What goes first: order or post

Tindie
#1

Hello folks,

Hello folks,

being a hobbyist for a long time now, I finally got the courage to go on and try to make one of my experiments a real product. Now, by no means do I plan to run a large scale company and compete with tech giants out there. Instead, I’d want to make a small scale production and sell my goodies at Tindie.

I got my device in a production ready state, i.e. I have gerber, BOM, assembly drawing, pick’n’place files ready. I even have a 3D model. Right now, I am negotiating with some more or less popular PCB manufacture and assembly services (PCB Cart, PCB Way, Seed Studio, Smart Prototyping). Is it usual practice to make an order of, let’s say, 100 pieces and then put the product on Tindie? Or should I rather advertise my product in the prototype phase first and order only after I get some orders? How do you usually do this?

#2

You definitely need to have a product ready for sale before you list on Tindie as orders need to be shipped within 2 weeks or they will auto cancel.

Way back Tindie had a “Fundraiser” mode which is more like a kickstarter, but that option is no longer available. I’d just say start small, and see how sales go - and Tindie is a great place to sell

1 Like
#3

Definitely you need to build stuff first - it needs to be tested and ready to ship.

I would suggest that you can assemble 10 of something yourself pretty easily and if they sell out at a reasonable rate, then you place a PCBA order for 100. Note that when you move from hand-made to commercial PCBA services, you also need to figure out an automated test methodology for the manufacturer…

#4

Hello Perazver,

You can start documenting your project on your blog or Hackaday.io in advance. That will help build interest and a following before you launch your product.

As previously mentioned, you do need to have your product ready to ship before you list on Tindie and take orders as people don’t like delays. We require sellers to ship within 14 days or the order is cancelled and refunded.

If you are going to do a small hand-built batch of 10-20, I would still work out the pricing for a larger production run so you can work out your pricing for both batches. You should price anywhere from x2 to x5 your BOM and manufacturing costs.

Also, factor in shipping loss or damages into pricing. It’s the seller’s responsibility to make sure the item reaches the buyer in good condition. If the item is lower priced, you may just add 10-20% to the batch, offer cheap shipping and resend if any packages go missing during shipping. If it’s higher price or a large order, you will want to send tracked and insured even if that’s not what the buyer selected.

Let us know if you have any more questions.