Museum Glass Pricing

[Less]

How are you guys dealing with the drop in Museum Glass pricing.

I always took the lazy way out and followed the Larson pricing guide.

The problem with Museum Glass is that it only comes in 16x20, 24x36, 32x40, 36x48 and 40x60.

I stock 24x36, 32x40 and will buy 36x48 and 40x60 when needed. I'm sitting on a box of 36x48 and a sheet of 40x60 now.

The problem I see is there is a lot of potential for waste and certainly there can be a lot more labor.

I remember Tru-Vue recommending a x2 markup, but I believe we get killed on waste and labor, and God help us if we break a sheet or miss measure.

I think it is appropriate above an 8x10 to protect your profit on your 16x20 cost, above 16x20 protect your profit on your 24x36 cost, above a 24x36 sheet charge for a 32x40, above that charge for 36x48, and above those dimensions charge for a 40x60.

I ran the numbers a lot of different ways to cover me for the in-between sizes and came up with pretty close to a 15% reduction of Larson's current price guide.

Try taking 35% off, like Tru-Vue's price reduction and you will get killed.

There must be an easier way.

 

[Pat Murphey]

Less,

I use a formula that divides U.I. by 6 then multiply by 10 (since the price reduction, 15 before). I buy 36x48 and 32x40 or 40x60 based on analyzing my orders. If any dimension requires 36x48 sheet I add 25%. If any dimension requires 40x60 the premium is 50%. I keep a sheet of mat with drawings of all sheets and carefully lay out all orders to minimize waste. I label the boxes with the size of the remainders. The formula is written in my personally designed worksheet in Excel.

These prices are lower than LJ's recommended prices, but over time it yields well above 2x cost. No one else messes with my Museum Glass stock. The smaller leftovers yield $50-$75 on a regular basis. I think if you buy smaller sheets you might find you waste more in the long run.

I show Museum glass on most of my sample display art - priced between $350 and $1600. The glass sells itself. The most effective selling tool is a display case with an antique Japanese doll completely surrounded by Museum Glass - I just say go look at that doll - they say "wow!" and often buy the glass.

Pat

 

[Bill Henry-]

I think the 2x markup that TruVue recommends is so that if you price it low enough, you will buy more from them. That, of course, ignores any profit that you need to survive.

I have taken a different approach: since we buy glass by the square inch, we sell it by the square inch - regardless of what sized sheet we use. We are paying about 6-1/4 ¢ per square inch for TV Museum. My approximation of the surface area is (United Inches / 2 ) ^ 2. For most standard sizes it works well. For odd ball sizes it always works in <u>our</u> favor .

We use a “sliding scale” mark up; greater at the smaller sizes, less at the larger sizes. This flies in the face of common practice of pricing per size of sheet used. For example, if you are using an 8 x 10 ( 81 square inches - see above) with a 4x markup, we charge 81 x .0625 x 4 = $20.00. If you’re cutting that from a 16 x 20, you’ve got plenty of usable scrap.

If you’re cutting a 1” x 17” (still 18 UI) piece out of a 16 x 20, we still charge $20.00. You’ve still got 304 square inches of scrap (more than extracting an 8 x 10 from the 16 x 20).

If you’re using a spreadsheet for pricing, the equations, while a bit clumsy, are quite workable.