Political signs...

[ddarlak]

so eveyone who is bashing politicians for trying to get the best price doesn't shop around for your own essentials?

seriously?

 

[Gino]

I know we're only talking 50 signs at 4' x 4', but with the right equipment, doing enough of these and depending on volume would probably be a good gig. I wouldn't want to work all the time for that, but could easily manage it. I'd almost be be doubling my cost and labor at that price.

Sometimes it's better to have 90% of something, than 100% of nothing.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Back when we were doing screenprinting we'd have never sold them that cheap but two guys could have knocked that job out in an hour and a half. That's using incredibly old, outdated equipment and manually loading and pulling screens. You knock out three or four of those a day you're making good money. With modern, automated equipment I'm guessing it would take half that time.

Of course, at those prices, the math only works if you're a major production shop cranking out orders like that all day, every day. It's not leaving a lot of room for down time or printing errors.
Watch this....4x8 sign printed every 15 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVpcEVNVkVo

 

[royster13]

And Pat most of the YouTube videos show manually loading substrates....I have seen ones where they have auto loaders and unloaders and haul a@ss....

 

[MikeH]

It all depends on your point of view. A politician saving money, finding the lowest bidder. I hope he continues it in office. But then again, when he is in office he will not be spending his own money. Is asking you to bid, knowing you will not be competitive, and then going with the lowest bidder, better or not? At least he did not waste your time.

 

[Deaton Design]

so eveyone who is bashing politicians for trying to get the best price doesn't shop around for your own essentials?

seriously?

Sure we do. But I always do my best to help out the local merchants.I dont blame anyone for trying to get the best price they can on anything, but at least give us a chance to place a bid before you send your money out of state, county, city, etc. But, like I said, I dont intend to do anymore of these, so I aint gonna worry about it.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Lat mayoral election in my town it became a pretty big issue the week before the election. One of the candidates (the guy who won) spent every dime of his campaign budget locally and spread it between the sign and printing shops. His opponent spent almost his entire budget with cheap internet companies without even shopping it locally. It was almost comical how much of a beating he took for that through facebook, twitter, emails, and the local paper.

 

[TXFB.INS]

You know, I don't mind a politician subbing printing out to somebody out of town if they are significantly cheaper.....it's just smart business. What ticks me off is when they don't even bother to let local companies bid on the job.

this happened to use, we heard through the grapevine where the signs were bought. our price was 5 cents more per sign. so they traveled 1.5 hours one way to get a "better deal" guess gas and travel time or voided

 

[JTBoh]

A few weeks ago, we lost out on a $17000 polybag job to an out of state union shop, even though they were $1000 more than us....

In all honesty, I never knew there was a "typesetters union", nor that sign shops could be a part of one.

*edit* - and because the politician didn't have a loading dock for the 2500 pounds of sign he was about to sign for.

 

[signrios]

my local screen printer has a "sweat shop" and is charging $9, i called to confirm after i gave a an estimate at $14 for 200 4x4's and lost it to him.