Tiny Details - Handcrafted Dollhouse Miniatures

How much can I make?

There is no limit on the amount of money you can make!

We will buy from you as many correctly assembled product sets as you care to make from our kits!

Since some of our kits are more time consuming than others, they fetch a higher price. We currently have kits that we will buy for $50 to $200. So, the amount of money you make can be more if you make kits that take more time.

We estimate that you should be making about $10 per hour once you get up to speed making an item. Though most of our assemblers work part-time and make under $200/week, there is the potential to make $400-500 per 40-hour week or more if you work more.

Remember that you can work on as many kits as you like at one time. You can be working on one, two or 10 kits at a time!

However, if you've never made miniatures before, we encourage you to start with 5 or fewer kits to be sure that making miniatures is something you will enjoy. After all, having kits out that are not being assembled does not make money for you or Tiny Details.

If you want to make more than 5 kits at a time, we ask that you make products that are in high demand. High demand products are any book (our biggest sellers) and any product marked "new" on the product page.

It is likely that you have all the skills to make any of our products:

1. You must be able to read and follow our instructions.
   
   
2. You must have good enough eyesight, since our products are all miniatures and are 1/12^th the size of the real object.
   
   Many people like to work with a good magnifying glass, or scissors instead of the knifes we supply, but neither of them is required! All of the people at Tiny Details that make the samples in the kits have glasses and do not use a magnifying glass or scissors.
   
   
3. You must have a steady hand since many of the products require cutting things out of paper, folding and gluing them.

Most people are eager to get going and to get paid!

Tiny Details buys products every business day. The checks are sent out on the same day or the next day after the kit has been accepted. It can take from 2 to 6 days for us to accept a kit depending upon the workload at the time. Sometimes it is faster and sometimes slower. Remember that it will take some additional time for the check to reach you in the mail.

How long does it take to get a kit?

It usually takes us 1 to 3 business days to process a kit request and get it into the mail to you. Occasionally, a part for a kit will be out of stock and that can cause a delay in shipping. If the delay will be a long one, we will ship you a similar kit to the one you ordered, if a similar one is available.

Tiny Details uses the U. S. Post Office to send our kits, so there may be delays which we cannot control. All kits come from the Syracuse, New York area. Thus, kits going to the far west may take a week or more to go through the mail.

If you pay the $4.85 fee to use Priority Mail for the shipping of a kit, then the post office says that it takes from 2 to 3 days to get anywhere in the continental U.S. Our experience with this is that it is usually very fast. We have had a few occasions (about 1 in 500 packages) where it took much longer than the 2 to 3 days.

How are mistakes handled?

No one works error free. That is why we supply extra materials with each kit. So, a kit that makes 100 pieces will contain enough materials to make 104 to 162 pieces. There is also an order form in each kit to order free extra materials if you need them!

How long do I have to complete a set?

You have 60 days from the postmark date on the kit we send you. You must send your final completed set(s) postmarked no later than 60 days from our postmark. We have wholesale distributors and retailers that are depending on us to fill their orders in a timely manner. The 60-day limit allows us to plan on having stock when we say we will and to provide other assemblers with the opportunity to assemble products that others choose not to assemble.

What are the limits on how much money I can make?

There is no limit to the number of kits you can have at one time! We will buy one correctly assembled product set that you make from each kit!

How long does it take to make a kit?

It really depends upon the individual doing the work.

The most talented people can complete a set in a few hours. That's a lot better than a minimum wage job, and you have the ease and flexibility of working any time of the day or night right at home.

Generally, we believe that any of our kits can be assembled in a day. But, some people do take their time. Remember that you do have 60 days to complete a kit, so it doesn't have to be done in one sitting.

How do these $55 deposits work?

The $55 deposit is confusing to many people because we do things a little differently than most work-at-home companies.

The $55 is a deposit, meaning that it is returned to you when you complete the work correctly. It is NOT a FEE, which is what many other companies require. We don't sell you the materials to make our products. Rather, we charge a deposit which insures that we'll get them back.

To go a bit further, say that you want to assemble one of our books that we buy for $50 for a correctly completed set of 50 books. You send us $55. We send you the materials and any thing else needed to complete the work. You send us back the beautifully made books. We send you back your $55 deposit, PLUS the $50 for the books, PLUS up to $4 for your postage.

If you wish to make more products, you can tell us to keep your deposit on file when you send in your completed set. Then, we send you a new kit of your choice to make.

You can think of the $55 deposits just like the security deposits when you rent an apartment. If you rent two apartments you have to have two security deposits. If you rent an apartment for one year, you can use that deposit for the next year. So, when you have two of our kits out at the same time, you have to have two deposits. And, when you complete a kit and want another one, you can use the deposit for the completed kit for the new kit.

How are products checked for quality?

When your products come back to Tiny Details, we open your package and pull out a hand-full of them to check. We do not examine each and every one. If these check out fine, then a request is made for your check and deposit refund or new kit(s) to be sent out. The checks are usually written the next day and the new kits are treated just like another order for a kit.

When a kit has problems that need correction, the checker may take one or more bags of the products that have the problems and attach them to a "Product Submission Evaluation Report" that gives the details about what is wrong. Then you will be able to look at the attached bags and understand what to do to make corrections. You only need to correct any problems. You do not need to remake or fix any of the good ones! You can then send the kit in again. If you need any additional materials to fix the problem, remember that they are FREE!

What about taxes?

There are no taxes withheld by Tiny Details. Federal law requires us to obtain your Social Security Number before we can buy more than $600 from you in a single year. The law requires us to use that Social Security Number to report the total we bought from you for the year to the IRS at the end of the year.

Why don't you have this work done overseas? It would be cheaper, wouldn't it?

We have attempted that in the past, however there are several factors that have made us choose to use only American workers:

1. We like being able to say that our products are assembled in America by Americans.
2. Getting work done off-shore (overseas) is less costly for the labor. But there a many other costs that go up: Shipping, communication, and duty for importation.
3. Our experience is that the quality is not as good.
4. It is difficult, if not impossible, to guarantee when products will arrive.
5. The amount of any given item we make is probably too small to warrant doing it this way. If we were making millions of each product, the savings in labor cost might make sense, but we only make thousands of each product.
6. Working off-shore has language problems that we have found to be difficult.
7. In fact, until September of 2003, we allowed Canadian workers, but even working with our neighbors to the north was more trouble than it was worth.

How can I find out more about miniatures in general and the miniature business you're in specifically?

So many people wonder about this that we've created a whole page that tells you all about The Business of Miniatures.

How many kits can I have at one time?

We don't have a limit. But you must have a deposit for each one. If you intend to order more than 5 kits at one time, we may also restrict you to certain products for which we need high volume production. These products are any book (our biggest sellers) and any product marked "new" on the product page.