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Hello everyone,

I wanted to talk to the community at Large about my new business venture and branch of my Etsy store, McDougall Designs.

For about a month now I've been updating my thread in the news and rumors forum when I add new products. I've even started to do discount bundles like the one linked below.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/518902740/dark-imperium-base-bundle

To date, I've only gotten a few sales out of my efforts. This is despite having recieved almost 1300 views to the news thread.

I've also begun working on a plan to provide stores around the country with bases for tournament support based on sales. Essentially making a $20 or more purchase, if that customer mentions the store they would like to receive support, that store will get bases for support.

I'm not trying to solicit business advice, merely attempting to understand, from the community I am trying to sell to, what is holding them back.

Any response or commentary will be read and replied to. I am greatful for anyone taking the time to respond.

Regards,

Lord Marcus
McDougall Designs

Clicking on the link you provided, the paint job on the bases was very off putting. I would like to see them plain. Also using ceramic material in a mostly resin market is probably not helping. Just a quick 2 second search on Ebay for resin Bases generated this https://www.ebay.com/p/Warhammer-40k-25mm-Resin-Lava-Base-Set-20/896726912?iid=122146162748 .

I mean I'm sure most people that are into 40k (which is already an expensive hobby) wouldn't mind paying more for crisper cleaner bases with a nicer presentation from the person making the product. The Ebay link above is ,I believe, a guy similar to you. Making bases on a small scale but is using resin as a medium. I respect the effort but maybe looking at the competition and not the community will help you out. Hope that helps.

From your pictures they are not anything I would want to use. Your examples are poorly painted and some of them don't look very well cast. One of them seems to be chipped and another completely malformed.

I would greatly suggest picking better casts and having them painted to a much higher level to show off your work. As they are they don't look like something that couldn't be done by the people you're trying to sell to. Customers buy things they can't easily do themselves. Even better if they can't even figure out how you did it!

So, get a crisper more professional looking example and you're sAles may go up.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
From your pictures they are not anything I would want to use. Your examples are poorly painted and some of them don't look very well cast. One of them seems to be chipped and another completely malformed.

I would greatly suggest picking better casts and having them painted to a much higher level to show off your work. As they are they don't look like something that couldn't be done by the people you're trying to sell to. Customers buy things they can't easily do themselves. Even better if they can't even figure out how you did it!

So, get a crisper more professional looking example and you're sAles may go up.

1. The pictures are going to be replaced. The photos are of proof of painting variations. (This is noted in the item description on the site.) The new photos of much crisper basis will be up soon.

2. This is the level to which these will be painted as I am not charging extra for my paint or my time to provide this option.

3. I am aware that my customers could most likely do something close to this themselves however I am marketing these based on the fact that they are ready made and you do not have to spend time making bases for your army. This is because it is a time-consuming process and a lot of people I know did not want to take the time and wanted to get gaming with splendidly based models quickly.

4. Thank you for your thoughts. I really appreciate them.

Simply put...you're not providing something which is not available in better quality from a TON of sources. There are loads of companies with fantastic resin bases, or even plastic bases (heck GW sells them now). You're competing with places like Secret Weapon Miniatures etc. Big stores with real sculptors and tons of experience doing beautiful scenic bases.

Your bases look quite shoddy by comparison. The sculpts/shapes don't look particularly clean.

Now, I see you're trying to sell yours painted...that's all well and good but the reality is that if you're going to paint something, it needs to be much nicer than what was posted in your Etsy listing. The paintwork is particularly poor - this means that the end user would probably end up stripping it down anyway and re-painting it. I would never buy the items shown in your Etsy listing. There is a reason that assembled and poorly painted 40K models sell for about 35% of the model's actual retail cost.

1) They need to be sculpted better.
2) Don't paint them, or if you do, paint them much better.
3) Make them cheaper if they're not selling.

Ask yourself if your product is: nicer, better, cheaper than the rest of the market? I don't see that they are.

The biggest point to make here is: listen to what people are saying. Don't ask for opinions/insight and then defend the way you're doing it now. You came here and asked because you're not selling. People are telling you why. Look, if it's not making you money - stop doing it, or spend more time on learning the sculpting trade, etc. I sell a product which has scant sales too (mainly because I don't advertise it) so I understand the frustration.

I agree with the above posters, the sculpt quality looks really poor on most of the bases. Only the cracked base looks like a decent sculpt. Some of them look like they have run out over the size the base should originally have.

The paintwork is also shoddy on most of them. The ice and wasteland bases look ok, and the lava (not the rest of those bases) is good, but all the rest look poor. I think it should be possible to find techniques that would be time-efficient and would look much better, some of it is a simple scheme change away from looking ok.

Price is not low enough to entice a purchase, with the current quality, you need to go really low.

Also, is Etsy the right place for selling wargames stuff?

 Illumini wrote:
I agree with the above posters, the sculpt quality looks really poor on most of the bases. Only the cracked base looks like a decent sculpt. Some of them look like they have run out over the size the base should originally have.

The paintwork is also shoddy on most of them. The ice and wasteland bases look ok, and the lava (not the rest of those bases) is good, but all the rest look poor. I think it should be possible to find techniques that would be time-efficient and would look much better, some of it is a simple scheme change away from looking ok.

Price is not low enough to entice a purchase, with the current quality, you need to go really low.

Also, is Etsy the right place for selling wargames stuff?

You would be surprised. I get alot of primed bases ordered.

As to price, these are literally the lowest I can go with materials, fees, and just a sliver of profit which is just enough to make the Enterprise worth the time, other than my want to see better based armies.

Honestly, the catylst for all of this was a guy in my local basing his army with coffee grounds when I walked into the shop one night.

I've seen some excellent coffee ground bases...albeit painted, etc.

 Elbows wrote:
I've seen some excellent coffee ground bases...albeit painted, etc.

I'm sorry but the possibility of mold and or decay is just too possible imo.


Either way, I was simply explaining my catylst

I don't think I'm your target market, as I like to do everything from assembly through to painting and basing myself, but here are my two cents.

I don't get a very good idea of what I'm looking at with the picture provided. The angle of the shot doesn't do the design, or the paint job, any favors. I think you would be best served by showing miniatures, even if they are bones or something, based with them to bring the whole "picture" together for the prospective buyer.

I will also echo what others have said about the casts not looking very crisp. $26.50 is almost half of my monthly hobby budget and I would be hard pressed to part with it for this product, even if I was in your target market segment.

All that being said, good luck with the venture!