Phil Pfeifer owns a business refurbishing Army Surplus calculators. He has a contract to buy the calculators from government sources and could purchase up to5,810a month. His bid of$5.80per calculator had won the contract to purchase the surplus calculators. He invested$41,600in an automated engraving machine and started selling personalized calculators through a network of army surplus stores and VFW posts.

Pricing was a problem, however. First he had to consider that, on average, his resellers charged52%margins and were content to sell at his recommended retail prices as long as they received their margins. Second, he thought it cost him$1.24in labor and materials to engrave customized messages. For several months he sold an average of1,070calculators per month at a retail selling price of$32per customized calculator. His wife suggested he could watch more lacrosse if he charged higher prices and sold fewer calculators. Phil raised the price to$43and saw the number of calculators sold drop to680.

How much total dollar contribution to fixed cost (aka gross margin) did Phil make selling calculators at his original price in a month?