Empty .22LR Casing Bracelets For Rich Hipsters

Semi-acceptable at first glance I suppose:

BRZN is a collection of bullet casing jewelry. The bracelets are made with .22lr bullet casings, colorful camo paracord and wire. Each piece is handcrafted with a combination of new and sustainable materials to create something rugged, fun, eye-catching and different.There are over twenty styles of paracord available in two bullet casing colors.

A couple of .22LR brass casings, some paracord with a bendable wire inside for rigidity.  Meh… if you like the look not bad right?  Sure until you look at the price: $49  I shit you not.

Lets break down the costs incurred by this enterprising young man (from Chicago no less):

  • .22LR brass (free unless you’re an idiot)
  • 6″ of 550 paracord (worth around $0.05 at retail price)
  • 6″ of bendable craft wire (I’ll generously say this is worth $0.05 as well)
  • Miscellaneous item that keeps wire inside the .22LR brass (I’ll give this a generous estimate of $0.10)
  • Labor (Heck lets be generous again and say this guy’s time is worth $60 per hour and he can do one every minute… so labor cost per item is $1)

——————
Total Cost: $1.20

Yea that’s a $1.20 cost (but likely much less) on a $49 item, and to add insult to injury he won’t even ship the damn things for free.

Looking at his Etsy sales he has sold 25 of these since his store opened on September 6th of this year.  Now that’s not a lot, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a complete failure either considering he pulled in $1225….. $1195 of which was profit.  That’s a decent amount of beer money (or in his case possibly a few cases of low fat coconut water infused with chai extract and lingonberry vapor.) *slow clap*

Head over to his Etsy store BRZN for the goods.

Thoughts?


Comments

19 responses to “Empty .22LR Casing Bracelets For Rich Hipsters”

  1. I’ll guess that the item holding the cord in the casing is hot glue, just so they can crank them out cheaper and faster than your generous estimate. These are just in time for the new Call of Duty game.

  2. he could at least use a cool/strange case… 5.7×28 or 4.6×30 but that would be harder to come by…

  3. a combination of new and sustainable materials …..

    actually, isn’t he just preventing the brass from being recycled?

  4. Clearly if he was going to use .22, he needed to get the .22 Eargensplitten Loudenboomer. Yes, that’s a real round. Look it up.

  5. WTF??? Why is it that everybody has to shit on capitalism and entrepreneurship these days?

    This is what is wrong with America!!!

    1. probably because the guy wasnt happy ripping people off for ten times what it cost to make at a mere $12 and wanted to be a 1%er, which is what is wrong with America these days.

      1. God damn you have to be one shrewd mother fucker do try and charge people $50 for that. It’s a neat idea and I have half a mind to make an Etsy and start doing these myself for half the price just to spite him. Or hell, even make an instructable about it, showing how easy it is to DIY that shit and post it in the comments of his page.

        On the other hand, maybe he is trying to offset the cost of purchasing an olympic single shot .22 target pistol since it’s the only gun that’s “not a weapon of murder and genocide” and is therefore PC and holy enough to use for art purposes.

    2. whoa, i’m all about capitalism. i’ll gladly exchange my time for cash and that cash for goods/services.

      unless those goods or services are stupid as balls. then i’ll mock you on the internutts.

  6. While I got mad about the shitting on of the artist in the above post, I think the criticism of this is totally warranted (not that my opinion matters; its like an ass etc etc)
    This isn’t art, this is ripping people off who don’t know any better (because anyone who actually knew something about firearms would know that the cost of this thing is miniscule compared to the cost of manufacture)
    Since they don’t know any better and aren’t bothering to research it, one could theorize that they *are* just buying it to be edgy.
    And that looks like the CCI ‘C’ on the bottom of the case, he can’t even be bothered to get some kind of cooler .22 cases like Aguila

  7. Hard_Harry Avatar

    Hipster art-fags strike again! Some of the most “OMG gun stuff” people trying to make a buck off of the gun culture. And the amount of coin this guy is charging, yeah that’s obscene Wall street kind of pricing.

  8. I have to give the creator credit.

    Think about making 1k+% off of selling a gun. Would you complain if you could sell it to someone who can legally own one? Or would you think “What an f’ing fool!?” and pocket the money?

    An example would be living on Long Island after Sandy. I have a spare 1911, holster and ammo that I’m willing to sell. The 1911 costs about $400-$750 normally . The guy down the street, I think is clean, offers me $10K cash because he didn’t think to prepare. Am I a thief?

    Buying something like this is a choice. I have to give a thumbs up to the original creator for realizing that a sucker is born every minute.

    1. Something is worth exactly what a buyer will pay and a sell will sell for. If someone wants to pay $50 for an easily made bracelet or $10k for a handgun that just further shows that a fool and his money are soon parted. Letting people choose what to spend their money on leads to individuals making dumb choices.

  9. I noticed that the artist is from Chicago – I would imagine that even .22lr casings are quite difficult to come by legally there, hence the high price.

    Or not.

  10. Dude, you are seriously on a roll with epic burns! And I can’t believe that many people actually paid for these things!

  11. SittingDown Avatar
    SittingDown

    Go big or go home: .50 BMG casing hracelets. One size fits all. Or not.

  12. Yeah… That’s one thing I hate about Etsy. Some shit on there… I’ve broken down by cost. Like some of those “Vintage Style Lamps” with exposed bulbs…

    $5 for this, $10 for that, $6 here, $2 there…

    At the end of the day the total cost of materials was something like $200(For 8 of these damn lamps) and this guy was selling em for a couple hundred a piece. You’ll see that everywhere.. I’m just gonna start tumbling spent brass and hot glue gun some birth stones at the end of the casing and watch the orders roll in… “High Polish, High Class, High Power Birth Stone Ammo (Inert) – Hand crafted, elegant design not found in department stores” – Gets those hipsters every time…

  13. You guys should buy one…then try to make one and see how it goes!

  14. 6off72 Avatar

    Bumpin a dead post, but…

    My girl bought one of these “bracelets” a few weeks ago from brzns shop against my better judgement…total crap…it fell apart after about a week of steady wearing it (and it was that cheapo Wallymart polyester “550 cord”, not legit nylon paracord). Looks like this guy melted the “Chinacord” and put the (tarnished!) casing on the end while the cord was still molten. Damn casing fell off and she wasn’t even doing anything active. $49 + shipping for a piece of junk, shipped out in a trendy little branded bag and gift box that looks to be yet another imported product. Couple other people sellin the same thing now. I think one guy is near me cause Ive seen his work in local shops but from what theyre saying, they actually use an epoxy and legit 550 cord and for a fraction of the cost.

    We tried emailing brzn about the problem (ie. defective merchandise, poor quality and construction)…we’re still waiting on a response. Pseudo-Capitalist azzclowns like this guy need to go play kissyface with rabid honey-badgers.

    This guy may have some purchases on his store but they’re clearly not meant to be used, only admired for how “pretty” and “ohhhh that’s soooo cool” they are… Trendy little hipster fail.

  15. I make these and they sure as hell don’t cost that much to make! I mean yes my time is precious so I don’t give them away but I could prolly make around 50 in a hour! And it is extremely hard to get .22 casings around here if you can at all! Also depending on the type
    If wire used and how often it is worn and bent opened and closed its obliviously eventually going get work out and maybe even break just like a necklace or another bracelet but dang 50 bucks for one is insane!!