The average consumer walking in a retail frame shop has no concept that they've got walked in to a trap. The proprietor more than likely isn't really a photo framer in the true a sense having a fully functioning shop with saws, mat cutters, glass cutters and also the inventory essential to perform the job. Rather, the retailer is really a storefront carrying an array of picture frame moulding, matboard samples, fabric as well as other glass samples, all provided at little or no cost for the store. Instead of buying and stocking these materials, the retail framer buys them only after she has made the sale. find more information ? Well it would not be except for the fact the retailer has become paying between three to four times normal wholesale! In fact, the service generally known as "chop" in the industry, could be the highest margin item for your picture frame moulding manufacturers. That costs are quickly passed onto the consumer!
In essence chop service works this way: as the framer doesn't have capacity, skilled labor, equipment or technical know-how to cut and join a frame, he must order the frame already cut to his specifications. A particular moulding that may cost as little as $5.00 per lineal foot will end up costing him $20 per lineal foot as he becomes it cut to size, covered with paper and packed in the shipping tube. For his convenience, he is going to use a joining method (supplied by the owner) which involves glue and clamps to put the frame together and obtain it ready for his client. The matboard and glass may also be procured in the similar fashion. Again, gold gilding onsite training is paying top dollar due to small quantities he or she is purchasing. check this to the customer can then be up to 8 times cost. So something which cost him $100 might cost upwards of $800 to the consumer.
The pain will not end there for unwary customer. Most framers utilize a technique of up-selling that is certainly reprehensible, plus a common practice among most it not exclusively retail custom frame shops. The customer walks together with a family group picture. The framer starts making some simple recommendations selecting the ideal matting and frame to visit perfectly with all the photo. Once the selections are created and also the pricing willing to calculate our poor consumer is hit using the "I must warn you, that unless you use archival materials because of this heirloom, you stand an excellent possibility of this photo being ruined inside next few years"! Now, our poor customer is left believing that unless she spends one more 50% to 100%, she should throw her photo in the trash. Is this true? Can and will it fade if she will not use acid-free matting and UV resistant glass? Maybe. Over the next 75 to century.
It holds true if you're framing something of ultimate value (in a choice of dollars or in sentimentality), you will need to protect it from your harmful byproducts of untreated paper and glass. But, for most of us and most of the items we have to frame, that is certainly not the situation. Yet, the retail framer may have no issue in scaring you into spending as much as double with this tactic. It works, and is a giant source of income to the framer, along with you be intimidated. Unless you happen to be framing a fine thing of beauty (as being a Picasso etching) or an heirloom you would like to last for generations, stand your ground and save your money! Standard materials are great enough for many but a few custom framing applications.
So for those kids' school projects, the poster for the family area, the inexpensive print you acquired in Italy in your last vacation, remember: archival framing is a waste of income! When in doubt: ask yourself if the framing be more expensive as opposed to art, have you been doing the right thing?