Am i underselling my service?

[Yramrag]

A friend at work asked me (from my experience) how much he should expect to pay to get someone to paint up his army to competition level (so base colour, shade, 1 highlight) for his ork army. He has someone doing it at the moment and is paying them $8 AU a mini. I immediately jumped in and said i would do it for $5, $6 if he wanted them based. I will supply my own paints (i guess, haven\'t asked about that) so i am now wondering if i am pricing too low so that i can make a bit of extra money.
Oh, and he will paying the current guy $1500 to get it done so at my rate minus what has already been painted (about $500 worth) i should get $750. Does this make it more worthwhile to charge less per unit? Never done any commission work before so i have no idea about pricing.

 

[mattsterbenz]

Time yourself when you paint the sample model, that way you can get a rough estimate of what you would make hourly. Then you can factor in time reducing things such as assembly line painting.

If you are doing it professionally you should be making a good hourly rate that would be similar to a well paid job. You don\'t want to undercharge and find out you are making $3 an hour.

Then again, if you aren\'t painting for a living and just as a fun side project / spare hobby money, a low hourly rate like that is fair.

I always considered \"competition level\" to be more along the lines of Golden Demon quality, rather than tabletop. Reading that was a little confusing

 

[james sequeira]

Are you a fast, neat painter ?

You might find you will spend far longer once you get stuck into them as you will loose focus and speed.

 

[Yramrag]

Ok, thanks for the feedback so early i will clarify a few points that i may have made unclear.
1) Competition level - he is a gamer and so wants to use his army on a table. Not to get \"best army\", but so it looks cohesive.
2) It will not be my regular job. It will be a hobby/side project. Working away from home and staying in a hotel, so i might as well do something. Extra money to spend on myself/wife/house...(i think i know who will end up with the money).
3) I am normally a slow, very neat painter but i usually paint Marines. These will be Orks so not too many smooth plates or careful blending.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

your too cheap....

I don\'t think $15.00 a figure for quality tabletop is enough..especially orks....but thats me..

If you not looking at this as income, but extra cash..charge what you wish.

 

[No Such Agency]

Hmm, even if it works out to $5 an hour it beats watching crap on the hotel TV. The question is can you FINISH the commission? (I sure couldn\'t)

 

[Theomar Pius]

I\'m having a tough time now with how much a project is worth vs how much somebody is willing to pay. It\'s a pickle. I recently lost a commssion well into the planning stages due to the price being to high.
In the end it\'s your call, if you think your time and talent is worth more, than charge more. Just be willing to get some turn downs.

For me, I\'m only going to give my best, so I\'m willing to lose business rather than sell myself short. I know what my time is worth, and I\'m willing to stick to it.

 

[Spacemunkie]

People (almost) always want something for nowt. You want to be making AT LEAST minimum wage, and that\'s an insult really if you\'re halfway decent at what you do! Would you want a minimum-wager servicing your motor or treating your Granny in hospital?

Pay peanuts, get monkeys!

 

[Naukhel]

If you feel the need to ask the question, the answer is probably \'yes\'.

 

[laurence]

Sounds like you\'re under-cutting the other guy. $5-6 per mini sounds too cheap!

 

[demonherald]

All the above ... I\'ve stopped doing army type commissions now due to A just too may people wanting them and B it was no fun and pricing was always difficult .. Just pick a price you want as a minimum and thats it.. I have been in endless back and forths in the past with customers haggling prices down now It\'s come full circle and I have people trying to up each others offers to gai priority.. it\'s a funny old world..
The point Spacemunkie makes is absolutely correct .. Aiming for minimum wage is an insult you should be at least doubling minimum wage for the kind of service you provide even more than that really ,and if somebody doesn\'t want to pay that high they don\'t have to..

 

[darklord]

you will get what your worth, higher end painters will generally earn more and lower end less . i do comission work and i dont earn an hourly rate but i do it simply because i would be painting anyway so why not earn a little as i do it, it keeps me in paint and i get to paint things i might not normally. i did a biggish job once (not as big as yours) and i took a to low price simply because i hated people not saying yes to me. did my head in doing loads of rank and file so now i do small orders.
in your case, its giving you something to do to beat boredom, earn a little at the same time so i would say yes go for it if the size of the job wont do your head in