$20,000 gold frame for LCD

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I saw that article over the weekend. I can only hope it inspires people to get their new TVs framed. I remember being at Costco one day during a particularly bleak week at my store, and seeing the feeding frenzy going on there. I was standing in line with my one item in my hands (I love doing that at Costco -- going to buy one item), watching some guy cart out an immense television -- the thing must have been 18 feet wide by 28 feet long. Can't imagine how he intended to get it home, but I imagine he was also driving a humongous SUV for him, his 5'1 tall wife, and his infant baby.
 
The sad thing is he spent $20,000 to frame up a TV that's playing Beauty and the Beast. Though I must say that he overpaid for that frame. I could have easily got it done for him for $10,000. He must have gone through a designer and paid a markup.

Edit: I see that he had a very very high end frame maker do the frame for him. I sill think he over paid though.
 
The article also offers a couple of helpful ideas for supplies to be used with such frames:

"Mrs. Angner also sells an additional TV disguiser: a treated glass, inserted in some frames, that is a mirror when the TV is off, but is transparent when the set is on ($839)."

I had a framed LCD in my shop window for a while, it did attract some attention.
 
brian..k said:
The sad thing is he spent $20,000 to frame up a TV that's playing Beauty and the Beast. Though I must say that he overpaid for that frame. I could have easily got it done for him for $10,000. He must have gone through a designer and paid a markup.

Edit: I see that he had a very very high end frame maker do the frame for him. I sill think he over paid though.
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Brian,

Being rich brings about a special state of mind. Rich people buy as much for need, quality and service as for being seen, admired, envied or feared by pairs and/or ordinary mortals. I don't know who that guy is, but he must be a big shot himself. If you offered him the very same frame, in your shop, for half the price he paid to Wilner, he wouldn't take that offer up; he would rather prefer to be seen dealing with Eli Wilner, and be paying for that privilege, than be seen buying in any other "less reputed" place than Elli's.
Having done work for people like Wilner (but not for Wilner himself), I recall being paid to do the absolute perfect job (humanly possible). We were not waiting to be shown a pin hole in a ready to be go frame in order to take another day just to fix that minuscule imperfection. In one instance we had to postpone delivery and send the art delivery truck back because of such a pin hole. We were not certain that our clients' eyes were all that discriminate, nevertheless we didn’t take the chance to find the truth on our watch and acted as our own gardians. I presume that any manufacturer would pay extra care and go extra miles when his work was to be represented as Wilner's or be exposed in some of nation's most respected museums/collections/galleries. Consequently, I sincerely doubt that you could have sold absolute same quality frame as Wilner's for a fraction of his price, or that you could show same margins as his. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that you get less for your dollar, it's that somehow Wilner gets more fore his. Besides, price is not quite an issue for Wilner’s costumers and judging them as if they were framing on a tight budget would be wrong.

PS: Eli Wilner is less of a frame maker than he's an antique picture frame dealer and historian. His reputation was built on his antique picture frame business and expertise.
 
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