gotta love the rich...

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I just quoted a lettering on a boat...and the owner is hemming and hawing on the price...

Using Real Gold 22kt material, with a teal outline, doing a boat name, port of call, and (2) registration numbers for $750 ( including removal of old info )... thing is this is going on a 50' yacht, that probably cost more than my house, several times over...

I guess that's how they get all the money...

 

[Billct2]

I used to love hand lettering boats, because back then the same guys who would cheap out on anything for their business would blow big money on their boat for the bragging rights.
And back then my cost was in the pennies for a small cup of paint compared to now. And they paid cash.

 

[rjssigns]

Few years ago a guy wanted his lettering repaired. Quoted $140 for the work. Said it was too expensive.
It was the same day he was having the oil changed which cost $3000.

 

[unclebun]

Big spenders think that they can always get a better deal. The best way to deal with them is to walk. Unless you really are overpriced and they find a competitor who does the same thing for less, they will come back.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

It's not just the rich that does this. Typically it's what people value and how much they value it. Doesn't matter if they are rich or working stiffs.

 

[mfatty500]

BOAT, Bring On Another Thousand

 

[unclebun]

People want a good deal, but what I find (and we do a lot of boat names) is that the guys who have worked hard at construction or insurance or even as a professional like lawyer or doctor, and can afford a boat, tend to know when a deal is already decent, and the going rate. When we tell them how much it will cost, they don't even stumble, and we proceed. It tends to be the really ultra-rich guys who don't actually work that balk at what are essentially ordinary prices. Maybe it's because they know that the yacht they have bought included over a million dollars above net cost and they feel that everyone from the manufacturers to the salesmen to the cleaner/detailers is out to "screw them" out of their money because they are rich. We don't really care who they are; our pricing is the same whether you earn $50,000 a year or $5,000,000 a year. But we get more static from the guys making $5,000,000 over a $250 job.

 

[fresh]

i haven't had too much push-back on boat prices recently. BUT my absolute favorite thing is when people show up in their brand new $80K pickup truck or $150K Construction vehicle and balk when I quote $265 to letter their doors so they are legal.

LIKE UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. WTF? Go ahead, drive without your name on the truck and commercial plates. Good luck with that $350 ticket.

 

[Gino]

All hasta do with priorities. If they don't value your talent or price, it might not be all that important to them.

But you are correct, that it is the way they get rich in a lotta cases. They know when to walk away from a transaction. Know a deal, when ya see one..... or walk.

 

[unclebun]

i haven't had too much push-back on boat prices recently. BUT my absolute favorite thing is when people show up in their brand new $80K pickup truck or $150K Construction vehicle and balk when I quote $265 to letter their doors so they are legal.

LIKE UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. WTF? Go ahead, drive without your name on the truck and commercial plates. Good luck with that $350 ticket.

That actually reminds me of the zinger in boat names. The reason they are getting the boat name is to avoid paying sales tax on their $2 million boat. Even on a more common $100,000 boat, paying a few hundred for a name on the boat is way cheaper than paying sales tax and getting a license number.

 

[ddarlak]

tell them you can do it cheaper if you use HELVETICA and valu-CAL but it doesn't last more than a year

 

[rjssigns]

That actually reminds me of the zinger in boat names. The reason they are getting the boat name is to avoid paying sales tax on their $2 million boat. Even on a more common $100,000 boat, paying a few hundred for a name on the boat is way cheaper than paying sales tax and getting a license number.

Yup. Federally registered. Hailing port has to be 4" tall minimum. Fed registration numbers are black and usually get epoxied into an engine room bulkhead.

 

[equippaint]

That actually reminds me of the zinger in boat names. The reason they are getting the boat name is to avoid paying sales tax on their $2 million boat. Even on a more common $100,000 boat, paying a few hundred for a name on the boat is way cheaper than paying sales tax and getting a license number.

This is totally untrue. You name your boat to identify it in case of emergency, to be identified when being called on vhf by other vessels, to call in to dock for fuel, reserving transient dockage etc. Its also a tradition. I think if youre uscg registered its a requirement as well. You have to have all power boats registered, a name does not avoid anything and is not required.
Its also considered bad luck to re-name a boat and legend has it that boats with no name will not find their way back to port.

 

[unclebun]

This is totally untrue. You name your boat to identify it in case of emergency, to be identified when being called on vhf by other vessels, to call in to dock for fuel, reserving transient dockage etc. Its also a tradition. I think if youre uscg registered its a requirement as well. You have to have all power boats registered, a name does not avoid anything and is not required.
Its also considered bad luck to re-name a boat and legend has it that boats with no name will not find their way back to port.

The point is that if you register your boat with your state, it's treated the same as a car or a small boat. They collect sales tax, you pay a registration fee, and then they give you a license number you have to put on the boat. If the boat qualifies for it and the place you use it is considered a navigable waterway, you may choose to register the boat with the Coast Guard instead (called "documented"), and you don't pay any sales tax. You usually pay a documentation service to help you (about $125) fill out the forms and submit them with a $133 fee. You choose a name and a hailing port. That name and hailing port have to appear on the boat, either on the back or on both sides (or a combination--you can put name on both sides and hailing port on back). They have to be minimum 4" clearly legible letters, and have to read exactly as the documents show. You get back from the Coast Guard a registration number, which has to be displayed in 3" letters on a fixed, interior portion of the hull which must be viewable without endangering an officer or subjecting him to unclean conditions. The registration number must be affixed in a way that its removal or alteration is obvious. In some states, like ours, they do require you to buy a registration sticker that goes on the outside of the boat (it's $300). Regardless, all of the documentation fees, the cost of paying a sign guy to put the name and hailing port on the boat, and putting the registration number inside the boat is far less than what state sales tax would be. So that's the number one reason why people document their boats instead of licensing them. Sales tax at our lake on a $500,000 boat would be $38,375.

Oh, and the re-naming thing? Nobody cares about that. There are boats that I have personally taken off and put new names on 4 or 5 times over the last 20 years, each time they are sold to someone else.

 

[White Haus]

Oh, and the re-naming thing? Nobody cares about that.

I would tend to disagree based on what I've seen on boat forums/facebook groups. Those guys are dead-set against renaming boats!! Also, bringing bananas aboard is apparently frowned upon........go figure.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I would tend to disagree based on what I've seen on boat forums/facebook groups. Those guys are dead-set against renaming boats!! Also, bringing bananas aboard is apparently frowned upon........go figure.

Having been in around the coastal bend for quite some time, people don't like renaming, however, the renaming bit in unclebun's experience actually seems inline when talking about the "ultra" rich in their experience.

I think some of this comes down to the demographics of the area as well.

I do always question when people go off the price of the object in question (in other words, the customer has a brand new $80K truck). I've seen horrible money "managers" that believe more in "putting on the ritz" then anything else. So we might see a brand new $80k truck, but the customer may see ungodly amount of monthly payments on top of everything else.

It all comes down to how much one values whatever they are getting. I can't tell you how many times I've had people try to get me down in price and some of these same people would be flabbergasted if their customer tried to do the same thing that they are trying to do to me. Human nature knows no wealth demographic.

 

[rjssigns]

This is totally untrue. You name your boat to identify it in case of emergency, to be identified when being called on vhf by other vessels, to call in to dock for fuel, reserving transient dockage etc. Its also a tradition. I think if youre uscg registered its a requirement as well. You have to have all power boats registered, a name does not avoid anything and is not required.
Its also considered bad luck to re-name a boat and legend has it that boats with no name will not find their way back to port.

Saving on taxes is true. My client in Michigan saved over $50,000 in tax by federally registering. As far as renaming goes been doing that too. So far none of them have sunk or disappeared.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

I lettered a restored wood speed boat with gold leaf for the grandson of Hallmark cards founder. He was an old guy then in the 80”s. Very talkative. He said he was worth 80 million the day he was born. He tipped me fifty bucks which would be like 150 now. Twenty years later I got a job for a car restoration company to stripe a 1949 Ford pickup and gold leaf the embossed tailgate they were doing for a “rich guy”. They were all extremely nervous about him because they said he picked their work apart mercilessly. They warned me to be prepared before he showed up to pay me. He got out of his Escalade and immediately recognized me. He said he tried hard to track me down before leaving it up to the car guys. He was pissed however that the gold job wasn’t spun like the inside of his pocket watch case he had shown the car guys. I said I specifically asked that and was told no. They forgot and were seriously ripped for it. I said I’d have it redone by later that day. He came back and paid me exactly double my quote for the whole job and said he’d have more work for me. After he left the car shop owner complained “that rich a hole never worked a day in his life and he nickel and dimed US to death”. I’ve also had rich people who scrutinized the work to death to try and find a discrepancy to lower the price. A billionaire in town had an opera hall built to name after his parents. He had a pair of tailor made slacks with a pocket for a tape measure. He was constantly checking construction against the blueprints. He found an eighth inch error in spacing of light sconces on a marble wall and made them tear it down and redo it. Forty grand of pink marble had to be trashed. Oh, by the way, I got a call from another rich guy at the marina where I gold leafed the boat. A forty mile round trip to have the guy launch into a cussing fit. He wanted me to do the job but I was twelve dollars higher than another bid. I instantly disliked him and he ended up with a very poor looking job. Oh, but he saved a whole twelve dollars.

 

[MI Bearcat]

Even if your boat is documented with the Coast Guard, most states still require you to register the boat with the state and display the state registration sticker. You don't have to have MC numbers on the boat if it's documented. Whether or not you have to pay sales tax is also up to the state.

 

[jman]

I wrote off boat stuff about 3 years ago. I've done a few dozen that went good but most are just a waste of time. There's about 8-10 marinas around me within a 15 mile radius. We get alot of out of towners and they are usually very rude and always want you to work on weekends because that's when they come down to visit their boats then want to jerk you on money. Just annoying lol