Supercases

[Jtalk4456]

I had the idea while helping someone on here design a paintjob for a Joker themed case (linked below). What if I found a cheap but good enough simple flat panel case and made a set of clean line graphics of various superheroes across the dc and marvel universe and made stencils and started selling "Supercases" at lets say $50 if I found a nice $20-30 case that fit the bill, leaving $20-30 for my time. Does anyone think that would be a good and/or profitable idea? I could even offer a few levels of built systems in them for a tiny profit margin to cover building. I'm having a slow day at work so i'll come up with a few different designs over the next couple of hours and post them. Let me know what you think

 

[dokugolf]

I think the idea is ok, but there a few flaws that would come to mind for me. 

 

What cases? Something like an S340/Elite is a very popular case and would be easy to create designs for (as its a very clean and easy design) but it would be expensive for your budget.

Generally, the cheaper the case, the more outlandish and wild designs they have. An N200 is ~30 dollar case that is simple and would be fairly easy to design a print for, but I can't think of much else that would fit in that category, but even then, some people don't wan't a MicroATX case.

 

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I had the idea while helping someone on here design a paintjob for a Joker themed case (linked below). What if I found a cheap but good enough simple flat panel case and made a set of clean line graphics of various superheroes across the dc and marvel universe and made stencils and started selling "Supercases" at lets say $50 if I found a nice $20-30 case that fit the bill, leaving $20-30 for my time. Does anyone think that would be a good and/or profitable idea? I could even offer a few levels of built systems in them for a tiny profit margin to cover building. I'm having a slow day at work so i'll come up with a few different designs over the next couple of hours and post them. Let me know what you think

I too would pick popular cases like S340, P400, H440, Master case series, etc that have mostly or entirety flat panels (if you wanted full coverage graphics)

[Jtalk4456]

1 hour ago, dokugolf said:

I think the idea is ok, but there a few flaws that would come to mind for me. 

 

What cases? Something like an S340/Elite is a very popular case and would be easy to create designs for (as its a very clean and easy design) but it would be expensive for your budget.

Generally, the cheaper the case, the more outlandish and wild designs they have. An N200 is ~30 dollar case that is simple and would be fairly easy to design a print for, but I can't think of much else that would fit in that category, but even then, some people don't wan't a MicroATX case.

 

I wasn't going for name brand or popular ones to be honest. This would be me making 1 case with a cool design, showing as a prototype on kickstarter and having pictures of other designs as well. This would be marketed to someone who loves superheros and wants a superhero computer, not someone who necessarily loves tech and computers and might be more critical of the choice of cases. If it got enough support, I bet a good many people would  buy an i3 build just to have a superhero computer. I COULD use higher end cases, but then it would be harder to justify. going themed like that lends itself to impulse buys, nostalgia buys. And while people will love the design, they may not be interested in the computer being expensive and powerful, so asking someone $100 for a $75 case just so they can have a batman theme is more than a lot of people want to spend on the case. If I also had some higher end ones with RGB, that might help justify the higher cost, but it would be a harder sell. 

These are some I was thinking of using

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1N8-001K-00001    $25

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2F85HA9690   $37

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208059  $24

[Jtalk4456]

51 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I too would pick popular cases like S340, P400, H440, Master case series, etc that have mostly or entirety flat panels (if you wanted full coverage graphics)

S340 - $70 - Not bad, but a bit expensive and the side panel means no side design, I'm trying to find ones with no windows to maximize the design

P400 - $80 - Same issues, and the front panel is not flat
H440 - $120 - Way too expensive to get a profit, and the top edge isn't symmetrical which would make it hard to design with
Master case Series - I really like these, they are expensive, but they have just enough angle to be gamery without being tacky. They would be tough to paint well with so many angles, and I couldn't get one with mesh front, but this is definitely a contender for the high end ones if I did those. Being they run well above 100 that'd bring the price up for them and making a built system in them would be pretty costly to the consumer

[Jtalk4456]

Here's a spiderman draft

[Jtalk4456]

 

[Jtalk4456]

I took some liberty with the "S"

[TopHatProductions115]

I'd suggest charging the price of materials (for making and applying the design) plus hourly for how long it takes to apply the design. So, if materials for creating the initial design costs 60, and it took you 3 hours to apply the design (assuming 12 USD per hour and that the design was already available), the end user price would be 96 dollars for applying an already-existing design. Add on 20 if a new design was requested (didn't already exist). You can tweak the numbers however you wish, depending upon what your actual costs are.

 

So, TL;DR charge a base (cost of supplies) fee plus an hourly charge - unless the design doesn't already exist. Additional fee if a new design is called for.

[Jtalk4456]

On 4/13/2018 at 10:16 PM, TopHatProductions115 said:

I'd suggest charging the price of materials (for making and applying the design) plus hourly for how long it takes to apply the design. So, if materials for creating the initial design costs 60, and it took you 3 hours to apply the design (assuming 12 USD per hour and that the design was already available), the end user price would be 96 dollars for applying an already-existing design. Add on 20 if a new design was requested (didn't already exist). You can tweak the numbers however you wish, depending upon what your actual costs are.

 

So, TL;DR charge a base (cost of supplies) fee plus an hourly charge - unless the design doesn't already exist. Additional fee if a new design is called for.

I like the way you think. Given several suggestions, my best bet might be to just make the designs and bulk order vinyl skins of them, which would greatly lower my costs and let me sell the skins cheap and not worry about the cases

[8uhbbhu8]

Not a bad idea imo. Need to get i'd say a wider variety of samples to choose from  though as very limited choices will also get you very limited customers. Maybe some custom designs too. Things that are just "cool" or "interesting" to look at.

[airdeano]

so you want to sell proprietary trademarked/copyright images for a profit?

kind of a reason you do not see a lot of this in market segment.

licensing fees wrecks a lot of the profit level

end users can create similar images for personal use with no foul, but once it is sold and the IP owners find out, better get a lawyer and debit/gold credit card.

[johnny5c]

8 hours ago, airdeano said:

so you want to sell proprietary trademarked/copyright images for a profit?

kind of a reason you do not see a lot of this in market segment.

licensing fees wrecks a lot of the profit level

end users can create similar images for personal use with no foul, but once it is sold and the IP owners find out, better get a lawyer and debit/gold credit card.

Very true, years back a guy on another forum had legal action taken against him for selling custom painted PS3 top plates with the same images.

[Jtalk4456]

13 hours ago, airdeano said:

so you want to sell proprietary trademarked/copyright images for a profit?

kind of a reason you do not see a lot of this in market segment.

licensing fees wrecks a lot of the profit level

end users can create similar images for personal use with no foul, but once it is sold and the IP owners find out, better get a lawyer and debit/gold credit card.

I get what you mean, but I made that art with inspiration from other designs, I still am the creator of the art, and (i may be wrong but) I think fanart is a gray area legally

[Jtalk4456]

I emailed marvel to see what they say about usage permission. I doubt the answer would be good though. I'll update when I find out

[Jtalk4456]

ok so i tried a few different original designs out of thin air, but it didn't work too well. The only one I like is my reaper logo that I have been making for a while