Depends how much stuffing around Dave is willing to do. He could take on the Adafruit strategy, which is generally 3 options:
- Full kit
- PCB only
- Pre-programmed microcontroller
15 different options, or a checkbox for every single part for Dave to manually count out and package is not gonna happen...
Yes, the less options in my shop to order, the less hassle it is.
The only reason Adafruit and similar online shops survive and do what they do is because they have a full time staff of dozens or more and almost fully automated ordering, labeling, and invoicing systems built up over many years.
I have the problem of not wanting to be a retail kit business/store, but I also enjoy providing the kits and bits for projects directly myself. So there ends up being this rather annoyingly large intermediate region of success between selling kits/products in the dozens/hundreds, and selling in the thousands, and the "surge" of orders when I announce something.
For instance, assembling, testing, packing, and shipping my batches of 50 uCurrents takes several full days of work.
The next batch of 200 will take proportionally longer again, probably the best part of a weeks full time work to shift those units. A lot of work, but just manageable without impacting the blog much.
Bigger numbers than that, or multiple items in a bigger online store and I'm in trouble.
And then there is the customs hassle, where it really isn't worth my while to ship a blank PCB worth $10 or $20 internationally because of the paperwork involved. I can't just pop it in an express satchel and send it. And likewise for multiple items in a shopping cart. It is much easier and more streamlined if everyone orders just the same thing (e.g. I print out labels in batches, wrap and pack things in batches etc). If everyone wants something different in their order then I have to process and pack orders one-by-one to ensure it's not goofed up.
I ditched the uCurrent kit because most people didn't want it, and it was a hassle to kit up the SMD parts. But I like the idea for the PSU.
It's likely I'll pay someone to kit up these PSU parts for me, as I can't see that being a good use of my time.
Of course you could argue that none of this a good use of my time and I should just offload the whole she-bang to Adafruit or Seedstudio and take a small commission. But then the personal joy of it is gone, and someone else gets the majority of the profit.
Likewise if I start hiring someone say part-time.
I guess it's just suck it and see!
Dave.