How much $$$ is too much for a mod?

[Guest cubemods]

As many of you know I have a little mod store that I sell various CC3 mods at. I was just wondering when deciding whether to purchase a mod or not how important is price? How much are you willing to pay for a mod, and if the price is too high will you be put off that mod?

For other mod sellers out there, do you find you make more $$$ through turning over more sales, or setting a good price and getting well earned money for your mods?

Looking forward to your comments.

[vokf]

As many of you know I have a little mod store that I sell various CC3 mods at. I was just wondering when deciding whether to purchase a mod or not how important is price? How much are you willing to pay for a mod, and if the price is too high will you be put off that mod?

For other mod sellers out there, do you find you make more $$$ through turning over more sales, or setting a good price and getting well earned money for your mods?

Looking forward to your comments.

Hi,

I've purchased quite a few mods for my store, and providing the mod is good (ie I want/need it), then the price isn't a big problem.

I usually prefer to see the mod running as a demo, or for the vendor to provide a free trial (ie SEO mod).

For me, the "stop and think" price is about £10 (~$20) - but I don't have a problem paying more. I'm also a programmer (not PHP yet...), so do appreciate the work that goes into some of these mods.

Jason

[Guest thegoblin]

I agree, I like to see the mod in demo first.

If its a big mod, the price can reflect this somewhat.

If its a unique mod, price can be reflected.

It really depends on a commercial reason, ie will the mod cover costs?

Thats the big thing I hate.. Cube cart is a powerful sales tool that can enable someone to make a lot of money.

Tools cost money, cubecart is free (or $69 to licence). I mean, $69 thats not a lot considering what it could do for you.

I look at what the mod will do for me. I have used free mods, cheap($3-5) mods and am about to buy a $20 mod, simply because its the only one that does what I want, and I feel it will enhance my site, so money well spent !!

So, in answer, I guess anything under $10 wont cause most to stop and think, upto $20 may discourage some, but over $20 is fine for the right mod!

tony

[Guest]

This is the hardest part of building mods

points to take note:

the mods will sell better if lower in price.

hard to determine price as peeps from all over the world so for example a £10 mod in uk quite cheap to uk users but works out at $20 to usa users bit more pricey.

if its a general mod that can be widely used make the mod cheaper if its a bit more unique or custom you can charge a few more $$'s for it.

then there is skins

this can be split into 2 cats

unique or just use it

unique = higher in price as it will only be used once

use it = cheaper as you can sell it again.

At the end of it its your call and all i can suggest is trial and error.

[Guest bennyuk]

This certainly is a hot topic at the moment.

Most of the mods I create are specific mods for specific customers that would not really sell as a general mod. This works out best for me as I can price it so that I don't lose out and the customer gets the EXACT mod they want. The mods don't get released on the public as it has taken alot of work (and is applicable only to a specific customers need) so the costs run in £100's and my customers wouldn't appreciate a mod being sold at a cheaper price than thye paid.

However, for general public mods such as those in here, I would say thet personally, I would pay up to £50 ($100) as I realise the work taht goes into them.

As a developer the pricing of mods is a continual issue. A recent example is that I have said I would look at a few mod requests and get them done "when time permits". I know these mods will take 4 - 8 hours of my time (spec, research, build, test, tweak), but as someone who charges £50 per hour I would not dream of passing that cost in here, as I think most people expect to pay £10 - £50. If someone said they needed a mod written in X days and it was urgent, then a price adjustment would be made to them to reflect it.

So if I cannot charge for my time I have to sell the mods at what I think they are worth to people, and then hope that enough people buy it to make a ROI.

The other point is the "community feel good" effect. I dont mind selling mods at discount prices as I know I have purchased such mods at discount prices in the past. When budgets are tight, a good value mod can really make a difference. Plus, when you think of all the paid mods available I would guess that most stores woudl "invest" approx £150 in paid for mods for their sites.

As evilhomer says, it is trial and error. If your mods are too expensive, no one will buy them. If they are too cheap, then raise the price to keep yourself happy while keeping it within reach of customers.

From a business point of vew, I view most mods as "loss leaders", in that you sell them at a low price and don't actually make money out of them...but, you do start to make a name for yourself so that people will come to you for more work and you can build revenue in that way. And of course, tere is always the knowledge that one day we will all come with our own "Killer Mod" that EVERYONE (well, a few thousand) CC owners will purchase and actually will become profitable (eg postcode lookup mod that automatically finds best shipping price from all couriers, just by looking at shoppers postcode and the weight/volume of products purchased...) still in development ;)

[markscarts]

I have only a few comments here, but will preface it all with this: This post really belongs at cubecart.org

Here is a quote from my website "About Us" page:

My aim is to provide skins and tutorials for a very low price, so that people with few funds (or even cheapskates) who have no skill at coding can take advantage of CubeCartâ„¢ customization. I can do this because once a skin is developed or a tutorial written, and put on the website, it requires no further maintenance from me, besides what I have time to give in the way of support, improvements or upgrades.

At present, most products at my site are sold from $0.99 to 9.99 USD - value added services are higher. We install stores and mods, upgrade stores and tweak designs as well as custom designing. Most stores w/mods, skins, etc. cost between $95 and $150 by the time we're done with store installs/upgrades that include custom skins and mods. Our customers in general are happy with the value received.

We are knowledgeable freelancers, and I am an amateur designer, so as an amateur I do not charge top dollar for everything we do. I own other companies, and keep labor rates at around $65.00 per hour - but this CubeCartâ„¢ work is practically gratis, often netting less than $5 per hour. I do it because I like the cart and the community.

I have spent a great deal of time on other forums in the past just for the community aspect. One of the things I like about CubeCart is that I can get a little something back in the way of $$$ for some of the time I invest in helping others and tweaking the cart.

And I will close by reiterating, in my opinion, these types discussion belong in .org, and preferrably in area 51 :)

[Guest casper5566]

And I will close by reiterating, in my opinion, these types discussion belong in .org, and preferrably in area 51

I agree this belongs in the .org site but not area 51 if they want a users point of view. I'm more inclined to buy a mod if it's $20 or under. I understand the work that goes into the mods but anything more than that and I can't afford it. The products at my site are sold at cost, so that means whateven I put into the site, I'll never get back. I'm sure that this is rare but thats one of the reasons I picked cube cart.

[Guest]

I think benny summed it up. Mods take a reasonable time to make. But if you sell for $10 - $30 depending on size of the mod it's a fair price and you'll sell more so it's all good.

there's no point in charging real world prices like startup fee, hourly fee and all that for cubecart mods... just set a decent price and sellllll