Window mounts wanted

WelshFramer · Post by **WelshFramer** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 11:13 am

Would anyone like to quote me for cutting some window mounts?

They need to be A5 size with an aperture approx 100mm square in conservation quality board. A 1400 mic board wwould be OK but something thicker would be better if the price were right.

Initial order would be 100 or 1000 depending on price and how confident my customer feels about selling her limited edition cards.

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 11:21 am

Mike, this is no way a serious response,

but i decided to quote for such a job, just for a laugh.

we cut all our mounts by hand and would be crazy to even accept such a job,

(John) Merlin and Kev would be able to provide a better price..

1 Conservation mount at that size (with barrier board) would be £2.70
100 would be £252.00
1000 would be £2340.00

hope the other guys can provide a much more competitive quote.

Spit · Post by **Spit** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 12:24 pm

I've got a CMC so could do it, price would be £1.10 just for the mount, £2.20 to include another piece for backing. For 100 I could drop it to £2.10, 1000 I'd drop it to £2.00. Plus delivery of course, but we're not too far from each other.......

Edit: After working out how many I could get per sheet, I could actually do it for less than that as 1000 would be a considerable bulk order - 80p each if it is just the mounts, £1.60 includes backing. 90p/£1.80 for a hundred.

So 100 would be £90/£180 with backs
1000 would be £800/£1600 with backs.

WelshFramer · Post by **WelshFramer** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 12:36 pm

Grahame Case wrote:we cut all our mounts by hand and would be crazy to even accept such a job,

That's my position, too.

WelshFramer · Post by **WelshFramer** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 12:41 pm

Spit wrote:I've got a CMC so could do it, price would be £1.10 just for the mount, £2.20 to include another piece for backing. For 100 I could drop it to £2.10, 1000 I'd drop it to £2.00. Plus delivery of course, but we're not too far from each other.......

Many thanks. That's not unreasonable but I suspect it's too expensive for my customer.

She wants to wholesale some cards for around £2.50 each to include a printed and folded card, envelope, window mount, cellophane bag, limited edition print, my profit + her profit.

Anyway, she's coming over this afternoon so I'll put the costings to her and see what she says.

Spit · Post by **Spit** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 12:45 pm

Ah, I've just revised my prices after consideration, see the edit in my previous post.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 3:28 pm

Hi Mike,

I have developed a number of lines of high quality handmade cards and mounted prints (on back burner from a marketing perspective at the moment while I give full attention to developing the framing business). Needless to say, as part of the product development I did extensive costings in order to determine both wholesale and retail pricing for my products. In my considered opinion, your customer's pricing model is way off. If she wants to wholesale at £2.50 in the smaller volumes she is talking about, she should realistically be looking at die-cut card blanks with window apertures for display of her artwork. Even then she should be realistically considering buying at a minimum order quantity of 1000 card blanks to try and shave off every penny possible from the materials cost.

In a nutshell, my advice to her would be either to lower the specification of her product, or if she wishes to keep the current design specification, to spend time revisiting her pricing model. Hope this helps!

By the way, to get industry guide prices for bulk mount purchases, it might be worth contacting some of the larger contract framing outfits like Britannia. That would give your customer a useful pricing benchmark to work with.

WelshFramer · Post by **WelshFramer** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 5:15 pm

Thanks for those thoughts but I think we may be able to get somewhere close to that price. At present I can supply A5 printed cards with envelope and cello bag for 55p each. If we can get the window mounts for around 90p each then that makes £1.45.

Add an A5-ish giclée print on textured fine art paper for about 50p and I can sell them to her for £2 each.

Depends how much profit she wants to make...

Not your average framer · Thu 20 Dec, 2007 5:32 pm

WelshFramer wrote:If we can get the window mounts for around 90p each then that makes £1.45.

Hi Mike,

Check this out with your local Colourmount stockist. Optimat mountboard, sold in 20 sheet packs at £34.08p inc VAT, (that's £1.70 a sheet). Sheets are nuetral pH, cream core, size 32" x 40", it's quite soft and takes ages to blunt your mountcutter blades. Might be what you are looking for!

Spit · Post by **Spit** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 5:59 pm

WelshFramer wrote:If we can get the window mounts for around 90p each then that makes £1.45..

Did you see my edit in my first post, Mike? If it's just the window mount I can do it at 80p-90p depending on quantity.... mind you if I can get them at £1.70 per sheet as per NYAF's suggestion, I could go lower.

zanart · Post by **zanart** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 6:35 pm

Hi

The deal:

Mount card used:
ARQ MB Cons whitecore 1400 micron
either colour 8043(ivory or 8001(white)

Mounts 50p - minimum order 1000

Mounts 60p - minimum order 100.

If you want backing - same quality card would be the same price although I am sure it would be more cost effective for you to cut it yourself.

Price includes VAT

Courier would be £11.95, Turnaround 3-5days after new year.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 6:44 pm

Optimat Cream Core is 'Standard board'. only the surface paper is Ph neutral. The core is mechanically beaten woodpulp. The backing paper is chemically purified pulp.

Initially looks nice, but doesnt take long for the core to yellow. This is not good for Limited Edition cards. We cut mounts for and display/sell cards for one of our local artists. Whilst they do sell because they are **cheap** not expensive, within about two months the local people who have bought them bring them back in to rework the mount with con white core.

However, the lady does insist on this Standard board, no matter how many times we have told her. She could quite easily cover the increase by adding only 10pence to each card sold.

Far too expensive she says. How many times do we hear that from Artists.

To save your lady's name she may have to 'spend to save' and it would only be pennies per mount at the end of the day..

Not your average framer · Thu 20 Dec, 2007 6:52 pm

Merlin wrote:Initially looks nice, but doesnt take long for the core to yellow.

Yes, but you won't get cheaper! It's just a bit nasty too!

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 7:35 pm

Merlin wrote: Far too expensive she says. How many times do we hear that from Artists.

Same down here John. Everything is always far too expensive, except the price of their art!!!

Post by **prospero** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 7:46 pm

I have number of wise old sayings for these situations. My fave one is:

"Would you drink Champagne out of a jamjar"?

But I think the one that applies here is:

"If you don't feed the cat, you end up feeding the mice".

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 8:00 pm

58.19 per 100 last time I checked the "get a price button" on the homepage of my web site

based on an 8x6 acid free white core.

plus VAT, plus backing.... carriage 3.95 flat, over £100 carriage paid.
http://www.frames.uk.com

http://www.frames.uk.com/responders_100 ... quote.html

http://www.merlinframers.co.uk

please feel free to google "picture mounts" and click from there, it does help with google rankings

John and I do loosely co-operate, referring work back and forth, as some jobs he can do more easily and profitably than I, and vice versa. eg he stocks bainbridge, we stock colourmount. We both do Arquadia (but who doesn't lol). Importantly, if you are not VAT registered, John does not add VAT, whereas we do, so obviously you'd be best with John.

on the other hand, you could do a thousand mounts in a couple of evenings by hand yourself, then see if its worth investing in or renting a CMC. Thats what happened to us

lol.

I used to cut, literally, thousands of mounts some weeks on a keencut before getting our wizard.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 8:01 pm

prospero wrote:"If you don't feed the cat, you end up feeding the mice".

That one's going on file!

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Thu 20 Dec, 2007 9:39 pm

kev@frames wrote:We both do Arquadia (but who doesn't lol).

we don't, we deal with Bainbridge Alphamat artcare and a few slater harrison and daler conservation quality boards.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Fri 21 Dec, 2007 1:38 am

Grahame Case wrote:
we don't, we deal with Bainbridge Alphamat artcare and a few slater harrison and daler conservation quality boards.

there is always one

WelshFramer · Post by **WelshFramer** » Fri 21 Dec, 2007 9:44 am

many thanks for all the replies.

My customer has a stall at a trade show in January and I'll be doing a few samples so that she can judge the level of interest. If she decides to go ahead then I'll be in touch with one or more of you towards the end of Jan.