Thread: Pen Boxes help

G'day BK,
I wish I could be of assistance on this one. I have never seen pen boxes made with the awesome Australian wood. Those would be beautiful. I can't imagine them to be inexpensive though. If I could find some at a reasonable prices, they would find a very happy home with me

Cheers,

Rick

Originally Posted by ScrollZilla

If I could find some at a reasonable prices, they would find a very happy home with me.

Rick, so given the prices that some of us sell pens for, what do you consider reasonable prices?

Heya Rance,
Well, before I started getting some of the great Aussie wood, I never sold the pens with the boxes. I had the boxes seperately. Actually, where I am at, I can hardly give them away. Okay, I can give them away easily enough, but I actually have a hard time selling one for $25, but then again, look at where I live lol.
Now that I have started working with killer Mallee and the like, I am so impressed with the pens. I think that in using a high-end box, it would justify high-end pen costs, each enhancing the other. I won't be doing shows until the fall/winter season. When I do, the pens will all be sold with the box included and I am going to try raising the price substantially to test out my "if it costs more, then it must be better quality" as opposed to "if it doesn't cost much, it must be cheap quality" theories. With all that said, I think for a quality box made from matching wood, I am thinking about making my own. The only problem is the insert. Of course, If I could find some in the $5-$10 range, it would be well worth it I think.

Cheers,

Rick

I’ve just been given a recommendation for this mobs boxes, prices seem reasonable and they have a laser engraving service, that alone will save me about $4.00 per box. http://www.ozwood.com.au/category8_1.htm

For a while there I was looking at making my own as I also wanted some made from Aussie woods. From memory it worked out that in materials and consumables they'd cost me around $10-$15 each to build... and that's not including labour, etc. So, the absolute bottom dollar I'd charge for one would be around $25.... a bit on the expensive side if you're just going to put a $25 pen in it. Not very practical.

Given that we can buy the imported Rosewood pen boxes for $6- ea and fancier "two-tone" ones for around $10- each, well... for the average $25 pen tey can make do with just the $1 plastic cases or tubes, with the more expensive wooden boxes going to the high end pens.

And my home-made Aussie wood boxes? Only for those special pens where it's more a matter of pride than finances.

If I take a manufacturer's point of view, then I'd say that the box requires more than twice the wood as does a pen, and more work to build. Given that, then I'm inclined to buy the $8 boxes rather than build.

I think there's something to be said for the 'it don't cost enough to be good' theory. Rick, I'll be interested to see if your results pan out. Please keep us informed. Thanks.

I received 20 of their one pen boxes yesterday by express post, I have to say they are pretty good, and the laser engraving is excellent and good value, can recommend them

I had a look at the site, very polished and professional looking. Couldn't find a specific pen box as such in the boxes section (i walk past an item 3 times in the supermarket and then ask one of the staff where the item was and they placed my hand on it - blush, sigh).

Oh, the link given wasn't quite right:
http://www.ozwood.com.au/category4_1.htm

Originally Posted by tashammer

I had a look at the site, very polished and professional looking. Couldn't find a specific pen box as such in the boxes section (i walk past an item 3 times in the supermarket and then ask one of the staff where the item was and they placed my hand on it - blush, sigh).

Oh, the link given wasn't quite right:
http://www.ozwood.com.au/category4_1.htm

Hate to disagree with you Tashammer, but this link doesn't take me to PEN boxes, the original does.

I looked at the site.Are the pen boxes at $8.80 a better quality than the boxes you can buy around town at $6.00 ?. Maybe the engraving is free ,if not ,how much to engrave a pen.
Terry

I would rate them about as good as the rosewood or maple boxes, however they are jarrah and that’s what is important to my client, even if the colour on some of the tops and bottoms didn’t match perfectly.

The laser engraving is very good and at no cost a real bonus, the service was prompt.

I asked about engraving onto my pens, the reply was they only engrave onto their own products.