I nosed around some last night with Mr Google initially researching unregulated builds .. I'd suspect many, if not the majority, of the makers are using a CNC machine, which I don't have, but Rockler makes some quality machines that are relatively inexpensive ..
Since I have a small warehouse stacked with various exotic woods, that's all bought and paid for .. looking at the required hardware seems to me in wholesale, the highest quality I can find would still be under $20.00 per unit ..
When I gave it serious thought, I lean toward believing entering this space now is likely a little late .. those companies that have been in the space and built a reputation over time have captured a market that maintains a very solid customer base .. there appears to also me some mystique / reverence / for some that a new guy would be hard pressed to capture .. unless the new guy really made some stand out work .. just an exotic wood box that looks nice seems to be well covered with what's out there now .. if I were, on the other hand, to go into hand inlay, custom per-customer work and get really specialized, at the end of the day, it's still a wood box with some hardware and inlay / custom is time consuming, thus driving the price up ..
So, I'm on the fence, essentially .. I called a close friend master woodcrafter who has a CNC machine, I've known for many years this morning and asked if I were to provide the project files and the wood rough cut to the needed size, what would he charge me and I can get 500 boxes turned out at $8.00 a box ..
What I'm saying next has no bearing on the current makers of these
mods, more power to them is what I say .. however, at what I believe is under $30.00 per unit actual cost for me, the markup on these things is very, very high .. of course, I already have the wood, so other makers have to
buy that .. but still, I'd estimate for them under $40.00 per unit .. and since there is really no reason why production should be limited, it may be that other makers artificially keep production low in order to further the mystique .. that's not a bad thing .. if you make 500 units and that's it for this cycle, your equipment and initial investment is tax deductible fully the first year under the current tax structure, it costs you on the high side $40.00 per unit, which is also tax deductible .. that's, with equipment, parts, wood, etc still under $25,000 ..
yet, if you can sell them, you gross $100 K and net $75 K at just $200.00 per unit ..
In my case, I could farm out the woodwork .. thus making my cost $28.00 per unit max .. or $14 K total box / parts inclusive .. at $200 a pop, that's still $100 K gross, with an $86 K net
The question being, could I sell 500 units in a reasonable period of time as a start up .. consider the cost of a Web Site and other ads ..
At any rate, it was an interesting study of this home grown market segment and gave me quite a bit of insight that I did not have, so I figured I'd share what I learned ..