update on 100 circles in mat

[Jean McLean]

Many of you have asked about my customer who wanted a 16 by 20 mat with the circle openings for her quarter collection of the states as they come out. When she came back to select her frame and see the mat, she almost had a heart attack when I told her the price. I was only charging her $50 for it. Yes, I'm a softie and guess what? I still have the mat. She left and went to Ames to buy the coin book instead. So, I have a beautiful black, rag mat with 50 openings in it and a placque opening at the bottom and a nice double V-groove which shows up great on the black mat. Since I got to keep it for my gallery display wall, I cut a second inner mat with another 50 openings and wow, it sings. My quarters just fit and I bought a nice silver frame to match the quarters. Since the quarters are just ones anyone can use, I siliconed them in. It looks nice. Anyone want to buy quarter mats? Keep me in mind however, my rates went up to $2 per opening!!! Next time I do one I will take John's advice and just cut a simple rectangle mat for the top. However, that would cover the V-groove unless I V-groove that one instead. Hmmm...lots of great ideas eh?

 

[osgood]

I can't beleive you would do any job without giving the customer and estimate and asking for a sizeable deposit first.


*** Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them. ***

 

[sumik]

Oh man, you didn't give her a price first!

[This message has been edited by sumik (edited April 05, 2001).]

 

[Jean McLean]

About the 100 circles....let me explain further. I told her that I would get back to her on the price. Remember, this was my first attempt at it and wasn't even sure if I could do it or not. After she left I went right to Grumble to ask for pricing advice. In the meantime I had to give it a try and cut the mat successfully. I received the advice but didn't take it did I. Hmmm...I went lower. She wasn't home when I called to give her the price so left a message on her machine that we were ready to discuss it. She came in later that day and you know the rest. Dumb? In a way. I was buying some time first to see if I could even do it and get some prices. Otherwise, yes....I give a quote first.

 

[Janet]

Jean,

I understand why you didn't quote an EXACT price prior to beginning the actual cuts but did you even quote a "guesstimate figure"?

Whenever I do something "dumb" (believe me, I do "dumb" things more often than I want to admit) my husband asks me if I learned anything. I think you learned alot. You now know that you can cut all those circles, you learned to listen to a lot of these folks on The Grumble that have years of experience, and you learned to ALWAYS GET A DEPOSIT.

This was a time consuming lesson for you but now you have more confidence and I'll bet you don't underprice your work (in your own mind) again in the near future.

On the bright side: YOU'VE GOT A GREAT NEW DISPLAY FOR YOUR SHOP!

Keep one thing in mind though: If you don't want to have to do another mat job like that one, don't display it! LOL

Janet

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How cheap do you want it to look??

 

[Lance E]

With something new and exiting like this I would probably cut it just to see how tricky it is, and for fun. It's one of those designs that can take your mind in all sorts of weird loops until you cut it.