First things first, I am not an artsy person. I lack imagination and am usually very bad with my hands. I had something nagging at me for awhile though, and I made these shadowboxes for my basement arcade. I am proud of them, and really enjoyed making them, and would love to make more. The problem then comes in that I can only make so many for my basement.
That said, what do you think of them. Would you want to hang something like this in your home (anywhere)? What would you pay for something like these? It wouldn’t make sense to make them for others, as a hobby only, for x dollars, if people would only pay x-10 dollars for them.
If it helps at all, the boxes measure 8"x10" and are probably an inch or two deep.
I think some people would like them for decorating a game room. The one on the left has better balance in its design, but it needs to be turned upside down in my opinion.
I also think that these might sell better as a set, but not of the same game. One monopoly and one of something else made the same size in a duplicate frame.
If I were selling them on e-Bay, I would add one-third to the cost of making them and use that as the starting bid. Or maybe a little more.
I’m sorry, I have to disagree with the portions of your post that I bolded, and defend the OP’s design. The two are a great set, and the way they are oriented is important…because “Free Parking” is in the opposite corner of the board from “Go,” they need to be juxtaposed to look the same in the boxes.
I think they are very cool, and you could do similar designs with other games, like Hazel’s suggestion of Scrabble. It would have to be a game that is familiar to people, though, with interesting pieces…maybe The Game of Life or Clue…or Candyland or Chutes & Ladders for a kid’s room!
I would definitely buy something like this, for maybe $30 for the set.
I had another idea for making them with a Scrabble theme…if you sell them on ebay, you could let people customize them, with the letters spelling out whatever they want, like “Bob & Sue’s Game Room” or that kind of thing.
Full Metal might have a point about copyright, but I know that people do sell jewelry & art made from Scrabble tiles on ebay.
Ditto. While you may have put a lot of time into them and they look nice they could also have just as easily came from a back endcap clearance shelf at Target.
My wife make a lot of neat crafty things and once in a while gets it into her head to try to sell them and make money. But after calculating time + materials decides the profit is just way too small.
I WANT THAT! I’m obsessed with monopoly. But the thing is, I could buy one from you but I would probably only be willing to pay for supplies and shipping because now that i’ve seen the idea, i will make one myself and you’ll never know!
That’s one problem with selling this type of thing online. I recently bought some handmade beaded jewelry from a lady at a sidewalk sale, and commented that it would be a great thing to sell on eBay…she said she doesn’t sell online because people can copy the designs.
I like the concept. I can see a few that might be willing to pay for that. I wouldn’t because a) Monopoly is not a favorite game of mine, it’d pique my interest more if it were Scrabble b) I am one of those idea stealers the posters upthread are talking about. If it’s something I think I can easily do myself with the same results, I wouldn’t put money down for it, even if I don’t actually go out to the craft store and get the supplies to make my own.
In all seriousness, if you have the tools to make this (a decent saw and superglue), then go for it. Even better if you can make your own shadowboxes from scratch as these came from Michael’s at $15/each. I would never dream of doing it to make it rich but more instead that I ENJOYED making it and want to share it with others. Between the boxes, and $10 for the game, and two hours for ‘labor’, I would sell them for $70 for the pair, and I cannot imagine anyone paying that for these, even if they were ‘perfect’ quality, although a coworker was very kind today and said she’d think Pier 1 would sell something like these for $89.
The Scrabble idea has really lingered in my head and that will likely be my next project. After that, I will likely start hitting yard sales and flea markets for cheap games (missing pieces is fine) and let that guide me for future pieces.
Yeah she sells to mostly high end boutiques wholesale doing things like apparel markets a few times a year. The clothes are more for people who don’t have to worry about money so it’s not like she’s trying to move a whole shit ton of quantity. I used to model for her advertisements when I was little. I was in a childrens store a few years ago in new orleans and saw pictures of myself when I was about 6. Pretty weird.
