5,6 And 8 Oz Ultra-Minnows

[cadman]

I have a really good opportunity to pour these for some saltwater guys. Pouring and getting hooks is not an issue. My question to those of you that possibly pour these or bigger jigs is, what would you guys consider as a price point for these each? These would be unpainted, and probably with EC tinned saltwater hook. PM me if you do not want to post prices. I have a rough idea on what I want to sell them for, but don't know if I am too high or too low. Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks In advance.

[LimpNoodle]

9/0 hooks $0.25-26 each.

 

5 ounces of lead $0.60

 

Materials cost = $0.90 rounded up.  

 

Labor 20%  $0.018

 

Cost =  $1.10 wholesale $2.20, retail $4.39

 

Add in the additional cost of lead for the other two sizes.

 

8 ounce would be around $5.99 retail.

 

The real question is what are they paying now and what does the competition sell them for?

[cadman]

The guy I'm selling to won't tell me what he is paying. So either I'm going to be high or low. We'll see how it all goes. Good info. Thank You

Edited May 13, 2016 by cadman

[Basseducer]

tell him you will give him a percentage off after you can verify what he's paying.

[shastaron]

I have seen them for 5 oz. Painted and skirt with deer hair for $5.25. Add $1.50 for 8 oz.

[andy1976]

9/0 hooks $0.25-26 each.

5 ounces of lead $0.60

Materials cost = $0.90 rounded up.

Labor 20% $0.018

Cost = $1.10 wholesale $2.20, retail $4.39

Add in the additional cost of lead for the other two sizes.

8 ounce would be around $5.99 retail.

The real question is what are they paying now and what does the competition sell them for?

[andy1976]

I think the labor needs to be closer to .50 cent for each one you pour. Just my opinion. I would die to have someone pouring for me at .18 cents each.

[smallmouthaholic]

I think the labor needs to be closer to .50 cent for each one you pour. Just my opinion. I would die to have someone pouring for me at .18 cents each.

If you could pour 1 per minute that gives you a labor rate of $10.80 per hour. Now calculate the time to clean/file off the sprue flush w/ the body.

[BLT]

If they can't be honest with you about what they are paying now, Myself, I would say no thanks. Honesty and good service expected, be that way to who is providing you the service.

 

Stripersonline is one of, if not the largest fishing forum on the net. They have a forum for people selling tackle. You can get some good info there for jig sales. Here is a list of painted but not tied spro type jigs up to 4oz.  This is for people on the forum to buy. At one time I was told I could sell there, but have enough business already.

 

No tails:
1/2 oz. $1.50 ea.
3/4 oz. $1.50 ea.
1 oz. $1.75 ea.
1 1/2 oz. $2.00 ea.
2 oz. $2.50 ea.
3 oz. $3.00 ea.
4 oz. $3.50 ea.

[gone2long]

To be honest you should be more concerned with what your entitled to for your time and material not what he's paying someone else after all you need to make money at it, if your product is superior then you should be in good shape trying to undercut for the sake of business is a lose/lose situation. Feed him a couple samples and let him come back to you. Sure would be nice to get a sample of what he's using to help compare. Good luck!

[cadman]

Wow some great advice. I actually did get a sample from him and I personally thought the product was crap. Now before I go off on a tangent here, I am very anal about my work, one of my flaws. I also expect the person to be honest with me about the work I send them as well. Yes I can take criticism, but on the flip side, I don't believe I sell crap. I do know my prices are not the cheapest around, and there are many guys that are cheaper and make an excellent product. To me many guys sell for less and get more volume. I sell for more get less volume of work, right or wrong we all know how we want to sell our jigs. This is a hobby for me not a full time job. Going back to this story, I did send this gentleman one of my samples. This guy loved my work, said it was top notch, but he said all in all in the end the fish really don't care if it is perfect or not. You know what he is correct, however, my product is what it is, if you tell me it is fantastic, but not worth the money, well it's time for both parties to move on. We chatted on and off and he wanted to know if I would make my jigs of lesser quality and could I drop the price. I thought to myself, this doesn't make sense. Make a crappy product for him so I could charge him less, how do I do that. Anyway all in all I stuck to my guns and told him my price is my price and I'm not going to try to make a lesser product. In the end he told me that my price was twice of what he was paying. I asked him who was his supplier, he wouldn't tell me and said he got special pricing. After that, I told him good luck and if he wants to pay my price fine if not he should try and find someone else. We'll see what happens next.

[andy1976]

Another thing to consider is that people will generally pay more for black knickel hooks.

[smalljaw]

You know what bothers me, guys going to custom jig makers looking for less expense, that kills me. As I have told many people, I do not have the buying power of a Strike King or Booyah, and right off the bat my materials cost more, I also don't deal in the volume so more attention is paid to detail which means you will get a better end product. Now, maybe I'm wrong but I understand the fish don't care, but I take pride in my work and I don't need to sell to anyone. When I got out of the business after I got sick, it was sort of funny as I would still get calls from guys looking for me to match stuff already made but they figured I could do it for less, where does that line of thinking come from?? I know if I'm going to buy a custom rod, it will cost more than a production rod but when it comes to lures, people tend to think that just the opposite is true. I had a guy, I won't mention a name, but he has pictures on the internet of him in his, at the time, brand new Ranger Z520 Comanche with 8 Megabass rods on the front Deck with TD-Zillions and Megabass Lin 10 reels mounted on them, for those not into JDM tackle, most of the rod and reel combos were worth about a grand on average, the cheapest one I saw would run a little over $800 for both. Now, this person who seems to have a lot of disposable income asked me for samples of a certain jig I make, and he loved it....Until I gave him a price and then I got the entire, "don't you think that's a little steep for a jig head" , to which I replied that it is not a jig head, it is a finished jig with a premium Owner hook that is painted 2 different colors and the finish is baked on with an epoxy top coat and is hand tied with 210 denier thread, if you want plain jig heads well that would be less money. To make this long story short, I refused to ever do business with him and for 2 months he emailed and called looking for shaky heads since he liked those and they were a fair price in his eyes, I told him to go buy Megabass or some other JDM shaky head for 6 times the cost and that was that, I never did business with him because of that. Most guys understand but those with the most money seem to be the ones that would always haggle on price, after that I put an end to it, I told people prices were non negotiable, if you want to haggle you won't get anything from me. If it were me Cadman, I'd tell the guy thank you, but I have no time for this, the price is what it is, take it or leave it. 

[cadman]

There are some people that always think they are paying too much, and then you try to work with them and it's still not good enough. A little while back we had a new member, that wanted to buy jigs and he found my name here. He originally wanted to pour his own, but then had issues pouring in his house. He then wanted to buy 20 jigs from me, no problem right, wrong he had all these stipulations. We worked it all out, next time he places his second order and wants a discount. I told him how many jigs, he said not sure but it would be a lot, bulk order. All said and done he wants 50 jigs. I told him that, that wasn't really a big order and no there is  no discount. He gets offended and tells me that he would be ordering a lot more in the future and that he should get a discount, since he would be giving me more business. I tell him we'll come to that bridge when we cross it. So next he asks me if I know others that would be willing to pour. I mentioned a few people and he ends up calling Smalljaw. Unbeknownst to him Smalljaw and I are friends and I told Smalljaw what this guy wanted, and if he was interested he could help him out. I also mentioned to Smalljaw, that this guy is going to be a P.I.T.A. Sure enough all said and done the process starts all over again and Smalljaw doesn't work out a deal with him either. So he calls me back and wants to cut another deal again, and tells me no-one wants to pour any jigs for him.  I told him I knew that was going to happen and I wasn't interested in working with him. Now he pours his own and he can't whine about anything because he is the one doing his own work.  Just my rant for today.

Edited May 16, 2016 by cadman

[BLT]

Good move C-man. To be honest, he is right, the fish don't give a crap about the jig being perfect. But he ran into a Man who takes pride in his craft, and YOU care about what your name is on. Don't blame you for that at all.

He can go back to his bargain supplier.

[smallmouthaholic]

Fishermen by nature are cheap. Pro-wannabees,Pros and some guides are cheaper.

I do this full time( thankfully retired) but insist upon quality,not quantity. Kudos to Small jaw and Cadman- stick to your prices and beliefs. I gave away a ton of baits when I first started and now only a few w/minimum orders only. Cheap folks always have their hands out for freebies but develop broken arms when it comes time to pay.

 

Every spring I get e-mails from folks who think they're the next Van Dam or Clunn. Their opening  e-mail statements usually read-" I love your baits and I'll make you famous." LMAO!!!!!! I reply,''if you love my baits so much then why isn't your name on my data base and I don't want to be famous.

 

Then there is the Pro-Staff wannabee crowd, I reply" 1st you have to be a loyal customer and 2nd,I have to know you personally"  Funny thing, I ignored the hands open crowd and now the business shows a small profit.

[LimpNoodle]

I'm disabled and retired.  Just to keep sane I spend a lot of time at the lure crafting bench.  I've got to have 75 lbs of slab baits in the boat at a minimum.  I'm always improving my product.  I dug out my airbrushes the other day and have decided to do a lot more with them.  I know I can do some pretty amazing things with the brush on a slab style bait.

 

The other thing i pour a lot of is tail spinners.  Again I'm going to start airbrushing those.  It's all about filling my time during the day.

 

I've got a group of about 12 people that I fish with on a pretty regular basis.  These guys are crazy enough to want to buy my baits.  As long as I can cover my costs I'm happy.  In my position my time is free.  However I don't cut corners on my baits.

 

I've got a friend who's in the commercial lure business.  I do some prototypes for him on occasion.  This keeps me in powder paint and decals.  He has the same problem with wannabee pro's and such.  He has a small pro staff of known guides in the area and that's good enough for him.  He's branching out into black bass baits.  He can and does make a superior product to the big names at a much lower cost.  It's easy to do when there's no middlemen.  Face it a bass jig is not all that complicated and most of us here know what the product costs are.  There's absolutely no reason that a weedless bass jig should cost $5 other than multiple markups for everyone involved.  By cutting out a couple of layers of middlemen he's able to sell at a much lower end price to the consumer.

 

If I were to be stupid enough to go into business and sell my product it would be at a price that most fishermen wouldn't pay.  

[andy1976]

Really enjoying this thread. I won't, no matter what, go below my asking price. It's not worth it. I know what my time is worth. I have started making multiple cavity Molds of the same size.

People should also keep in mind howb hazardous lead is.

[cadman]

Good move C-man. To be honest, he is right, the fish don't give a crap about the jig being perfect. But he ran into a Man who takes pride in his craft, and YOU care about what your name is on. Don't blame you for that at all.

He can go back to his bargain supplier.

 

Unfortunately when it comes to making flawed jigs or not so perfect jigs, almost every fisherman I talk to says the fish really don't care, and they are absolutely right. However if I or any of you would try to sell less than perfect jigs even at a discount, I would bet money, guys would say. "Nobody is going to buy that C$$P" it looks horrible.......So why do we as fisherman, myself included want the best finish on a jig when deep down inside we know it really doesn't matter. If you present a raw un-painted jig to a fish, and you know how to entice them and you do catch that fish, why paint jigs at all?????? A good question to ponder over.

[gone2long]

Good move as I'm quite certain he was giving you the BS let him keep buying the cheap stuff with the paint chipping off before it even hits the rocks!

[Slammingjack]

Very good read guys! I started out making soft plastics. I would use Walmart jig heads. Hated them, paint in the eyes and chip the first time I cast them. Couldn't find the color I wanted or with the size hook I wanted. So I started pouring my own. I take the time  to bake the jig and clean out the eyes. I test every batch to make sure in won't chip. I don't sell them. I just do it for fun. But still it's what I want in a jig.

[mark poulson]

There is no reason to sell stuff you make at prices you don't feel comfortable with.  

Feeling like you're being used sucks.

There needs to be an automatic reply key that reads KMA!

[cadman]

Very good read guys! I started out making soft plastics. I would use Walmart jig heads. Hated them, paint in the eyes and chip the first time I cast them. Couldn't find the color I wanted or with the size hook I wanted. So I started pouring my own. I take the time  to bake the jig and clean out the eyes. I test every batch to make sure in won't chip. I don't sell them. I just do it for fun. But still it's what I want in a jig.

 

That is the same way I started out. About 17 years ago, I started to seriously fish walleye and sauger on the IL and WI rivers. I went to BPS, and would buy there 3/8 oz bulk bag of jigs in 7 colors. I didn't know anything about jigs at the time, so I bought the cheapest I could find. With that said, every jig had paint in the hook eye and every jig had what looked like a dusting of powder paint. After cleaning eyes and maybe two or 3 casts all the paint was gone. A year later I decide to buy better jigs from BPS and the same problem, maybe a little more paint but every hook eye had gobs of paint on it that I had to clean. After two years of doing this I smartened up and started making my own and then I've been making jigs ever since.

[BLT]

Unfortunately when it comes to making flawed jigs or not so perfect jigs, almost every fisherman I talk to says the fish really don't care, and they are absolutely right. However if I or any of you would try to sell less than perfect jigs even at a discount, I would bet money, guys would say. "Nobody is going to buy that C$$P" it looks horrible.......So why do we as fisherman, myself included want the best finish on a jig when deep down inside we know it really doesn't matter. If you present a raw un-painted jig to a fish, and you know how to entice them and you do catch that fish, why paint jigs at all?????? A good question to ponder over.

 

It's all about pride. Just like when I did my model railroad layouts as a hobby. I had a paint brush with 1 bristle on it to paint the eyebrows on those little people. No one would even notice that.......but me.