In March of 2011, on the MARCH Yahoo Forum, I suggested that having a PCB fab build a batch of reproduction boards for the MARK-8 would cost a small fortune.

Perhaps I should follow my own advice. In Feburary of 2013, I invested a small fortune in a similar project, the SCELBI-8H. It has taken over 2 years to sell 19 pcb sets for the SCELBI-8H and SCELBI-8B. I’ve kept track of my investment in PCBs, as well as all the other components and materials that it took to build a working example of each system. Despite selling individual boards for a profit over their cost, I can honestly report that the overall project has cost me a significant amount of money. Now this investment has been worth every cent, but almost entirely due to the fun that I’ve had and friends that I’ve made, not due to any financial reward.

Now it’s possible that after a few more years of selling SCELBI PCBs, I’ll have managed to break even on the project, but it will always be a work of passion, not profit.

Many retro products only come to the market for a short period of time and then disappear. I believe that this is due to the tiny market and low profit realized. Once you have built something, the excitement of creation is replaced by the routine work of handling inquiries, ordering parts, packing, shipping products and supporting customers. If you are only making a few dollars and would rather be spending your spare time on a new project, it is easy to see why new batches are not made once inventory is sold off. It wouldn’t surprise me that some products are pulled off the market, even when the inventory still exists, just because the developer just doesn’t want to deal with the hassle.

There are a few products that seem to have defied the odds – but they are very few in number. An example is the series of CFFA cards for the Apple ][ computer. Rich Dreher routinely makes and sells batches of hundreds of them. The numbers of units he sells, absolutely amaze me. He also has an Apple 1 version of this card, but according to his web site, it appears that he has only sold a little over half of a batch of 200 that were made two years ago. I wonder if he will make another batch of the Apple 1 version, when the current batch is finally sold. Vince Briel has had some very good success with his vintage work-alike kits, but I don’t think it’s enough for him to live on. Just doing a little basic math shows how how many would need to be sold to make a living at it. A Replica 1 kit currently lists for $149. Assume that you could make $75 per kit after costs. Then, assume you needed a $100,000 annual income, which is a fairly low income for an experienced engineer. Then divide the annual income requirement by the $75 revenue from each kit. The result would be a minimum of 1333 kits sold. Then, keep in mind that you would have to do that year after year in order to sustain a business. I just don’t think that the market is that large. In fact, Frank Achatz had a similar product to the Replica-1 on the market for a while called the A-ONE. It appears that he quit selling them and closed down his website a while back, which should tell you something about how difficult it is to either have fun or make a decent profit selling vintage kits.