why does it cost that?

I always try to be very transparent about my pricing.  I wanted to expound on that a bit in one place so you understand exactly how I determine the prices.

There are basically 2 pieces that I set my prices on: The initial material/powder coat and the laser time.
The first piece is based off of the square inches.  I processed a full sheet of material, from cut, to cleaning, grinding and putting it in the powder coat oven (I don't include the curing time) and averaged that time based on a $70.00 an hour shop time and actual material cost into a price per inch. This portion goes into covering my employee, shop space, consumable materials, electricity, and all those myriad of other costs that are part of running a business. 

The second piece is based on the laser time.  To get this number I move your proof into my laser program, adjust the grouping and cut types to be the most efficient and take that number of minutes times $70.00 an hour to get the laser time price. 

The part that I've talked less about is that I don't bill for the other parts that go into making trophies. There is proofing time, figuring out pricing, laser setup, 2 additional powder coating processes that include 2 wash/dry cycles and at least an hour additional cure time, cleaning racks and hooks,  packaging and invoicing.  In order to not charge separately for this work that goes into the trophies I try to run all of these processes while the lasers are running.  This obviously can't happen all of the time, so during those times there is not a laser running that $70 an hour starts running backwards.  Generally speaking though I do the most that I can to keep everything running concurrently. It is why you'll hear me say I try to run trophies of the same color at the same time and why I prefer to have multiple sets going simultaneously.  Having orders come in early help greatly in keeping everything running smoothly.  

Anyhow, I just wanted to share for anyone who was curious. Feel free to share any questions/comments below.  :)