Just curiou$

[midnite]

I don't like to discuss price in an open forum but what you are charging is less than my minimum on a 4'x8'.
I would certainly be charging more than you are, especially since it uses chrome and has all that copy.
Love....jill

Hi Jill, good to hear from you. Well I just did a large t - shirt decorating job for this company, plus I've been dealing their trucks and machines all last summer, so they have been a good customer. And I did caution them with the chrome on black being hard to read, but they insisted.

 

[HulkSmash]

High overhead is not irrelevant...

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

This sign should not have taken someone 30 min. to lay out THIS sign. Did you look at it? If you go over a hour you got problems. In 18 years I have never not had a roll of chrome laying around. Besides primary colors it would be a must have (speaking on MY experiences) I base my prices on "standard" materials as to what I pay for them at the quantity I keep in stock.

Not to open up another can of worms here, but that sign should not have taken 30 minutes to lay out, you are right. However, I would spend at least a half an hour designing a sign like this just to make it is as artistically and aesthetically pleasing as possible. Putting out signs demands one price, but putting out signs with high quality artwork demands another. $425 may very well be a fair price because the sign really could have been laid out better. Not saying it looks terrible, but still.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying you would charge them for the minimum yardage required for the job because chrome vinyl is one of your stock colors? As far as stocking specialty films, or any vinyl for that matter, I may price jobs perhaps differently than some people as we don't consider any of our vinyl "stock", with the exception of calendered vinyl. If a job requires cast film, metallic film, or any film that isn't cheap calendered, we make sure our pricing covers the cost of the smallest required unit...generally a 15" or 24" x 10 yard roll. If a job later down the road requires the same thing, we charge them for the required material , also, even if it happens to be readily available in our stock pile. Since vinyl is relatively cheap I don't consider this a bad business practice but others may disagree. I doubt it really matters anyway, because all the customer sees is the quote. They either like the price or they don't. I doubt whether us gaining a few yards of "free" back stock effects them either way.

 

[tsgstl]

No I could see why you would think I was saying that. I consider "specialty films/vinyl" different. I treat it like I will never sell another piece of it again. IE order by the yard and mark up the job to cover all cost. Chrome I treat differently, I keep full or at least 10 yards in stock at all times. I price most stock materials at a base price per sq. ft. (Based on cost, ease of use etc) I really try keeping my C.O.G. At a certain % and this is the easiest way I have found to adjust this. Regular vinyl and chrome would be at much different price points.