Pricing sports shirts

[anji]

Please could anyone give me an idea what they charge for framing a football shirt? I've been asked to do one (my first) and know that they had another one done recently (at a 'proper shop') for £70. Sounds like a lot of work for not much return - what do you think?

[Jonny2morsos]

To do properly £70 is far too little.

We hand sew the shirt around a foamboard former and then hand sew to a backing board. The top mount(s) are then spaced 10mm above using foamboard strips. I reckon on £50 for doing the preparation of the shirt plus the normal cost of the frame which in most cases works out around £100.

So it is a £150 job but you do need to emphasise the fact you are doing it in a correct manner and not harming the item being framed. With one of our jobs you could take it out undo the stitches and wear the shirt again or reframe it.

If someone in your area is prepared to do it for £70 let them have the business and keep the quality jobs for yourself.

Don't be afraid of turning business away if it is not profitable.

John.

[barton]

We charge normal frame price, plus £70 for mounting the shirt, ie hand stitch to foam board cut to size.

Think this one was circa £220




But if people would like the cheap option, no mounts and up to the glass, could be as little as £99, but as John says, doing things properly £70 is way too low.

[Not your average framer]

How can you do a decent job for £70 and still make a proper living? Have you seen an example of what sort of job they are doing for this price? Don't even think about it, it's not worth doing for so little profit on your time, labour and materials.

I've just done a rush one for Christmas and I charged £120, because the customer needed to keep the price down. Our normal price range is from £120 (a good quality basic, but nice job) to about £200 (our stunning special which is stretched on a moulded male torso, including muscles showing through the shirt). As you would expect everything is quality materials and done by the book, nothing is left to chance and the result is always stunning.

Sometimes, I may offer our "£100 football shirt special". It's very basic, but it looks not bad. However the customer is told that it is not my normal method, it is NOT conservation framed and the choice of materials is limited by the price. The shirt is secured in place by the velcro only. That's it take it or leave it! It's a cheap job and it will NOT have my label on the back.

The shirt is stretched over a basic white core mountboard former, with mountboard inserts inside the sleeves and another piece of mountboard behind the shirt. Unless I can't avoid it, there is normally no stitching on a job for such a low price, but I'm good getting the right size for the former and the sleeve inserts, folding the shirt and using the tag gun so that the tags won't show!

I fasten the rear mountboard in place with a tag gun and put my hand inside the front of the shirt to tape over the tag ends so they don't show through the shirt. The piece of mountboard at the rear has four pieces of velcro fixed to the back, which are then stapled through this rear piece of mountboard and the staples at the front of this mountboard are taped over with Linco aluminium barrier tape. This is to protect the shirt in the event of any rust forming on the staples.

The inside of the frame is backed with mountboard including velcro and staples. I use a black painted moulding, which is cut and joined on it's side to act as a spacer. For this price the customer gets a very limited choice of mountboard backing colours, there is no window mount and the frame size is limited to avoid using jumbo size mountboard. If the shirt is too big, too bad, the sleeves get folded behind and you can't see them.

With practice and no interruptions, it is possible to do the whole job in about an hour and twenty minutes.

[anji]

Thank you all for that. The method you all describe is the way I was taught, so you've reassured me. I haven't actually seen the one that was already done, but would want to have a look at it. As this is for a friend's son, I may do it as a practise piece and then the next time I'm asked I can charge a realistic price with confidence.

[Jonny2morsos]

How about going down to your local Sports'R'Us store and buying a cheap footy shirt and practice on that first. You can then keep it to show future customers. Also if you get photos of each stage you can show the technique and care you take to justify the price charged.

John.