New Nielsens

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Rick Granick

Rick Granick

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
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Just got a box of new Nielsen samples. It's profile #117, but in some new finishes. There are five of the Natural Elements textured metals, and five they are calling "Vivids". (Named after Vivian K. no doubt
) These are florentine finishes in bright silver or bright anodized shades of red, green, blue, and purple.

Cool! :cool: Rick
 
Hey Rick and Jerome -- long time, eh?

I saw that Nielsen also has some new hardwoods -- cherry, maple and walnut that you might look into. Not as nice as Vermont Hardwoods (who I'm a rep for), but check 'em out....

Miss the 'ol Ivy days but hope you're doing well -- Harris Haynie
 
Hi, Harris!
Not a day goes by that I don't lament the loss of Ivy. What a great line, and great folks to deal with too...
I wasn't aware that Nielsen was doing any woods at all. Do you mean the Nurre Caxton hardwoods? Their shapes relate to some of the Nielsen designs, and of course they come from the same parent company.

Hope all is well with you.
:cool: Rick
 
Hi Harris,

Glad to see you on the Grumble. I am still bummed about IVY. Nothing can replace the gold finished frames. I am glad to see that you are repping Vermont Hardwoods. Any chance of Vermont Hardwood photo frames?

Susan
Whispering Woods Gallery
Holland Pa
 
I will be filing a suit against Nielsen for blinding my customer with those new samples. They were standing next to me when I opened the box and, well, now they can't see.

Oh nevermind, because I love'em......!
 
I love the bright colors. We frame a lot of fancy invitations for gifts, and I think they will be useful on those. Kids' art too.

Today I received my set of hardwood samples that Harris mentioned before. It is a line extension of Nurre caxton's American Hardwoods series, with some taller caps, some new flats, and a nice round-top small cap style. There's a new dark-stained walnut finish too.

:cool: Rick
 
Susan -- Right now, I don't think Vermont has a photoframe line because they don't currently join frames, but I'll talk to David, who's frequently on this board, and see if we can get there for you.

I hope you're having a great year! Isn't this change in the temperatures on the east coast wonderful!!

Thanks -- Harris
 
Hey, I just got the same sample box today.

Love the bright colors!
 
I love them!

And the floaters are great. I have been using 33 as a float for years now it is going to be so much easier!

Got the samples in two days ago and I have already ordered 7 frames! Gotta love brushed metal color moulding!
 
I was looking for a frame for something this morning and thought of the bright pink one. These "new" wowie colors have been available "exclusively for Michael's" for a couple of years.

When my Nielsen rep was in last, I begged to have them made available for the rest of us. He said it was already in the works. I don't have my new set yet, but let me guess...Turqoise? Orange? Pink? Lime green? Purple? I loved those, and excited to hear they're available for us peons now!

I can't wait to get mine, I have plans...!
 
These colors remind me of the old anodized aluminum tumblers that keep your drink ice cold even on a hot summer day. They looked cool, but gave a kind of weird feeling if you touched your tongue to the rim while drinking.
:cool: Rick
Love the new Nielsens.
 
Nielsen has some Vivids that are an inch wide but are only available at the big boxes. I saw them at JoAnn's. That miffs me. When we did have a sales rep I inquired about them.

I agree that the colors are nice. I put the bright red one (Tornado?) on a Superman poster recently.
 
I got my new samples yesterday - they make my heart go pitty-pat every time I see them - LOVE THEM!!!

And the Floaters are terrific (PRE-DRILLED HOLES!!!) too - can't wait to sell them!

It makes me really angry however to think that BB customers have been able to buy these, what, for years now??? NO FAIR!!!
 
If you ask Nielsen, they'll say they were testing them in the BB's. Yeah, right. :rolleyes:

I had to call to get our samples, after seeing them mentioned in one of the framing magazines and after seeing them at JoAnn's.
 
yea I love the new Nielsens....my great rep showed them to me the first day they came out. Too bad they let this great hardworking guy go after 10 years. I'm still too pissed off to take them out of the box.

Someone might have to tell me to get over it so I can put them on the wall. I know this was covered in another thread, and its business realty.....but this stinks.
 
Wait, 'testing them in the BB's'? Is that for real? I'd like to see the inch wide vivids. What else do these BB's get that we can't... product-wise, and is NB the only company doing this? Whatever.

Anyway, did anyone notice the clear-coat feel to the vivids? Does that have anything to do with the incredible brightness of the moulding? They just don't feel like any other brushed finishes. I really like these frames... I also really like the natural elements.
 
Kristen- I'm just guessing here, but maybe that clearcoat has some UV inhibitors in it. I know some of the other anodized colors are pretty fade-prone.
kaffeetrinker_2.gif
Rick
 
Originally posted by Val:
These "new" wowie colors have been available "exclusively for Michael's" for a couple of years.
Click to expand...
OK Enough said. I don't won't them. In 14 years I have never sold a lime green moulding.

If for some reason a box of that is delivered to my store, I will gladly pass them on to one of you guys.

I just don't have wall space for unsaleable items.

When I show stuff like that to my customers, they look at me like I have lost my mind.
 
Paul - they came out with 5 or (maybe 6) 117 profile Vivids a year ago and then 8 new colors just now (in the 117 profile).

I haven't seen any wide profiles in Vivids colorations - course I don't shop at any BBs.

Wouldn't you think the PROFESSIONAL shops receive the newest bestest stuff FIRST and then on to the masses a few years later? Isn't that the way other areas of business do things? The newest most unique stuff goes into the Rodeo Drive type places and eventually filters down to K-Mart, etc?

Or have we as individual stores fallen that far down the ladder???

Crescent is only selling their "whatever" (I can't remember which type is ours exclusively now) boards to us - not BBs - does that have any meaning in this world anymore?

*sigh*
 
Jerry, don't you ever get a call to frame kids' artwork, contemporary abstract images, or party invitations? I find these fun colors really useful for items like this, as well as for needlework projects containing colors so bold and saturated that nothing else comes close. I, for one, am happy to see these new choices.
kaffeetrinker_2.gif
Rick
 
Rick I agree with you totally - if someone doesn't bring in suitable artwork in the next day or two I am gonna haveta paint me something just to get a sample up on the wall - but the yummy peach or the dazzling turquoise or the stunning magenta??? (and Jerry, I am not totally enamored of the lime green myself but that's the only one I don't like - just because I don't care for lime green!)
 
I got the new Vivids today and love them! I've done several bulletin boards and photo collages using different colors for each leg for kids rooms. I'm happy to see the new colors too.

I'm not a lime green kind of person but I just love that color!

I love the floaters too.
 
I'm liking the bright new colors. I can see them used alone - in small doses - or capped with black wood as an accent color.

Always liked the Elements line and glad to see those finishes in new profiles.

Floater frames with pre-drilled holes - what a concept!

But the woods? Browsed through the catalog this afternoon and didn't see anything interesing.

Kit
 
The inch wide Vivids are in the 99 series. I saw the labels. I doubt that any independent frame shops have them.

I was told about the test-marketing by our ex-sales rep when I asked her about them. I didn't really believe it. I didn't blame her for saying that. I figured it was just a line that Nielsen told her to say. She's gone. :( We liked her.

It's just the principle that these frames are available to them and not to us.

I used a lime green on a cruise art print. It was sharp. Customer loved it.
thumbsup.gif
 
I have the "cyber green" 117-236 on this photo of mine, hanging next to the design counter. The frame gets a lot of attention, good selling tool:
GetThumbjsessionid32471921EE275EB6B.jpg


I checked out the 1" Vivids when I was at Michael's an hour ago. They have their own Michael's number on the labels, 20-xxx. They look like the 97 series

Bainbridge also has mat colors specific only to Michaels. A couple were my favorite mat colors of all time, not available to us "other framers"
 
Wait... now there are mat colors that we can't get? So if I happen to snake a customer from Michaels, and they want me to frame something just like they had done at Michaels... with an inch wide vivid frame and one of the 'special' Bainbridge mats... I can't do it? Even though it exists... I just can't get it? It seems to me that if they are willing to make enough product to supply the BB's, it wouldn't take a whole lot more to supply the rest of us.

What if I called and specifically requested a 1" vivid frame? Would they say no? Maybe I'll call our rep today and do some digging.
 
Originally posted by Framar:

Wouldn't you think the PROFESSIONAL shops receive the newest bestest stuff FIRST and then on to the masses a few years later? Isn't that the way other areas of business do things? The newest most unique stuff goes into the Rodeo Drive type places and eventually filters down to K-Mart, etc?

Or have we as individual stores fallen that far down the ladder???


Crescent is only selling their "whatever" (I can't remember which type is ours exclusively now) boards to us - not BBs - does that have any meaning in this world anymore?

*sigh*
Click to expand...
When I inquired about this I was told that they were made especially for them as a contract moulding and that an independant could contract for any special color or profile too, it was just a matter of min. volumn.
 
Originally posted by framinzfun:
... So if I happen to snake a customer from Michaels, and they want me to frame something just like they had done at Michaels... with an inch wide vivid frame and one of the 'special' Bainbridge mats... I can't do it?
Click to expand...
Nope. I've tried. "Special" mat, maybe if it's one that M's stocks (they don't stock them all)...I'm sure they'd happily sell you one! And you can only order a full non-stocked matboard, but you have to pay for a 32x40 mat, ordered as a "float mount", $$$! Maybe someone has figured a way around that, but...never mind. Ack!

1" Vivids? Not a chance. It's in the Nielsen/Michael's contract. Exclusive. Period. No exceptions. At least, it was 9 months ago.
Now, if you could wait until one of their big "sales", you could....oh. Sorry. That was out of line.
 
Jerry, that was last week.

JoAnn's eh? I wonder if Michaels knows about that! Ha!

I wonder if, collectively, we all squawked loud enough (Nielsen, are you listening??) they'd come through for us? Inundated them with "WE WANT 1" VIVIDS!! WE'D SELL 1" VIVIDS!"
 
We have carried the Vivids for quite awhile, too and we certainly are not any big box

I'll double check, but I am certain we get them from local distributors

But, I will say this

If I did a gazillion foot a year with a metal provider, I don't think it inappropriate to expect to have a few exclusives thrown my way. we do have a custom run a couple times a year where we have something that no one else seems to sell

I'll bet if a few of you get together and pool an order for something, they'll do it. I can't remember the minimum, but it isn't unattainable
 
We need vivid mats to match. I say these at Michaels about a year ago and my rep said they were exclusive to Michaels. What else are they keeping from us.
 
We got the second set of vivids last week. Fabulous! AND the vivids hold a stretcher bar! Good Thinking, NB!
 
I love them too...the colors are awesome...hopefully they will be a big seller!!!
Anyone been able to pull them up on Lifesaver?? I did an update when I received them but they're not listed yet.. :(
 
The Vivids are designed for sport team colors.

They are also great on kids art. I have even used them with a different color rail on each side for kids art. The lime green is sooo in right now. I sold a customer on a lime green for one print and the hot pink for the other print. She actually picked them off the wall. Then she came back a couple days later with two more because of the great colors.

Vivids rule!!!
 
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