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yep penna gets really cold and dreary this time of yr...i left avella pa(18 miles south of washington) on jan 2, 1981......remember the temp was 19....the nite before i hauled a** and i kept drivin till i hit sarasota, got there and it was 55 on jan 4....and i was sittin on the beach with no shirt on and it was completly empty....hahahahahah
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hey, old paint, I spent some time in Sarasota and I loved it! Why did you leave there? Anyone: I've been in the sign business a little while now and except for Mike Jackson's "Gary Anderson" theory, I feel like I have tried everything to prevent the winter downer (sales) up here in PA. So, after talking (complaining) about it for years, I decided to go south for the winter (maybe the keys). Even though I remember the old days when you just went out and made cold sales calls...it seems to me that some Sign People don't take kindly to this type of intrusion (I think they call them "snappers")in their local town? So, being a dedicated "Letterhead" I thought I would drop a line on this board and see if I couldn't find someone that is swamped and in need of some part time help.
posted
bernie....when i got to sarasota in 81...it was nice little town, the signpainter section in the yellow pages listed 20 sign painters. well i worked in the auto parts till 86 then got tired of "a job" with no future..so i started paintin signs, just about the time gerber was sellin their 4b's to all the sign shops....so paintin was still better then vinyl, and i made a good livin...but the vinyl machine took over and sign shops were every where, so i got a computer and machine in 93...but then the franchize shops started...and by 98 sarasota has at least 1 of each if not 2(SIGNS NOW, SIGNS IN A DAY, SIGNS BY TOMARROW, FAST SIGNS, RAPID SIGN, SIGN A RAMA,USA SIGNS, ECT ECT.)...when i left town the yellow pages had over 200 vinyl shops...and painters...plus its no longer that nice little town(all them NEW YORKERS moved in)and we moved to pensacola ...in 98...the day of "the snapper" meaning a sign person who works outa the back of his van...is pretty well over....only at xmas time you see some people workin paintin window outa there trucks...
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Old Paint, I hear ya! Boy, can a lot of sign vets relate to that little spillage of heart. We can add Quik Signs (on the Tamiami Trail), Sarasota, FL. to the list of 200 Vinyl shops too. That's how I got down there back in '94-95. An old friend from up here that loved the sign business went down there and started from scratch, did pretty good, and invited us down there to possibly run it for him but then shared with us that competing for the fastest and cheapest signs was not what he went down there for...changed his mind about hiring us and I understand he has recently sold the place, but I have not been able to contact him lately. Hope he didn't give up on the Sign Biz?
posted
My grandparents moved to Sarasota in '58. Bought a new house in Bayshore Gardens for $8000. I was seven and the thought of going to somewhere warm for the winter really appealed to me, whose Pappy owned a Used Car lot, ripe for snow shoveling at a cloud's notice in December. I remeber well the experience of seeing the warmth there after seeing minus ten below back home in Kansas.
Well, it is sleeting, icing and generally acting like megawinter right this minute. I just had to go help push our son out of the driveway and hear that the streets are really bad. It is in the teens and a major first snow is expected? tomorrow. I cannot go do my regular showroom window projects or many windshields tomorrow. My lovely wife will rattle my cage at six AM to enlist my aid in getting her MB out of the driveway. (Thank God for Dupont's 'better living thru chemisty' pledge and a sack of ice melt!) I have a giant oval to paint tomorrow at a Ford store (inside) and am seriously contemplating getting in my F-150 and heading south with a snow shovel roped to the grill right after I get my boring oval painted in one-shot brilliant blue with a short nap roller, one pass after I show them all the trick of how to do ovals (with no logo as they already got the bulletin board with the parts dept. stickers to stick in the middle of my oval). The first person who stops me and asks what the snow shovel is for will be my tip off that I am far enough south! Gee. Maybe I should go visit the Sarasota Ringling Brothers Museum? Naw. Too near Xmas. I better just hang out with you all and wait till January to make a proper exit Southwest! You are a great lot to be stuck with and to wax philoshphically about how absolutely lucky Joe is to be somewhere warm and smart enough to know better than to worry about anything other than a good time and a nice font! Thank you all!
------------------ Preston McCall 2516 W 63rd St. Mission Hills, Kansas 66208 913-262-3443 office 816-289-7112 cell
Posts: 1558 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
im in bradenton, wich is right next door to sarasota. its a horrid place to have to have a sign company these days. here's some background. there are a gazillion shops, and they are mostly franchises. they are all ONLY carying intermediate vinyl. which means yeah, they put in on vehicles too. and there are like 2 places here that do high performance, me, and auto trim design. im afeared that pretty soon im gonna have to switch over to the intermediate, just to be competitive. people are putting out helvetica signs left and right, and im becoming known for my design skills amongst the traditional sign painters, and customers alike. (im vinyl only, but wish oh wish someone would teach me to paint) thats my life in a nutshell. laterz
------------------ Christian S. Budget Signs & Graphics In sunny Florida BudgetSigns.Graphics@verizon.net
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Well, looks like more than one of us has Florida-On-Our-Minds? I think I'm gonna need your prayers, cause I just got some real estate rental info and it's not gonna be cheap livin' "Key Largo Loco" ! They found me a house for 3 months @ $1500 per...that's alot of boats and parking signs, No?
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vinyl man...hook up with DAGGER TOUCH...shes in bradenton, one of the best hand letteres, and good lookin gal....my buddy MAGIC BRUSH, roy milman...also one of the best with a brush...works at WELLCRAFT doin all the graphics on the SCARAABS...rick alley in sarasota..used to do all of gene wipps stuff...then theres STEFPHON...he does a lot of the car windshields...and if you really want to learn..find harvey copland, he did all of the stuff for ringling for a lot of yrs....and your AUTO TRIM guy there was doin a lot of vehicle letterin for way cheap when i was in sarasota...and next time there is a DIXIE LETTERHEAD MEET..you better be there....if you wana learn to swing a brush....also your not that far from st pete....get in touch with don coplan....one of the nicest guys youll ever meet...hes quit good with a brush.....so ya see all kinds of people around you....aint it nice bein here?
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
This is too funny. I just moved my daughter down to Tampa, and what do I find right next door to her apartment building but a Signs Now franchise.
------------------ Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Since 1978 http://www.wrightsigns.bigstep.com
Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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Speaking of Sarasota...that's where I went to College...Ringling School of Art. I remember one my instructors telling the class that the sign business was for "failed" artists. And guess what I've been doing for the past 22 years? I've always wanted to tell him to ki** my a**. But, I have no regrets. I'd rather be a sign artist than a starving artist. I wonder if that area is so full of competition because of all the "failed" art students?
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mark you got it!!!!!! the sarasota offshore race they have every yr....the logos are designed by the ringling school of art....for free!!!! so you know we get no business from them....and i was always bein beat out of a great graphic job..by some student who was doing the job as a class project....i went to PENN STATE, art major, and was assistant to art prof....when i would mention SIGNPAINTING..he would just gafa me...and say "ba sign painting is garbage" in broken english(he was from serbia)...
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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