OK - so my meeting with Warneke was great, and I ended up with a lot of information. I will try to summarize as clearly and concisely as possible.
TYPE 1 Box (aka Glued Double Sidewall)
While on site with Warneke, we disassembled a Paulson box, and discovered that
@AWenger was 100% correct
in his post... these are 3-part boxes initially made as individual flat pieces that can be easily "assembled" by the user later. There is no adhesive in the final form, except for the double sidewall (which is done at the factory). Warneke confirmed that they can duplicate this box, albeit with one minor change. They use a slightly different tab/locking system, which they believe is stronger than the one implemented in the Paulson box. I'm not sure if this is correct, or if the guy was just selling me on their technique, but I'm not going to get too crazy on the technical aspects so long as it just works the same.
Here is a photo of the Paulson box we unfolded.
Here is a similar Warneke box, unfolded. FWIW, you can see their "locking tabs" are much larger.
I will refer to this glued double sidewall type box as GDS from here on out.
Ballpark Pricing
Now, this is where things get a little convoluted. Basically, they have a sliding scale for prices, and he didn't want to commit to anything until we got further into the design/spec process. This is because they have a base cost for setup to make each new box, and need to cover those costs. If the quantity is small (say, at their minimum of 1,000 units), then the per-box-price can go up, significantly. If the quantity is larger, the per-box-price can come down, significantly. We did not get too much into the weeds on the 43mm boxes (but it's easy enough for them to make if we want them too). We did discuss some very
VERY "ballpark" pricing for the 100ct GDS box, and the 200ct GDS box, outlined below.
Lot of 1,000 GDS 100ct: $1.50-$2.00 per box +tax
(this is the basic Type 1 Paulson box)
Lot of 5,000 GDS 100ct: $0.70-$0.80 per box +tax
(this is the basic Type 1 Paulson box)
Lot of 1,000 GDS 200ct: $2.50+ per box +tax
Lot of 5,000 GDS 200ct:
he was not comfortable ballpark pricing this -
we'd need to take the design process further to get detailed discount bulk pricing
Notes - the 100ct box is a three piece product (top, bottom, chip "tray"), and the 200ct is a five piece product (top, bottom, 2x chip "tray", divider)
To Summarize
Type 1 GDS 39mm - 100ct
I think 70-cents to 80-cents a box is reasonable, especially since they will be delivered flat, which will save drastically on re-shipping to potential GB members. That said, we would really need to push for the 5,000 lot size to make this cost effective... unless people really want to spend $2.00 per box.
Type 1 GDS 43mm - 100ct
I didn't get too much into the details on pricing this. However, I showed him a 43mm chip, and he indicated it would be very easy for them to match the dimensions for a larger chip. This is
MY OWN ballpark, but I'd guess around $0.90-$1.00 per box for a lot of 5,000.
Type 1 GDS 39mm - 200ct
This is also certainly doable, but the issue will be hitting minimums to make it cost effective.
Moving Forward
What's next? I think we need to get interest numbers to see what's feasible. Beyond hitting the 1,000 lot minimum, I think we really need to see if 5,000 or more is possible for one (or more) models to get favorable pricing.
I'm open to input here. Should I open a new thread for people to post desired quantities per type/model?
Please hit me with your suggestions!
