I’ll be the first. I think you might be crazy…
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I don’t think you are crazy. If you are in a business to make money then you need to account for all your time, effort, materials and so on. It also depends on uniqueness and supply and demand. If what you are doing is perceived as “easy and anyone can do it” then the market will not bear much. On the other hand if what you have is in high demand and you have something unique then absolutely the market will bear more.
You also need to look at it from the hobbyist point of view vs full time professional. Perhaps that has some impact.
Art work is very very very subjective, what one person will overlook as trivial, another may look at in wonder… each one will pay on an entirely different scale.
I think too that we tend to undervalue what we produce if a sale is planned for the piece simply because we look at “what did it cost me to make this”, not so much “what do I think someone would be willing to pay for this”. Not an easy question to answer and there is certainly more than one…
Enough outta me… Time to cut something 
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One main problem with this is, and I get in discussions with my wife about this topic as well, that I agree that your programming/design time, fixturing/workholding call it “set up” time, machine time, finishing, even experience, etc… you should be paid for through a project. In a perfect world, yes I agree… The thing is, its not… and your neighbor may be retired military making several thousand dollars a month with their shapeoko in the garage and not charging for programming/design, which for me is probably the most time consuming since I seem to only do one off jobs, which drives your price way down. Someone said something of 40 dollars an hour for human time, I dont think I would make a sell doing that and its not because I am slow by any means but one off jobs just take time. Another factor for me is where I live, its a 100,000 population town and people dont want to pay for anything… Hardwoods and exotic hardwoods are expensive but the market is flooded with freaking stained pine 
and still marked up, some of this is ignorance on the customers part (not their fault persay) and they also just dont care lol… I am starting to get a small foothold around my town but getting there has meant I make little more than breaking even, my wife doesnt agree with this strategy but Id rather make a little and gain experience than make nothing and sit on the couch. I believe your sign looks good and I understand the work and investment that goes into that sort of thing but I wouldnt be able to sell it for maybe 1/5 of the 1000 you mentioned but a lot of that has to do with where I live.
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Ha, sounds like a lot of us have had this discussion with ourselves, wives, etc. For me, as I approach retirement and seriously consider the prospect of having some real time to spend in the shop and possibly make a few bucks on the side (and maybe defray some of the costs I have in projects), this has been a real consideration. I agree that materials, time, etc. all play a role in determining price. And certainly the consideration of “what the market would bear” is another consideration. What is often not considered is the “skill” and “expertise” of the crafts-person. Some people don’t care about that, but I think it is worth consideration. I’ve seen some really crappy looking stuff on display at various market venues and tourist traps–and people will often buy that stuff at what I would consider is a marked-up price just to say they “bought this while on vacation from a local artist.”
For me, it comes down to doing a little research on what is selling, what people will buy or want to buy, where you are going to sell your work, etc. I talked to a fellow about a month ago at the Tampa woodshow who claimed to have regularly made a couple of grand a month off of stuff he made and sold at farmers’ markets, craft shows, festivals, etc. He mostly specialized in V-carved signs, plaques, and engraved artwork, all produced on a machine similar to the Shapeoko. He claimed that certain things would sell better at certain venues, and he targeted his production for the week at the venue he planned to spend the day at on the following Saturday/Sunday.
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In my experience, the things that make the most money are either single design multiples (i.e 50 coasters for a business or wedding) or something big, that has been v carved. V Carving a sign is great as it is very quick, and requires no sanding.
As some examples:
I made a beautiful clock (as a wedding gift), took me about half an hour to design, 4 hours machine time and 10+ hours of finishing. I could probably sell it for $200 max… zero profit in that.
A simple V-carved sign that says ‘Love’ or ‘Happiness’ or similar, takes about half an hour to design, maybe 20 minutes machine time, and 1 hour to finish. sells for less but much quicker to pump out in bulk.
I’d price your sign at around $100-150 depending on the market. people would pay that in my area as there are no other CNC machines in town (that people are using commercially)
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At the end of the day, the ceiling is whatever the market will support, and the floor is defined by how much it would cost to get it elsewhere. Unique designs/creations and one-offs can generally command more $$ because they can’t be had from another source. Customization can possibly command except in our realm, as plenty of others now have CNCs and are willing to sell their stuff pretty cheaply.
My best recommendation for a practical guide is to go look on Etsy for something comparable. I searched “army sign” and found some pretty intricate options for anywhere from $50-$150. Here is an example. And another.
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Your examples make me wonder how difficult it may or may not be to get the rights to reproduce logos…
Or maybe there isn’t much money for lawyers in prosecuting infringement yet… I see that not being the case in the future as more and more people get their hands on 3d printers and CNC routers, etc.
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I mean, if you were an enormous government military agency, how much would you spend on going after people making signs showing allegiance, support, honoring those who served, caskets (mentioned above), etc.?
People usually defend things that are already profitable or where a reputation is on the line. I’m not sure that’s the case here, so likely it’s not worth much effort. Defamation cases and areas like music and movies are counter examples that definitely get the lawyers involved!
Edit: I don’t want to come off like I endorse ignoring these sorts of things… just commenting from a real world perspective of why it might not be enforced.
I made a wooden Honda badge and looked into this while thinking of making a small run for sale. I found someone’s opinion that basically said for small operations, just go ahead until you hear otherwise. Maybe not wise, and perhaps an email request is advised just to be above board. Then cross your fingers and hope no one replies!
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thank you for your input!
Some years back, Fender tried to enforce a copyright infringement case against various guitar makers for making guitars with bodies that were shaped like traditional Fender instruments (Telecaster, Stratocaster, etc). The case was thrown out of court. Recently (last year) Gibson started trying to do the same thing with lawsuits against Paul Reed Smith and Dean guitars because they each had models that either resembled or copied classic Gibson body and headstock shapes. They even went so far as having the Gibson CEO post a video “warning” distributors of competitor instruments of their intent of enforce their “copyrights.” The general line of thinking in both these situations is the companies were less interested in stopping copycatting and more about getting a ruling that would allow them to extract profit from other manufacturers who made lookalike products.
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Fair point. I think the general line still holds: someone is making money or has the potential to make money by taking action. The military going after a hobby CNC-ist doesn’t fit these criteria. Enforcing design patents (or claiming brand confusion if they don’t have any) and going after large players who have taken market share do.
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Not all government and military agencies license their logos the same. A good example is the Army does not allow their logos on flags. The Air Force will charge back royalties if caught without a license and the Marines have their criteria as well. They are different agencies with different rules. I’ve never heard of any of them coming after anyone but don’t assume it won’t happen.
Taking a step back, this topic is about how much that sign is worth. It got derailed a bit on whether or not this particular sign is strictly legal. I answered the actual question by suggesting Etsy as a great frame of reference, then commented on the other items.
Those discussions fall into two categories: 1) if it’s legit to use this emblem and 2) some hinting at if it’s likely one would experience any negative outcomes in practice.
For the first, the answer is super easy: if it’s trademarked or copyrighted, no, you can’t use it unless you obtain permission. For the second, it hinges on how likely it is for a military agency to issue a cease and desist, charge royalties, or straight up prosecute you. To all of those, I’d say “no likely at all” from an intuition standpoint (reasoning above). In addition, the ridiculous number of military signs on Etsy provides empirical evidence that this isn’t enforced, at least the hobbyist level.
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