Very generous of Cameron Moll to share how the breakdown of expenses worked for his Kickstarted Brooklyn Bridge Letterpress Type poster. In short, he raised nearly $65,000 and finished up with just under $5,000 in his pocket and an inventory of 800 remaining posters ready to sell.
Sounds like an incredibly successful campaign to me. For one, he didn’t lose any money on his project (an all-to-common fate, especially when the primary rewards are physical items that must be made and shipped). And secondly, the remaining 800 posters have a retail value of $96,000. In my understanding of Kickstarter, this is exactly how it should work out: you get a project backed so you can make something without taking on external funding (or spending all of your own savings), but that when all is said and done you don’t necessarily walk away with a huge profit, rather you walk away with a manufactured product that’s been bought and paid for and is now ready to sell.
All that to say, I have one of these posters hanging in my office and it’s awesome. Pick one up while they’re on sale and come with a free version of the Booklet (which, trust me, is awesome and just the sort of thing you’d want to have accompany this poster).