Quick Question about comission rates

[D.J]

I would sincerly like to know where we all get our rates from, is there some kind of forumla? Or do we just bullflax it for the highest amount without seeming absurd, this all came into question by me when someone told me they'd make me a WVI for 900 dollars and it left me curious. So all my portabalizers out there, where does the comission over all price come from?

 

[bentomo]

Parts the portable cost, and hours of labor.

Although sometime we forget the hours so we give an honest price of what we think it's worth, based on what other portables have sold for.

 

[D.J]

I kind of figured that but sometimes I see rediculous numbers and I just wonder. Ben, based on your last sentence couldn't we all just jack up the prices? If you say that you sometimes base your price on others, so then if Hail, SS, Mario, etc. sold their portables for 800+ wouldn't that just mean prices would go up (*Can'tSayThisOnTV*ing inflation) and the real cost could be much less than the final one? Now I'm just pitching questions, thanks for answering one of them Bentomo.

 

[Jewjo]

I was just about to post that, DJ. There will always be enough people to buy portables for about $1k. The supply is low, so the prices can be higher.

 

[D.J]

What? What Bentomo said? I suppose, basic supply and demand but still, I feel it is a bit of a rip-off sometimes.

 

[bentomo]

Well it all depends on how skilled you are as a portablizer. Or possibly the final outcome of the portable. Say it's something like sifufs n64p, you could probably charge at least $20 an hour for that. After the starlight 64 I was paid $450 for it, so I only got about $5 and hour for it, even though that's a low price I agreed to it.

 

[grossaffe]

I kind of figured that but sometimes I see rediculous numbers and I just wonder. Ben, based on your last sentence couldn't we all just jack up the prices? If you say that you sometimes base your price on others, so then if Hail, SS, Mario, etc. sold their portables for 800+ wouldn't that just mean prices would go up (Linking inflation) and the real cost could be much less than the final one? Now I'm just pitching questions, thanks for answering one of them Bentomo.

That is where capitalism comes into play. If all you guys up your prices, someone else will come into the market with a budget system and undercut you. This isn't a business with a high-cost of entry, so anyone can just come in and undercut you if you charge too much.

 

[Tchay]

I kind of figured that but sometimes I see rediculous numbers and I just wonder. Ben, based on your last sentence couldn't we all just jack up the prices? If you say that you sometimes base your price on others, so then if Hail, SS, Mario, etc. sold their portables for 800+ wouldn't that just mean prices would go up (Linking inflation) and the real cost could be much less than the final one? Now I'm just pitching questions, thanks for answering one of them Bentomo.

That is where capitalism comes into play. If all you guys up your prices, someone else will come into the market with a budget system and undercut you. This isn't a business with a high-cost of entry, so anyone can just come in and undercut you if you charge too much.

What this guy said. 1K is simply too much for a portable. Most portable buyers know what they are doing. They will be collectors or wealthy gamers. I doubt they would buy for over 800 if it wasn't a current gen laptop etc.

EDIT, I changed the prices to be more accurate

N64P: 300 - 600 (only 600 if its absolute win)
GCP: 500 - 800
PS2P: 600 - 900 (this is a rough guess due to their rarity)
SegaSaturnPortable: ???? (make it nice, and you can charge a lot!!)
WiiP: 700 - 1300
360 laptop: 1000 - 1500 (they can be much more depending on quality)
PS3 laptop: 1000 - 3000 (very rough guess, feel free to correct me)


As for the older systems, I would guess around 100. But with near perfect emulation on PSP, I am not sure how desirable a SNESP or NESP or PlaystationPortable is to a gamer....

These prices might be off a lil, feel free to chime in.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Hah. Pretty off if you ask me.

My AG-64 N64p(if I bought batteries):
$42 screen
$100 batteries+charger
$15 case
$67 radioshack parts
$30 n64(that's only if you fry one)
$5 heatsinks

That's $259 in parts. It took me about two weeks to build. Going with my $400 price, that mean's I'd only be charging $140 for labor. And that's waaaay too cheap. Even for me. Expect to pay about $200-$300 for labor, especially because you gotta be able to cover extra costs if your batteries/screen dies, cause when that happens, that get's taken straight out of your profit, mkay?

SS

 

[Tchay]

Hah. Pretty off if you ask me.

My AG-64 N64p(if I bought batteries):
$42 screen
$100 batteries+charger
$15 case
$67 radioshack parts
$30 n64(that's only if you fry one)
$5 heatsinks

That's $259 in parts. It took me about two weeks to build. Going with my $400 price, that mean's I'd only be charging $140 for labor. And that's waaaay too cheap. Even for me. Expect to pay about $200-$300 for labor, especially because you gotta be able to cover extra costs if your batteries/screen dies, cause when that happens, that get's taken straight out of your profit, mkay?

SS

um, you charged 400 for your last portable. Plus, I gave a range of up to 600. I found someone on BenHeck selling an N64P for 250. Haven't seen any N64Ps sell for more than 600 tbh. So yeah

 

[ShockSlayer]

I've sold 2 generic n64p's for $650 and $600.

No one in thier right mind would be dumb enough to sell thier n64 portable for that cheap, when they could get alot more. Unless it's absolute flax.

SS

 

[Tchay]

I've sold 2 generic n64p's for $650 and $600.

No one in thier right mind would be dumb enough to sell thier n64 portable for that cheap, when they could get alot more. Unless it's absolute flux.

SS

oh? well I stand corrected. But yeah, I've seen some really low prices for crappy N64P. Just look back at some old threads on BenHeck and you'll see what I mean.

Have you sold either of your GCPs?

 

[ShockSlayer]

I've had 3 GCps. Tore aprat the first to make the second, the seconds batteries died among other things so I sold it to eurddrue for $100, and the third one wasn't finished so I sold it to palmzer for $160

So technically I've never sold a GCp. But your price range is pretty good.

SS

 

[Tchay]

I've had 3 GCps. Tore aprat the first to make the second, the seconds batteries died among other things so I sold it to eurddrue for $100, and the third one wasn't finished so I sold it to palmzer for $160

So technically I've never sold a GCp. But your price range is pretty good.

SS

wonder how much the smallest one in the world would sell for

 

[Bino Gas]

As for the older systems, I would guess around 100. But with near perfect emulation on PSP, I am not sure how desirable a SNESP or NESP or PlaystationPortable is to a gamer....

Older systems are way undervalued. This is an acceptable price estimate for a portable clone (even then it's a stretch), but not for a portable based on original hardware.

If the portable uses original hardware, it should cost more than a portable based on a clone. This is because original systems have a higher power draw than clones, thus requiring higher-capacity batteries, also because most of the older systems require some work to get an acceptable video signal, and finally because most of portablizing involves generic processes such as casework, installing a screen, rebuilding the controller, and getting the system to run off of batteries, which would be the same difficulty level for any portable. With that said, it's been a while since anyone has portablized an older system, let alone sold one, so there is no real benchmark price.

I'm not saying that original-hardware NES portable should have a price similar to a that of a GameCube portable (my hat is off to all GameCube portablizers), but making anything portable has its challenges and there seems to be too big of a price divide. That's my 2¢.

TL;DR - There seems to be too big of a price divide.

 

[Tchay]

As for the older systems, I would guess around 100. But with near perfect emulation on PSP, I am not sure how desirable a SNESP or NESP or PlaystationPortable is to a gamer....

Older systems are way undervalued. This is an acceptable price estimate for a portable clone (even then it's a stretch), but not for a portable based on original hardware.

If the portable uses original hardware, it should cost more than a portable based on a clone. This is because original systems have a higher power draw than clones, thus requiring higher-capacity batteries, also because most of the older systems require some work to get an acceptable video signal, and finally because most of portablizing involves generic processes such as casework, installing a screen, rebuilding the controller, and getting the system to run off of batteries, which would be the same difficulty level for any portable. With that said, it's been a while since anyone has portablized an older system, let alone sold one, so there is no real benchmark price.

I'm not saying that original-hardware NES portable should have a price similar to a that of a GameCube portable (my hat is off to all GameCube portablizers), but making anything portable has its challenges and there seems to be too big of a price divide. That's my 2¢.

TL;DR - There seems to be too big of a price divide.

I agree with most of what you said. Unfortunately, its not up to us. Its up to the buyers. Buyer's market in this economy especially.

 

[ShockSlayer]

We set whatever price we want, then we lower it when we can't sell.

SS

 

[Tchay]

We set whatever price we want, then we lower it when we can't sell.

SS

heh, so whos REALLY in control?

 

[ShockSlayer]

Obviously us. We don't have to sell it if we don't want to.

Besides, there isn't a market, there are buyers.

SS

 

[hailrazer]

My portables :

Darth 64 -- $650
Dreamtrooper - $700
NCube -- $800
Kamikaze 64 -- $700
Kamikaze Clone - $700
Kamikaze Clone 2 -- $700
DreamWeaver -- $800

I was offered $1350 for a Wii Laptop.

I have been offered $800 for Dreamcast , N64 , Gamecube and PS2 portables.

Make them nice and you can get what you want for them.