
Designing a Car Trash Can and Making $15k/month - patwalls
https://starterstory.com/stories/carbage-can
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guildenstern
The creator doesn’t mention that one of his marketing strategies is email spam
(his mailchimp account was suspended following abuse reports).

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antsar
Source? I don't doubt your claim; just curious how you know this.

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guildenstern
I received their spam, reported it to mailchimp (their provider) and was told
that they were suspended.

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weaksauce
was it out of the blue or did you sign up for something at some point?

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guildenstern
Out of the blue. I am very careful about what I sign up for, I don’t have a
car nor can I find any previous emails from the person involved (going back
ten years). There’s no chance I signed up to a mailing list for a car
accessory — and just in case I had somehow subscribed (maybe through another
product they offer) I asked how they got my email address and they didn’t
respond which is a tell tale sign of a spammer. My email address _was_
included in a database leak from Kickstarter in 2014, so I am almost certain
they have been spamming everybody from the Kickstarter database leak.

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weaksauce
the kickstarter leak makes sense. that's very unethical behavior that should
not be rewarded.

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barbegal
Based on the category ranking on Amazon of the Carbage Can it looks like he
sells ~250 a month which at $20 equates to $5k a month in sales. This could
easily equate to the $15k he claims in November/December. Total yearly sales
could be around the $80k mark.

Assuming he makes $8, 40% margin, on each unit then that's $32k of profit each
year. Capital costs for manufacturing are around $20k. Assuming the capital
costs are amortised over 3 years, that's $25k of income each year which isn't
great but you can live off it. If you were designing a new product like this
every year, then it could make a healthy business.

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teh_klev
I wonder how long before he's put out of business by Amazon sold Chinese
counterfeits undercutting him:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12061288](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12061288)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16498013](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16498013)

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rootusrootus
They may forget the floot mat clips, though.

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pavel_lishin
And as a result, there's a nonzero chance of an unhappy knock-off purchaser
accidentally leaving a bad review on the original, bonafide product page.

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jfim
> To give an idea on the profit for Carbage Can, we’ll keep it simple:

> To manufacture, $2.50.

> Amazon FBA fee 6.90.

> And we’ll throw in 1.00 for Marketing PPC.

> That’s 10.40 per unit.

> I sell for 16.95.

Interesting that the Amazon cut is 40% of the retail price, while the
manufacturing cost is less than 15%.

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fipple
The Amazon FBA fee includes shipping cost which is greater than manufacturing
cost for zillions of products.

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overcast
Sorry, but a garbage can for your car? Bravo for the success, but this HAS to
be only for people who buy all of the "As Seen on TV" garbage.

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fipple
Do you have kids? Kids cause huge amounts of garbage to pile up in cars.

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overcast
Clean up after them? I don't understand the responses here.

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fipple
Yeah, by putting the trash they create, into a garbage bin that mounts to the
floor of my car... I am a target customer for this and no amount of head-
shaking is going to make me feel bad about it.

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overcast
So you only put non organic trash in there right? Because it's going to make
your car stink pretty damn fast baking in it.

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Justin_K
I don't believe he is selling 750 pieces per month and has that few reviews.

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giarc
Keep in mind $15k is the top month, not the median or average.

As well, although debatable, there are some that say 50% of Amazon reviews are
fake/paid for. So perhaps he hasn't gone this route and therefore doesn't have
what is the artificially high level of expected reviews.

~~~
overcast
[https://www.fakespot.com/product/carbage-
can](https://www.fakespot.com/product/carbage-can) gives it a B, so looks like
relatively low fake nonsense going on review wise.

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symlinkk
$15k a month for a trash can with clips on the bottom. I need to put some of
my ideas on Kickstarter, I had no clue the bar was this low.

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HeyLaughingBoy
The bar, my friend, is far lower. At least this product is somewhat useful.

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dice
"floot mat clips"

Needs a copywriter...

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fencepost
At $20 it's a relatively cheap option, probably better than a plastic grocery
bag (probably with a hole), and nicer than some of the pouches, etc that I've
seen that attach to the back of a seat using a strap around the headrest. The
fact that it's waterproof is a plus if you have drink containers.

Worth $20? Maybe. Making $15k/month on it? Not sure I see that being
sustainable.

I put this in the same category as the Totasak.

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jonathandz
Why create a Kickstarter for 1.7 k if you make 15k a month. I call bs.

