Details about Pricing

Our cost formula: materials + labor (by the hour) + business fee + shipping

1. Let us know your budget

There’s a range of possibilities for any garment. Depending on what you need, there’s probably a $60 version and a $600 version - the difference is in details, quality/price of materials, and just how “perfect” you want the piece to be. But, remember, even our less-than-perfect is going to be higher quality and last longer than your average mass-produced store version. If you tell us your budget for a project, we will work with you on the version of your piece that we can create within that budget.

• We do not up-charge the cost of materials you order for your project, and we will be happy to share receipts for any materials we order for you.

• We charge a 10% business fee on all orders, which goes toward things like communicating with clients, running our website, and all the other “extras” that go into each piece. If your piece is $100 for example, your business charge will be $10.

• Our hourly rate ranges between $15/hr and $45/hr depending on the expertise required for each part of your piece.

  • Our standard hourly rate is $26.50/hour, calculated based on fair living wages and artisan prices in a variety of areas where we have friends and clients. For certain types of work, we may charge less or more per hour based on the expertise called for, sales, coupons, etc.

    • We believe that $15/hour is a minimum living wage for our core and guest artists, and expert skills deserve a higher wage

2. We are not a corporate entity

WizardKits is run by real, regular people on the other side of this screen. Don’t think of us like you think of am$zon or other big box sources - we are literally here to work with you, and we want you to have our work. We are solidly on team You Having A Cool Thing, so please communicate with us honestly and we can help figure out ways to remove obstacles to your access!

• We start your project when we get the order - and we’re usually working about two weeks to a month out. Depending on the size/complexity of your project, and our schedule, we may be able to put a rush on your order
  

3. payment plans

Check out our Payment Plans page for more specifics, but here’s the deal: unless it’s a huge rush item and we don’t know you yet, you’ll never have to pay for the full thing up front. We are delighted to work out weekly or monthly plans that suit your situation.

4. What Affects the Cost of a Piece?

Great question, Imaginary Person that I am Typing To! We have sold pieces ranging from $75-$850+. Here are some things to think about.

• Materials we do our best to hunt sales for you and purchase materials at the best prices we can find. An average corset can use between 1 and 2 shoulders of leather (or 1-2 small hides) which ring in at a minimum of $40-$60 just for the leather. Add to that paint, dye, beading, and labor time and you can see how it adds up. A simpler design will always cost less, but we’d be hard-put to make a decent corset for less than $150

• Complexity affects how much time the project calls for, which affects how much time we pay our artists. For example, a simple corset will have less curve to the cut and fewer pieces (think a Ren Faire bodice with 2-4 seams and a triangular shape to the torso, while still giving the bust a great “shelf” effect). On the other hand, a true hourglass corset will have more complicated seams, more intense patterning needs, and more pieces total (think about the difference between hand-stitching 4 seams into heavy leather, or hand-stitching 16 seams into heavy leather).

• How unique is your project? If we have already created a base pattern similar to the thing you want, we might be able to make that project slightly more cheaply. If your idea is completely unique and we’ve never made anything like it before - I mean, yay, we love that - chances are it also may cost more because of the time that will be put into engineering, original patterning, and all the other details that go into making something no one has seen before

5. How do we choose our prices?

It’s actually a pretty simple formula. We charge an hourly rate for the actual labor involved (and you will receive a log of hours with your invoice). We charge the flat amount that we paid for your materials, which may include shipping if we had to order materials online. We charge sales tax by necessity. And, we charge a small (flat) business fee to all projects, which applies to things like keeping our website and social media running, the time/labor that goes into answering messages and email, designing, planning, communicating, the accountant who does our taxes, etc. We do NOT do any upcharging on materials or labor - your money goes directly to the artists who do the work, with a tiny bit going towards regular business costs.

6. The Hill we Will die on

We will never high-ball or up-charge you, as the client; we will always tell you exactly what we can create for your budget. On the flip side, we will also never low-ball our artists, or give their work away for less than they are worth. If your budget and your project just don’t match (let’s say you want a full leather corset with beading for $100, which probably barely covers the cost of materials), we’ll probably recommend that we look at payment plans together and figure out an alternative that meets both our goals - paying our artists a survivable wage, AND getting you the piece of your dreams.