Monday, May 21, 2012
Frame Merchants?
After discussing the idea with a local lego vendor, I wondered what the viability of selling pre-built frames to MFZ-ers would be. So, with that I have set up a new poll. Would you be willing to purchase pre-built frames instead of ordering the parts yourself and building them yourself? If so, what kind of price range would you be willing to pay? I only ask this because If there is enough interest I would be completely willing to start up such an operation. Let me know what you think!
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Uhh, absolutely. Better idea, would be to build very sparse frames; don't build them with guns, and then allow people to kit them out with added costs per piece.
ReplyDeleteLike, offer a Chub frame that doesn't have colors; you could pick coloring per piece, and then also pick like extra pieces to add a cool radar dish and the pieces for a rifle that is pre-designed by the shop, and then some 1-shot rocket pods too.
And then also kit out a whole squad to go with him :)
I'd probably offer a few "standard" frames already completed and ready to go. The rest would be custom order stuff. Discuss what you wanted, colors, etc. and figure out how much we could get it for.
DeleteA parts shop though could be pretty sweet.
I'd be willing to pay like $10 per 'frame, which just about covers parts cost. I dunno if that has any ... margin for the person clipping them together. Interested fo sho.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for :)
DeleteIt's funny, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Yet I've bought pre-made frames from Vincent in the past.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how this would all go down either. But, instead of going through all the effort to set something up and find out that no one has any interest, I figured I'd check if it's even a viable option first.
DeleteThere are lots of people that pay other to paint their warhammer minis because they either A) don't have the time, B) don't have the talent, or C) are just lazy. I know part of the fun of MFZ for me is building, but I wanted to know if there were others that didn't feel that way.
I agree on the building part, it's a big part of the game for me too.
DeleteI'd buy from a vendor, definitely. I could see $15-$20 a frame as being reasonable.
ReplyDeleteI think it'd be nice to have some standard entry level frames available for those who want to get started but don't have the means to invest in all the parts normally. Certainly would be easier to one stop shop for kits then to have to buy sets for the handful of good bits and BrickLink from however many vendors for other parts.
ReplyDeleteI think if you start getting higher than $10 a frame, tho, you might be hard pressed to find many folks willing to invest, especially since you need a few to really play. Yeah, it might be the same price as buying all the bits yourself, but there's that psychological barrier of cost you'd have to get past.
Also, I think weapon kits would be cool, too. Sell the frames nekkid, but then offer, say, a "Heavy Support" kit that's good for kits X, Y, Z and provides the following dice in the game. That way you kinda do some of the building and strategy work for them. If I need a short range build Chub, I can buy the frame kit and then buy the relevant weapon kit and, tah dah, this puppy's ready to roll.
I think people selling pre-made frames would open the game up to a much larger audience. As a frame designer how would you feel about others building/customizing your frames and reselling them?
ReplyDeleteThe designs themselves are already available to the public. What you're paying for is for someone to do all the legwork for you. Getting parts via bricklink etc, and putting them together all in one place so you dont have to.
DeleteI suppose I would prefer people to buy my designs from me, but there is no way that I could (or would) try and control that.
Frame kits would be cool, just for the fact that I wouldn't have to go all over bricklink looking for parts to build a frame that I've seen. I think selling them as basic frames and then having weapon kits would be the best option. I'd also set them up in 4-5 basic colors where people could choose which color variant they wanted. I think $15 should be about the max(depending on how many parts the frame uses) for a basic frame. $5-10 for a weapon kit(depending on how many parts it is).
ReplyDeleteThats just my opinion.
I would love frame kits! Although I'd much rather put the parts together myself than have someone do that for me (seems to defeat the point of lego otherwise). It would be good if just standard frames were sold, with a few colour options - for example having a few drop down boxes with different colours in that represent a list of parts, or maybe just a textbox in the order form for the buyer to have some notes about colour. I'd pay £50 (~$80) for a non-assembled company that I could buy some extra parts for for weapons and stuff.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you need another kickstarter ;P
Alternatively, frame designers could just do something like this (or enlist someone who knows how to do it for 'em):
ReplyDeletehttp://mobileframezero.wikia.com/wiki/MF0_Garage_Kit
Which would allow people to drop their favorite frame into a BrickLink wishlist and buy specifically. If the pre-built method ended up being a pain in the tail.
Not to be a downer for those hoping for super-cheap AND super-convenient MK0 Frame kits, but...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't consider doing this unless it at LEAST covered my time as well as materials. Since this is the sort of thing that is equally likely to be either just barely of interest to people or wildly popular to a large number of MF0/LEGO fans, I strongly recommend your prices be costed out so they are scalable. As in, ensure it's as financially feasible to make & sell 100 Frame kits per month as it is to make 5 per month.
If after reviewing your kit price you wouldn't want to work for the rate required if each month 20 people ordered 5 Frames each (100 Frames per month), then your price is too low. Ignore (within reason) complaints from those saying they'd only buy kits if cheap or at piece cost. They aren't your potential customers.
Since anyone can go to bricklink and do their own legwork, you're not really selling a product, you're selling a service. As a service, it is your time and the value of the convenience you offer that should be the primary price determinant. A $10 or even $20 Chub kit is literally not worth your time to source, package, & ship - to say nothing of the time spent building and running your online store, processing orders, answering customer emails, storing & sorting LEGOs, etc... None of these tasks will do themselves and they all take time away from your life, thus they should have value. It's the hidden costs that add up the most.
Seriously, make sure you time out and then assign a fair dollar value to the time it takes you to do every. single. thing. required to go from order placed to Frame in a customer's hands. You ignore operation costs at your peril.
If you sell yourself short from the start you'll either give it up out of frustration or have to raise your prices afterwards, neither proposition is positive for you or your customers.
I think you're right that one has to be careful about underpricing themselves into frustration, but I think you're just making an argument for not bothering to do this at all. When you start getting to $20 or more for a single frame the price point is a bit much for even the biggest fans to get into. I think everyone understands that it takes time and effort to build the kits and ship 'em and that deserves compensation, but even that service has a limit in terms of value to the general public.
DeleteWhich is probably an argument for using this for special cases and limited editions of things, but not as a mass produced item.
The whole idea probably works best for an already existing BrickLink vendor willing to enter the kit market using their already existing stock.
I agree completely with what you are saying. And I would not be looking to turn this into a large scale, mass produced operation. More of a custom order type thing. I was definitely thinking that setting up an Ebay shop would probably be the easiest way to do things.
DeleteMy apologies if I sounded overly negative, this was not my intent. I am looking forward to this project and will likely purchase several Frames should it prove successful. My only purpose in listing all those considerations was to temper the enthusiasm with some realism. I've been a member of many fan communities over the years and I've seen the unfortunate results of unbridled enthusiasm without long term logistical planning included. I've seen really cool projects that I wanted to be successful wither and die due to unplanned for difficulties. I've seen what has worked and what has tripped up the best of intentions. My thoughts were only offered to help, not condemn or dissuade. I want the best of success for Greg and whomever joins him in this.
Delete@Spiral I totally got where you were coming from and I really do appreciate it. I'm planning on going conservative, I'm not trying to run before i crawl because I don't have a significant chunk of time or money do sink into something like this.
DeleteGiven the abundance of time and disposable income I would love to do something like this on a mass scale, but I'd rather succeed on a small scale instead of fail at a larger one.
The joy in Legos to me is building them. I would like the ability to purchase an un-assembled kit with all of the pieces and with printed instructions on how to build the mechs so I can build them myself. As for cost, I would gladly pay Lego Build a Brick prices per piece along with say... 15-20% markup for the effort of putting the kit together and making the instructions. As long as each kit is around $15, I think that's fair, especially considering you don't need many.
ReplyDelete