Quote from: BitPappa on June 18, 2014, 05:07:23 PM

Thanks for the interest and the comments. Yes, these may be prohibitively expensive to be a commercial success. I haven't seen anyone name a price that is doable, based on the time/labor involved. And that's totally understandable, to not want to spend much on a keychain!

A little more info -- I'm partnering with a local business to produce these, so the bottom line on the price is largely up to them (the goal is for them to take the orders and produce them, using my keychains as blanks). They would actually handle all aspects of the orders, and I would just supply the blank keychains, and help them get the message out. A CNC machine is used to drill out the holes, and I'm unsure of the exact type of paint they used (curious, davideak, if you have a reason for asking). For those who've been following along, we tried another method to produce custom keychains, but we weren't satisfied with the image durability. That was a lot of effort that didn't produce a marketable product. And then it was a long learning curve figuring out different subtleties of making the QR engraving process work. So what you are seeing in the photo is the result of quite a number of hours (and keychains) spent.

I have some ideas for simplifying the process thus reducing the cost for customized keychains (and perhaps other products), but it will require a completely different manufacturing process to make the keychain blanks. If the idea pans out (and it may not), it would be awhile before the new product is ready to go.

The guys I'm working with on these are very interested in bringing more products like this to market. Their entire business is custom work with lasers and CNC machines, while I've mostly been pursuing the custom products with the goal of creating products that people in the crypto playground want (a lot of people have told me they want some version of this product, so I've been trying to make it happen). The production guys have worked out a few lower-cost products, and hope to eventually have a wide selection of custom QR products available.

Perhaps I can figure out a way to for people from this forum to get custom keychains in a group, at a price that's lower than if people just order one-by-one. I'll talk with the guy who would actually be hands-on making these today, and see what quantity/price is doable for him, and talk more about coming to a final standard retail price.

I assume foreign shipping will be available, but keep in mind that shipments with even basic tracking using the U.S. Postal Service to some countries (with delivery by your local postal service) can add a lot to the cost. I'll come back with more info.

I also have some non-customize products along these lines I also hope to bring to market, and those would benefit from the cheap prices that mass-production allows.

Thanks again, all, and please keep your thoughts coming. My day job has me pretty busy right now, and I will have to talk to the production guys to work out more pricing and shipping details, so I probably will not be back on to update for a bit.

EDIT: gondel, yes, these QR codes scan! And your offered price is much closer to doable (well, depending on the price of BTC).

Please let me know when you are ready to take orders. I'd be wiling to spend $20-30.