Glass Pricing Survey - September 2004

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

The September grumbler survey and discussion compares what we charge for glass.

There are six questions in this poll. While votes are anonymous, your name will appear on any posts. Discussion is highly welcomed!

For this survey, we're considering lites in the 24x36 size. (labor and tax excluded)
1) Regular Clear
2) UV/Conservation Clear or equivalent
3) Regular NG
4) Plexi Clear
5) A/R
6) Museum

To keep it short, only some popular types are listed. Please keep in mind that this is for
entertainment, comparison, and discussion only. There are many factors that should be
considered when setting prices, and the results represent only a small sampling.

Please click on VOTE to participate. Polling ends 9/30/04 at 11:59pm

[Jay H]

I voted for the glass before I voted against the glass.

Everything is really close until we get to museum. It gets pretty broad there. I wonder why?

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

Museum went down about 30% several months ago, maybe some folks haven't adjusted?

[JFeig]

Has everyone taken the price drop of A/R & Museum into account? Or left their prices high.

[Cliff Wilson]

I mark up glazing relative to my cost, yet it appears my #s are higher on soem things and lower on others. Does that relflect that others don't mark up consistently, or that they get the glazing at a different price structure than I do?

curious

P.S. I did take the price drop into consideration.

[Bob Doyle]

Can't late till the end of the month, more voters will definitely bring better results to compare my pricing to.

[Jerry Ervin]

Originally posted by JFeig:
Has everyone taken the price drop of A/R & Museum into account? Or left their prices high. I changed my prices based on the new cost. I was afraid of not being competitive if I didn't.

[Jay H]

Heck the more people that take the quiz the more the museum glass is spread out.

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

I'm also amazed that some folks are selling Museum glass at or below cost. It'll be interesting to see how it looks when more people vote.

[Mitch]

Just yesterday I recieved the new pricing for the AR glazing from one of the four distributors that carrry glass. I do not expect any price drops from two of them. Maybe some are holding back on lowering prices until inventories are cleared out. I am wondering if you would drop the older prices with a box or two sitting in the shop.
My prices are lower than the average on AR because one of the one distributors would buy truckloads of it and recieve some pretty deep discounts. This distributor has recently quit selling glass so I will now have to raise my prices to the new lower prices. ain't that a kick.

mitch

[Jerry Ervin]

Mitch

That is a perfect example of why we all have such different price structures.

[Pat Murphey]

Who is selling Museum Glass below cost? I pay $50 for 24x36 from LJ and sell for a "low" $120 - nice margin and an easier sale than at the old prices. I buy carefully choosing 32x40 or 36x48 depending on how my sales lay out. I keep track of leftovers and find that a typical box that costs $200 yields $450 to $600 when sold out. The "low" price make sales less difficult and surely yields more profit than selling UV Clear.

Pat :D :D

[Bill Henry-]

Between my two major distributors of glass, there is an almost 8% difference in the wholesale price I pay for a sheet of 24 x 36 TV Museum.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there is even a greater discrepancy throughout the country especially those hard to reach (and harder to love ;) ) places like Bozeman.

I wonder if it wouldn’t be more informative (or at least give us another perspective) if we knew the markup we apply in addition to the retail prices we charge.

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

I shy away from putting anything in the polls that might indicate markup or wholesale cost to the public. You never know who's reading this stuff smile.gif

Mike

[Bill Henry-]

I shy away from putting anything in the polls that might indicate markup or wholesale cost to the public. You never know who's reading this stuff.I understand your reasoning, but these polls are anonymous and if someone really wanted to find out those markups, with a little research and effort by using our posted retail prices and a vendor’s on-line catalog, they could.

… but, maybe not, with the Museum prices all over the map. smile.gif

Likewise, the Decor magazine has somewhat similar data and is probably more widely disseminated than our cozy little forum.

[DB]

I logged on this morning with the intention of creating a post about museum glass pricing. Thanks for the timely poll, Mike! I am pricing it with the new pricing structure. I just started really trying to sell it yesterday, simply because I had not reviewed the new pricing structure yet. I upsold from conservation clear on all but 1 attempt yesterday and I expect at least 2 of the customers will pay to upgrade a lot of their previously framed work. I'm going to do a mailing next month about it. In fact, I think I will reframe some of my stuff at home, too!

[Jerry Ervin]

Originally posted by Pat Murphey:
I pay $50 for 24x36 from LJ and sell for a "low" $120 - I pay $105.00 for that same piece of glass. I carry AR, but I may no longer offer the museum if I can not be competitive.

[Pat Murphey]

Jerry,

How far from Greensboro are you? Perhaps you should look at LJ for glass. Even their single box prices are only 10% higher. I do just enough business with LJ to qualify for 5 box discount with 1 box orders. I can't find better glass prices with truck delivery anywhere else around here. And I repeat - my pricing sells Museum Glass.

Pat :D :D

[Jerry Ervin]

We are not very far from Greensboro, either location. I have had others suggest that I look at LJ if nothing else for glass. I think I'll be calling Tuesday.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

The results have been interesting so far, especially for Museum glass. Sales price ranges from less than $100 to more than $300 for the same size.

We need more participants.

Any comments on TV's announcement about the new glass they're coming out with in January? We saw them side by side in Atlanta, and the difference was incredible.

Mike

[sumik]

Just paid $80 for 32x40 museum glass. I confess, it's the first time I've ever sold it. Customer saw the new Tru Vue display and said.."I don't care how much it is, I want that glass that looks like there is no glass."

[El Framo]

Thanks for this poll. Also, thanks for this site. It offers a wealth of information.

[Bob Carter]

Just a random thought

It seems that many instantly reduced their selling price because their cost went down.

I wonder how many smart retailers took that 30% reduction at cost and called their favorite customers that use this glass and tell them they are having a 25% off sale on Museum Glass?

[B. Newman]

Ok, I'm going out on a limb and ask a really stupid question.

Where is there an understandable comparison of the types of glass? I do understand regular, nonglare, UV, UV nonglare and Museum (duh) but what is the difference between UV non-glare and conservation perfect vue for instance. Or Conservation clear and perfect vue?

There's a good listing of all the glass products available from all the suppliers in this month's PFM, but it really doesn't tell the difference between types of glass.

Betty (not as smart as I look)

[Jerry Ervin]

We are coming down to the wire here. I wish that more than just 57 people would vote here.

Come on folks, it don't take but a minute.

[EllenAtHowards]

At this point, I am not lowering my museum glass prices 30% until they make it 30% easier to clean.

[Pat Murphey]

Ellen,

If you handle it with gloves, you rarely have to clean. My experince is that it takes less time to deal with.

Pat :D :D

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

I can't wait for TV to start replacing all their glass with the new stuff. We saw it in Atlanta, and it makes a huge difference in clarity. No more GREEN tint!

Mike

[Mike Labbe @ GTP]

If you haven't contributed your anonymous results, please feel free.

Polling ends Thursday evening.

Thanks
Mike

PS: New poll ideas are always welcomed. Email me privately if you have any suggestions for future polls.