3 ms·
It’s kind of sad how many electronic hobbyists complain about price for these small production run boards. It’s way too easy to think “I can get 10 PCBs for $5
by iamflimflam1 2y ago
It’s kind of sad how many electronic hobbyists complain about price for these small production run boards.
It’s way too easy to think “I can get 10 PCBs for $5, and the total BOM for this is only X on LCSC - what a rip off!”
This ignores:
Assembly costs,
Shipping,
Taxes and duty
And then when you actually sell something:
Packaging costs,
Distribution costs,
Platform fees,
Things getting lost in the post,
Refunds,
Etc…
A good rule of thumb is that you need to charge at least 3x your production cost to actually make any profit at all.
And all this ignores the actual time that’s invested…
- sonatino 2y agoAbsolutely. Coming from a software background, it's been eye-opening for me just how quickly those costs add up. And how painfully slow it can be to iterate. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't just enjoy making stuff. I probably won't break even for a long time, and even then the margins aren't great. If you deploy to production and it goes live in a matter of seconds or minutes, be grateful you're in software :)
- iamflimflam1 2y agoThat iteration time is a killer. I’m currently working on something and each new prof of concept takes almost a month - if I’ve messed something up it’s a massive set back. I could improve things by doing the SMD assembly at home. But that would only shave off a couple of weeks and some components are really not suitable for DIY work.