they used to be really expensive. but since hasbro has started making them and several companies are also making them with licence from hasbro AND the chinese are copying them. you can get them at walmart for like 12 or 15 bucks i think? so i find it hard to pay more than that for one that is the same size but custom made. even the huge detailed custom ones are only bringing a fraction of what they used to. it is really hard to compete with the people in china who can turn them out en-mass on a machine for a dollar an hour
my mom made some cusom pony plushes before and no one wanted to pay enough to cover the cost of the materials and her time. she wound up making what the chinese workers do. about a dollar an hour LOL
Thats quite true that plushies come out of China for next to nothing. They make very large runs with very cheap fabrics, They can knock out thousands in a few hours. They also work for close to nothing. I worked in the clothing industry some years ago, and the "Makers" were given the fabrics /patterns/ etc and instructions to make say 100,00o of them.
I liken this to say a dress from Target ( where there are thousands ) to one from say Burberry or a designer where they item could be "Bespoke" and have only a single one made to order.
There is no comparison, the fabrics are superior, the workmanship is more detailed, IMO its like comparing chalk and cheese.
Then again if you asked Hasbro to make a single one plush instead of a run of 100000 then that too would cost the earth, since alot of the price goes into the pattern making, and the time spent designing, sourcing fabrics etc. If you make 100000 of them then that time can be apportioned over the whole run and the end price will be cheap.
@mlp2sell we use to manufacture clothing offshore years ago for sale here in Australia. Our runs were about 500 pieces, many times buyers said ' Oh but we can get similar in target for half the price" . Many did not understand that quantities come into play as do fabrics, time, place of manufacture etc. I can well understand why your Mum had the same issue. At the end of the day, custom bespoke plush are nothing like what is mass manufactured, though sadly many don't realise the differences, all they see is a $15 plush in Target and think that it is the same when it is far from it.
@Skeen I think its more a case of not realising what actually goes into making a single "Bespoke" type plush. From the designing to the cutting to sewing, I imagine it would take you days/months. How long does it usually take?
