other reasons. Either way the cost is prohibitive as their is too much "left" out, no CP, no Monitor
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Now... as for Brax's request, ill take it.
The Faults we so easily find with premade/ready to assemble cabinets is not because we would rather build our own. You fail to realize that majority of us build our own to save money, This means that when we can build one for only $400, or buy one for $1000, then naturally you are going to note all the reasons that you should save your money and build it yourself. You can call these faults, but until there is availible a pre-cut Cabinet at least /close/ to the cost for the average joe to build they will remain reasons. As for noone complaining because of it, the reason is, when people imagine an arcade, there are specific perameters that come to mind. If they do not some into your mind then you obviously have not spent enough time in a real arcade. A design must be functional, comfortable as well as aesthetic. Since the Midway cabinet meets all three of those criteria, there is no reason to complain about the design.
True that there has been no impartial review, but the review will only tell us about the quality of the construction, something that even if poorly done, can be remedied with a drill and some screws. So, what true use does a review serve, other then to tell you something that you could have figured out by looking at the pictures of the cabinet.
First off, no I dont think anyone would have "beaten them to the punch" as most of us are not doing this to make a profit, thus we have not searched for deals on milling, cutting, or any such venture. However, do you honestly think Slick Stik is naive enough to pay $400 Dollars each to have the cabinets cut? Come on man, be serious. Why dont you call around, see how much it would be to cut a cabinet on a Mill, tell them how many cuts you'll need, dimensions, and how many holes youll need, and see how much it costs each if you wanted to do say.. 100 or more. I think you'll be suprised at how inexpensive it comes out to each one.
Noone said they should be sold for only $400, the point was that there is no reason for them to cost nearly a thousand dollars for jut the empty casing, no CP, no Monitor, no Computer... Nothing but the wooden case and some metal brackets....
Since Christian seems a bit preturbed about our abviously uneducated and outlandish assumptions of how much it costs to have a cabinet manufactured... why doesnt he offer some sort of price list, materials and overhead. This way, when people see that he is only getting a $35 profit, they will be more willing to help him feed his 7 hungry children... you know, as a gesture of good will.
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Topic: SlikStik Arcade Machines Released! (Read 25589 times)
