posted
just found out today i didnt get the little league ballpark signs this year. i put a bid in to supply them with 32" x 48" vinyl on corplast choices of colors. each sign gets 4 brass gromets also. i bid em at $35 plain and $50 with logo or art work. now at these prices it aint a real money maker but can make a little. found out the person that got the contract....get this is sponsoring 3 TEAMS @ $300 EACH TEAM. ok now thats $900 in my calckatator.....lets see at $35 a sign....they will have to do 25 signs for free and at $50 that would be 18. and the most signs they will do is less then 100...if they have a lot people who buy the adds....nothin like buyin your work...or workin just to get the job.....hehehehehehehehe
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Stop complaining and get to work, you're just wasting time when you complain and wasting space by typing something like this.
This kind of post is something everyone that has a plotter has got to learn to deal with, this is the wave of the future unless of course you specialize in complaining. Look forward and get it together!
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
posted
Maybe he NEEDS the money more than you! Kids to feed Medical bills for the wife's health. Furneral expences for parents etc. etc. etc. At least you know a Friend of yours got he work. If Not then.....MAKE A FRIEND
-------------------- PKing is Pat King The Professor of SIGNOLOGY Posts: 3113 | From: Pompano Beach, FL. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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With all due respect, not knowing your talents and or skills, but why even waste another brain cell worrying about it. $35 for a 3'x4'? I wouldn't even answer the phone for that. Now we all have different needs and lifestyles, but I try not to even compete for that type of work.
Maybe it's time to move up to a better level of design/sign jobs. Little league jobs are like real estate signs to me.
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you."
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I know where you are at Old Paint. I bid $650 for some 4x8 MDO ball park signs and was beat by an "international company" that sells them for $325. That, my man is lower than cost, counting labour. These signs were not sponsering the team but ads for businesses.
-------------------- Kevin Landry KnL Signs Halifax NS Posts: 314 | From: Canada | Registered: Feb 2000
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Our local ballpark requested a bid for 20 8'x16' 0.040" aluminum signs for the fence. We really weren't interested in making much profit. We just wanted to cover our expenses. So we bid $400 per sign plus we wanted a spot at no charge.
We got beat.
The local SignsWhen bid them at $200 each plus they still paid the $3000 (two year) fee to have their own sign there.
Sigh.
Since then I've come to the realization that I have two choices....I can work my butt off and not make any money, or I can go fishing and not make any money. At least one of them has the possibility to put food on the table.
posted
Back in the 80's I bid to do a local ballpark,....they were a farm team for one of the major leagues,and from the looks of things they needed some sign work badly. The outfield fence was actually a cinderblock wall & the ads were about 8'x20'.Well I send in my bid & the guy calls back and says thats 5 times what I have been paying,but we really like your work,can you meet this $75 price? I asked them "If you can get it done for $75 each why in the hell did ya call me?",...."Well the guy is not in good health" was the reply,...my answer? "If ya paid him a reasonable rate maybe he could afford to eat on a more regular basis and his health would be better",..their reply,....well he is no longer with us,...seems he had past on to that ballfield in the sky,....In the end I got my price & ended up following the team when they were sold a few years later,...but thats another story.
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I am interested in posts like this. They provide benchmarks about which way a market is going - ie, if you know which way a market is going, it helps you decide which way you want to go - in or out.
Woman goes into a butcher shop and asks the price of primerib. $32 a pound, says the butcher.
Woman says, butcher shop down the street is selling it for $25 a pound. Then why don't you buy it there, says the butcher.
Woman says, they are out of prime rib.
Butcher says, my price is also $25 a pound when I am out of it.
Vic G
-------------------- Victor Georgiou Danville, CA , USA
Posts: 1746 | From: Danville, CA , USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Hey OP....I remember lettering those ballpark signs too! Years ago. Just yesterday a guy asked me about some signs. He asked me if I would give him the best price. And I said 'no. But I will give you the best sign!' In the past years I have 'cleaned house'. I have told some pretty regular customers to GO. And I have upped my prices considerably. (thank you Mark with your estimate price guide!) I used to sit and letter signs and not be making what I thought I should ...now I charge what I should and I am so much happier.
Don't play the game of being the cheapest anymore. It is hard. Hey I have 2 kids to feed...a house payment..and it does get scary...but try it.
posted
Kevin! Are you serious... $650.00 for a 4x8 plywood sign? Can you really get that much? It must include some digital imaging... does it? Not trying to be sarcastic in any way, but if you get that much for 4x8's, well then I'm missing the boat..
-------------------- "Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st. Neil Butler Paradise, NF Posts: 6277 | From: St. John's NF Canada | Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Sorry Neil. There is lobster where you have been catching sculpin. Or I am. We aren't burning up the city with these but you have to think about profits. If you are doing 10 of these a month, that is only $6650 going into the business. (buy the way 10 of these is about 40 -60 hours of work depending on the sign. Sounds like a lot but start subtracting all of the expenses. You will see about $2000 a month profit. $2000 a month pays my mortgage and some food. What next? You should be clearing at least $5000 a month to pay for expenses and salaries during the lean times. I don't know what others feel about pricing this job. I know that there are lurkers out there scoping information. They can look and ask all they want. But the way I look at it is this. If they are stupid, they will undercut me. OK, go ahead. I will go out of business but some dork with a vinyl cutter will do the same to you. Pretty soon they will be running a business on profits of $6.00 an hour. I will get a job making $10 an hour or working for them at $10 an hour with no headaches. Isn't that why the sign industry is where it is? Priced extrodinarily low? One more thing to think about. A printer gets $200 for business cards on stock that costs a dollar a sheet and pennies for ink. Should you get less for a superior advertising product.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: kevinlandry ]
-------------------- Kevin Landry KnL Signs Halifax NS Posts: 314 | From: Canada | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
well some of you read the post wrong..JOEY....hehehe wasnt complaining, didnt really want the job anyway, was asked to submit bid by a friend. each sign plain comes out at $3.28 sq. ft. and at that price id rather not do em. i dont paint on window or walls for less then $4 sq. ft. so why would i do the ballfield signs for way less and still spend money for all the materials. was just posting this so others can see how this business is going....and to what means some people will go to get the jobs....this was more of a F.Y.I.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I don't think this other biz is gonna make out from this deal, I was taught a long time ago, "if you do a job for nothing and put your name on it, you are advertising that you work for free!"
Get started on the next job and make some bucks!
-------------------- Mike Clayton M C Grafix Custom Lettering New Jersey (again)
Posts: 508 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Apr 1999
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-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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