What is an average run on a published game?

The normal thinking is to produce as many games as is economically feasible. I.E. You might only think you can reasonably sell 1000, but it may not be cost effective to produce any less than 5000. The cost difference in producing 1000 compared to 5000 may only be a fraction per unit, so it makes more sense to go ahead and get the higher quantity and hope for the best.

The best thing to do is when you get costs to manufacture, ask for quotes for various quantities; 500,1000,2500, 5000, etc and then make an analysis based upon cost per unit. Another thing to consider is the cost of storing unsold units. Even if they're in your garage, you need to come up with a reasonable cost per month to store them (although that cost might be neglible if stored at your home) and figure that into your cost per unit (take into account how long you think it will be before you sell them all).

Hope this helps.
-Darke

Some good numbers from a few years back:

http://www.spielboy.com/printrun.php

(obviously skip the first chart)

-- Matthew