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Why building your own Corn Hole Boards is a bad idea

Posted by Jay on 1st Oct 2015

“Why would I buy a set of Corn Hole Boards, when I can build them myself?” Inevitably this question gets raised all of the time, and admittedly isn’t good for our business. While building a set of corn hole boards is not difficult, it is time consuming, and the raw materials can end up costing as much or more than a set made by a corn hole company. In the coming paragraph, I will break down a cost analysis for building your own corn hole board set.

I will start by saying this already assumes you have all of the necessary tools to complete the project (i.e. table, chop or hand saw (hand saw is not recommended), nail gun or hammer, 6 inch hole saw, drill and wood bits). These are some of the basic tools required, there are others that can make life easier, but are not necessary. Assuming you have all of your equipment, now it is time to buy your raw materials. These prices will fluctuate, but for this example I used the minimum quality wood required. Materials required are 4 2x4’s 96 inches @ $3.00 each (these are #2 yellow pine, All American Tailgate uses premium spruce 2x4’s these would run about $4.50 each), 1 sheet of ½ inch hardwood plywood (4x8) @ $35.00 (you will only use half, but this is the cheapest way to buy it), 8 screws and a box of finishing nails, of which you will only use 16 @ $3.00 for all of them (you would have to by an entire box of finishing nails, but I am assuming you would use them later), wood glue and putty @ $5.00, and 4 3/8x4 inch carriage bolts and matching wing nuts @ 1.00 each set. If you are keeping track, the total for these materials is $59. With tax, you would be at $62.84 (for a sales tax of 6.5%).

At this point you may be saying to yourself, “this isn’t helping your case, a non-painted corn hole set cost $74.99 on AllAmericanTailgate.com.” With these materials you would be making an inferior set to what we build in house and I used the best possible pricing. Included with our sets is a set of 8 bags, which would cost $18 if purchased separately. That puts your grand total at $80. Then you have to ask yourself how valuable is your time, one thing that often gets over looked is the value of your own labor. Would you work for 8 dollars an hour? 10? 20? At minimum it would take 6 hours to acquire the materials and build your set of corn hole boards. At a wage of $8 per hour, your labor is worth $48. This well exceeds the price of a corn hole board with labor and materials.

The point I am making is simple, use your time for fun activities or more costly ones. Such as building a back patio or fixing a leaky sink. These home projects are worth spending your time on, not building some corn hole boards, leave that to All American Tailgate.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or just want to correct my spelling and grammar you can contact us HERE.

Thank you for reading our blog,

The All American Tailgate Team