fulfilling Stone Skull's 28mm Tabletop Gaming Miniature Furniture by Stone Skull Studios

[Skarabx]

For example:  In the case of something like the chairs in stretch goal 5.  Backers above $200 (of which there are about 35 right now) get 36 each.  Backers above $100 (of which there about 150 right now) get 24 each.  Backers above $50 (of which there are about 160 right now) get 12 each.  Those are conservative.  So that means he's going to give away, as one part of one free stretch goal, just under 6800 resin chairs.  And he's got $200 to do it with, or what's left of that $200 after prototyping and creating the mold.

Yup. Monumental task. I actually was counting on making more than 7000 chairs, regardless. You did however fail to calculate bulk volume discounts. Items that are going to be a very low run, making a mold just for them is expensive and pointless and it is cheaper to just print a resin one out and send that. We also have to factor in mold life which sucks. The key here is also to have the caster maximize the molds as best they can. If I was set up to do that much volume I would do it myself but I am not. I tried to make my reliance on others as minimal as possible but I found that impossible to do.

[Darsc Zacal]

 

At the very least I appreciate you personally coming to try to allay the doubts some have. It does seem like a large workload, but I'm in for 50. Chances are I was going to lose it at a casino anyways, so even if the worst happens, If everything comes out great, I get a lot of nice furniture to paint.

 

 

Thanks. If I am going to lean back and think about things... what actually scares me more is not so much not being able to fulfill... it's being late. Regardless if you fulfill or not, if your late you get that... Yeah he fulfilled but....

However this ends, it's good to see you here trying to address some concerns.

One thing though.

You mention this is a tough crowd. I beg to differ. This is an informed and experienced crowd.

The tough crowd is going to be the one you see on the kickstarter comments section if your project goes south.

 

Really hoping this works out well for everyone. There's things I'd be interested in if they hit retail.

[Ravendas]

 

 

At the very least I appreciate you personally coming to try to allay the doubts some have. It does seem like a large workload, but I'm in for 50. Chances are I was going to lose it at a casino anyways, so even if the worst happens, If everything comes out great, I get a lot of nice furniture to paint.

 

Thanks. If I am going to lean back and think about things... what actually scares me more is not so much not being able to fulfill... it's being late. Regardless if you fulfill or not, if your late you get that... Yeah he fulfilled but....

However this ends, it's good to see you here trying to address some concerns.

One thing though.

You mention this is a tough crowd. I beg to differ. This is an informed and experienced crowd.

The tough crowd is going to be the one you see on the kickstarter comments section if your project goes south.

 

Really hoping this works out well for everyone. There's things I'd be interested in if they hit retail.

 

 

Yeah. We're not tough, so much as concerned. We want to see this succeed.

[Ronald X]

I don't want you to get the wrong impression here.  Assuming that's you doing the digital sculpting, you're doing really nice work.  If it isn't you, whoever you've got doing it has some serious talent.  There are pieces in there which hit my greed nerves dead center.  I genuinely want you to succeed because having seen the sculpts, for those not to be made would be a huge bummer.

 

I just feel this is an overreach.  There are a dizzying array of options there for a first time project creator.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Ronald X

[Skarabx]

"Tough Crowd" Means that you are on top of things in my book, with some resiliency in making your point"

 

Thank you.. yes, I am the main designer. Here is where I am at right now seeing the popularity of the idea which is based on the product itself and not the freebees.

 

1. Even if I cancel, reload and come back with a tighter offering, then more people may view that as being responsible and would put the numbers back to similar levels which would lead me back to square one.

2. The SG's are generous if not foolhardy to some, but again, those increased goals also can be seen as marketing tools and a way to bring down the cost of production through volume and material discounts. However as bulk discounts is not always in total but based on individual items, results may vary. However, the larger items such as the early miniature release are one per and the larger miniatures are only unlocked as addons which I won't take a loss on after casting costs.

3. At this point, even with the errors that I have in fact made... it would be the very best to stay on top of things and make it happen.

 

I have also had people tell me to use China for making all of your stuff and to do it here or in Europe is foolhardy. I am not sure I believe that.

[Ronald X]

My understanding from other campaigns is that getting things made in China is cheaper, but you can expect to pay for it in time delays.  You have to send masters back and forth for approval, rejigger sculpts that don't cast well, and then when production is done, wait for a container ship to sail around the world and sit in customs for a month-ish.  So you'll likely add a few months onto delivery, but it may be worth it in terms of cost savings.

 

I've only done a little bit of amateur sculpting/casting at home just as part of the hobby, nothing remotely on this scale.  It'd be worth a phone call I think, or if you know someone in the industry who can give you a comparison in terms of pros and cons of outsourcing to China, get their opinion.  I'm not qualified to say one way or the other what's "better", and it probably varies based on your situation anyways.

[JDizzO]

You do have a pretty tight deadline.  I would more be super impressed if you fulfill on time with all that you are offering.  Especially since it is early enough in the process that you still don't have pics for most of the stretch goals.  Now if it is late by a year plus that is another story.

[icarus231]

People tend to forget how business works. Under the normal business model the company (you) would put out all of the money to produce product and hope it sells. Under KS you essentially get investors who instead of a profit get product. You don't have to have a profit to be successful because not only will you have the molds  to produce more product but you know what will and wont sell which allows you to order extra now and get a bigger bulk discount. As for fulfilling late I wouldn't stress. As long as you fulfill any sensible person will be happy.

[Chrisbonnet]

I am backing this at 50$ level. I am not to worried. I would be nice to see some mold plans. Hopefully something like a 12"x12" Cnc or Milled molds. Consider how many chairs could fit in a 12"12"x2" 2 piece mold, 144 or 288 per pour.

 

If the creator made another KS to have these done in plastic I would back it again.

[Skarabx]

You do have a pretty tight deadline.  I would more be super impressed if you fulfill on time with all that you are offering.  Especially since it is early enough in the process that you still don't have pics for most of the stretch goals.  Now if it is late by a year plus that is another story.

Yes, that is an annoying problem which stems from my error of not predicting the growth and having too many choices. The slowness of getting those posted has to do with me converting existing models to be manifold and making them print-worthy, and to be honest, I may be getting a bit too picky on fine detail. However, it will be worth the wait to see and which is the reason I am keeping the PM open and staggering printing/casting.

 

I will ask Valiant to send me a picture of molds when they receive the masters and get things in gear. Yes, China would be cheaper and the delay would be annoying. Last thing I want to do is make the excuse "Sorry.. I am waiting on China"... doesn't cut it with me, and it shouldn't cut it for you either.

 

My pricing is good and cost is definitely NOT the issue. Time as mentioned is the issue, but again, this is my full time job for the rest of the year. So it's going to be a sort/pack and shipfest.

[ced1106]

People tend to forget how business works. Under the normal business model the company (you) would put out all of the money to produce product and hope it sells. Under KS you essentially get investors who instead of a profit get product. You don't have to have a profit to be successful because not only will you have the molds  to produce more product but you know what will and wont sell which allows you to order extra now and get a bigger bulk discount. As for fulfilling late I wouldn't stress. As long as you fulfill any sensible person will be happy.

 

In practice, though, I've seen many KS which went into cost overruns and couldn't recover from them. After all, one reason creators fund on KS is that they can't get money from other sources. While KS creators don't always seek profit, they don't always have additional funds when a project costs them more than they expected. Many KS creators seek retail, but that often means they sink *more* money than allocated from KS backers into their initial print run, resulting in a lack of liquid funds for unexpected costs, including unexpected shipping hikes. A KS project which needs money during fulfillment may be tempted to tap into funds allocated for shipping, thus relying upon retail sales to generate liquid cash for shipping. But, if this money doesn't come in, they now have excess inventory (which they may even liquidate at lower prices than what backers paid) and no money to ship with. As for fulfilling late, in the last year, we've had two rate hikes in US postage costs, with the accompanying rate hike by carriers. As we've seen from various bankruptcies, failures to deliver, and poorly executed fulfillments, KS is a pretty good way to kill your business.

Edited March 26, 2016 by ced1106

[Skarabx]

At this point I am sitting pretty good with the quotes I have gotten. That is no longer an issue but, that being said.. production does not mean fulfillment. I am going to flat out acknowledge that its going to be hell. Shipping is going to be pricey and packaging is going to be very time consuming with labeling and such. I have ruled out a fulfillment service because I am not sure if it is really worth it.

 

Guarantee the next funding drive is going to be a hell of a loft different. If I can't learn from this one.. I shouldn't be doing this at all.

 

Time for me to buckle up...this is going to be one hell of the remainder of the year.

[Arkady]

Shipping is going to be a major concern. Okay, so I No way, no how will $10 come even close to covering actual costs in shipping to international backers, especially those in for larger volumes. (And I understand with the most recent round of USPS rate increases, 'free' shipping is becoming a rather expensive preposition, too.)

 

In fact, it wouldn't be the first Kickstarter to really hit a major road block there, cf. Darkmyre or Fairytale Games.

[amuller33]

Just printed off some of the free Gothic designs on My new printer.... stuff looks good. Im down for the $25 STL only!!

 Good luck man

 

AJ

[Ravendas]

Just printed off some of the free Gothic designs on My new printer.... stuff looks good. Im down for the $25 STL only!!

 Good luck man

 

AJ

 

He needs more people like you subsidizing the shipping costs for everyone else. :(