Digital BW, The Print

Hi Mark,
I think in the past couple of years we've all seen a lot of change. Our dollar is worth less and our clientell are more frugal and so are we.. Professional packaging has been going up and the cost to ship for certain items is off the chart.. I have a piece that I've been selling for years that framed is 17 x 29 .. I used to be able to ship it for around 20.00 now it's 38.00 to 48.00 depending.. It's unavoidable to ship some pieces assembled but from an artists perspective if we have to pay to get an assembled frame then pay to ship an assembled piece of art work were really not bringing the best value to the process for certain venues. Matts are an issue as they go with the frame but if a 6.00 piece of matt board is driving the process then that won't last long. All this stuff still works on smaller pieces as shipping is still fairly competative there. Larger pieces I feel are totally broken.. You guys have a pretty good reputation and work hard.. but you must be seeing the shift I would think in your business. In my situation I have to reach outside of my area for work or I'd starve.. So packaging and shipping are real important cost elements here. I mean we've reached a point where I'm actually shipping stretcher pliers with a job occasionally as it brings better value. Well a bit of order volume helps too...:-)... For about 18 months now we've been shipping ready to assemble nice frames...along with the artwork..it was a learning curve for sure with packaging.. but I think we're there now.. Thank god for Uline and a few others.. 

jimbo
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: mrgs1001 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 8:31 AM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Documounts replacement -- black wood frames


    
  Documounts was owned by Larson and/or Larson and Documounts were owned by the same company after the founder of Documounts sold.

  I understand about the desire for the ability to get frames un-assembled to reduce shipping cost. When I originally founded Frame Destination we only sold complete frames with mats so their was no advantage to the frames being un-assembled. As a result all equipment and process is all geared towards glueing, nailing and final touch up. I have been looking into equipment to allow to sell frames un-assembled since we have been getting more requests for that, however it will probably be later next year before we can offer that. 

  Cheers,
  Mark
  http://www.framedestination.com/

  --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Paul Roark <roark.paul@...> wrote:
  >
  > The black wood frames I was using from Documounts were, according to them,
  > from Larson Juhl (sku 372285). I could order these in paired pieces of any
  > sizes, and they used plastic locking pieces to assemble the final frame.
  > (One receipt referred to them as "thumbnails.") As such, it was easy to
  > make frames of any dimensions and shipping was easier. When I look for
  > Larson Juhl frames, they appear to be all at local frame shops. When I
  > look at the wood frames from the internet sellers, they all appear to be
  > pre-assembled frames. If the pre-assembled are the right sizes, the prices
  > (before shipping) are often good, but I don't see the sizes I need -- for
  > example, the 13" x 28" size that I use for the high gloss panoramas that
  > are selling so well.
  > 
  > I don't mind giving my local shops the business. In fact, I'd like to get
  > out of the framing business entirely. However, most of my purchasers are
  > price sensitive and the framers end up making most of the money if they do
  > that work. So for the time being, I think I'm going to have to continue
  > being a reluctant framer.
  > 
  > Paul
  > www.PaulRoark.com
  > 
  > 
  > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
  >



  
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