This is a basic price breakdown of a generic cap from master to copies. Prices may differ due to materials, redos, etc.
The purpose is to show everybody looking to get into cap making, at a beginner or pro level, whether or not they can afford to do so and money made after selling them.
I have developed these numbers from my time spent working on keycaps. I’ve spent around 8 months worth of free time on capmaking. I don’t have as much experience as the people who own degas chambers, but I know enough about the process to be able to make this general price guideline.
NOTE: DOES NOT FACTOR IN MAN HOURS, WHICH CAN BE QUITE A LOT. FACTORING IN MAN HOURS IS BELOW
Very simple, no expensive tooling setup:
Master Cap (GMK thick) $3
Modeling clay $10
Mold release (petroleum jelly) $3
Silicon (multiple batches) $30
Receptacle (Paper cups, tinfoil) $3
Resin (~25 caps minimum) $25
Dye (3 basic colors, mix and match to get everything else) $6X3=$18
Silicon mold will probably break after 100ish caps.
Initial cost: $92 for ~25 caps, or less than $4 a cap
For 100 caps: $167, or less than $2 a cap
After paying off tooling costs, $1.30 per cap at the lowest (multiple of 100)
For more advanced work, including degas chamber
Master Cap (GMK thick) $3
Modeling clay $10
Mold release (industrial strength) $60
Silicon (multiple batches) $50
Receptacle (More sturdier material) $10
Resin (~25 caps minimum) $40
Dye (one for every color) $6X12ish=$72
Degas chamber (high strength) $600
Initial cost: $845 for 25 caps, ~$34 per cap (all 100% flawless)
100 caps: $965, ~$10 a cap
200 caps: $1175 ~$6 a cap
After paying off tooling: $2.10 at the lowest (multiple of 100)
At the advanced level, with high success rate, selling 25 caps in a sale (after tooling costs are paid for ~$800) at the cost of $4 a cap and selling at $15 a cap makes a net profit of $225
As far as I know, all the cap makers do this for hobby and as such are volunteering their time to the community and aren’t looking for profit. The ones that will take time into consideration are using the advanced setup described above and are making a sale of 25-50 caps at least once a month, or 300 caps a year, at at least $20 a cap.
But in the case that they want compensation for the time spent, I have calculated an estimate based upon a $20 per hour payment, which is over twice the minimum wage. I doubt that somebody who makes that much an hour would spend their free time making caps, especially when considering that the $20 per hour is not taxable by the IRS and is pure net profit, compared to whatever income taxed jobs are.
From a user in the comments:
- R&D costs
- Marketing
- Distribution channels
- Legal department (expensive in some cases)
- Human Resources
- Interns
Price breakdown for those issues:
R&D- Varies from person to person on how polished they want their work to be. This is mainly time spent on making the master (varies, 24 hrs is probably enough) and trying out resins and mold materials. Also developing colors, which takes ~10 hrs, and oftentimes is mixed in with the thought process behind making the master and trying out materials. ~$480 on sculpting ~$300 for materials. $240 for colors.
Marketing: Paying for marketing is nonexistent, as most sales are advertised on forums for free. Time spent making ads highly varies, but 5 hrs is generous. $100
Distribution: Forums mainly, some websites. ~$100
Legal-AFAIK, no cap maker has spent any money on any legal issues. Cap making is highly informal and probably doesn’t need legal help. This is more suited for a more formal form of profit, in which one would not be using a forum’s artisan services subforum to sell their wares in. The most they might do is make an LLC, which IIRC costs $1500 a year. This will not be factored in because AFAIK no cap maker has done this. In addition there are sales taxes to factor in, which will not be because in the informal artisan services setup, sales taxes are never factored in.
HR: Most cap making is a one man job, don’t really see any HR necessary.
Interns: Again, one man job, and cap making is so small that if you even get an intern, it’ll probably be unpaid
These are mainly one time costs for one design. ~$1220
Now for the time for making each cap:
5 minutes mixing dyes, 2 minutes pouring, 2 minutes using the degas chamber, 2 minutes demolding, pot time varies (can also prep next batch while waiting), 30 mins is average. Factor in time in between the steps. Total time, ~45 minutes or $15, divided between the number of caps being made in a batch, usually 5+, so $3 per cap in pure resin to finished product time.
For multiple colors, factor in 30 minutes per color, usually 4 colors tops, time spent while in pot can be used to prep next color, so total time ~2 hrs, or $40, divided by 5+ caps or $8 per cap.
Factor time into the tooling costs, and we get:
Initial cost (25 caps): $845 tooling, $1220 development, $75 in making time (single color) $200 in making time (quad shot)
Total (25 caps): $2140 for single color, or $85.6 per cap, $2265 for 4 colors, or $90.6 a cap.
For 300 caps a year: $845 tooling, $1220 dev, $900 for 300 single shots, $2400 for quad shot
Single: $2965, or under $10 a cap
Quad shot: $4465, or under $15 a cap.
If selling at $20 a cap (which is on the low end), 300 caps a year(very low number), for total revenue of $6000:
Net profit(single colors) $3035
Net profit(quad shots) $1535
Keep in mind these net profits do not include money made at the $20 a hour rate and are over a year of work and everything is compensated for, including all labor, for making ONE design. Each new design made will add more money.
Also keep in mind that these numbers are very generous. Over 1K is “spent” on developing the cap, and a cap maker in this scenario “makes” a measly 300 caps a year, not even enough to fill up 3 full size keyboards, over the 180 hours or 7.5 complete days spent on one design.
So at the end of a year, a cap maker makes a decent amount of money. Can you live off of it? No. Is it a decent amount of money for doing something one loves? Yes.
So in recap:
To the beginners looking to start a new hobby: Its very cheap, $200 and unpaid time spent working on a hobby gets you 100 keycaps that you made yourself.
To the people looking at cap making as a form of profit, not a hobby: Nope, not a good idea at all, spend your time working a real job.