Want your input

[SynFX 1]

I talked to a furniture store about doing some bartering for a mattress..

They want a TWO 3ft x 8ft Black banner with Hammered Gold Leaf Lettering 22 inchs tall x 8 ft 'AUCTION'

and then FOUR (two of each) 1ft x 8ft black velcro removable banners stating 'PREVIEW TODAY AT 5:30pm'

6 banners total

specialty gold material

I came up with:

$140 for banners

$172 for material

plus app tape

plus velcro

plus labor :: 6 - 8 hours

I figure I will charge around $500+ - The bed is $499 + Tax -

If I did a straight swap I would pay around $350 for the bed.

This would get me about $170 OFF but not sure the hourly

is sufficient.. we usually make $75 - $100 an hour and that

would come out to just $21/hr for two people..

What would YOU charge?

What would you guys charge for this?

[Guest Schramm]

Why dont you do the deal, sounds ok but not great.  To make it a little better tell them as part of the deal they have to let your cards sit on the counter right by the cash register for a minimum of 1 year.  If you do that at least you will come out a head at some point as if 1 out of each 100 people that walked into that store hired you for something it would make all that material worth while.

[Graphic Systems 1]

Never work for free when it comes to a swap with any company.

  1. The sign man will allways loose in the end.

  2. You are selling a service and a hand made product. You have product, equipment ware, labor and time away from your other projects which will put you behind.

  3. By doing trades you have just trained your customer in a bad way. They will be less apt to pay your standard rates when it comes time for a cash deal. They will expect other such deals in the future or discounted rates.

  4. Making 6 gold leaf banners should bring you around $1200.00 with your logo on each banner in the lower right corner 1" x 3" area.

Remember, when you lower prices and swap products you also affect the rest of the sign companies in your area. It lowers there standards and the prices that the costomers are willing to pay. The bed set in all reality cost the dealer around $200.00 or so and they have no labor nor skill involved in the deal. You are a Graphic Artist with multi skills. You should be paid what you are worth!!  (Just my thoughts)

[BannerJohn 1,324]

Never work for free when it comes to a swap with any company.

  1. The sign man will allways loose in the end.

  2. You are selling a service and a hand made product. You have product, equipment ware, labor and time away from your other projects which will put you behind.

  3. By doing trades you have just trained your customer in a bad way. They will be less apt to pay your standard rates when it comes time for a cash deal. They will expect other such deals in the future or discounted rates.

  4. Making 6 gold leaf banners should bring you around $1200.00 with your logo on each banner in the lower right corner 1" x 3" area.

Remember, when you lower prices and swap products you also affect the rest of the sign companies in your area. It lowers there standards and the prices that the costomers are willing to pay. The bed set in all reality cost the dealer around $200.00 or so and they have no labor nor skill involved in the deal. You are a Graphic Artist with multi skills. You should be paid what you are worth!!  (Just my thoughts)

I agree..mostly.

Unless you REALLY need a bed.

That being said, I would quote the guy your normal rate for those banners and either go for a better set of mattress  or get him to throw in a matching chest or side tables. As most of us know...rates for banners vary from region to region. A $200 banner in some areas wuld be a $100 banner where I live. You base your prices on the competition in YOUR area not the industry-wide standard.

I have a regular customer..3-4 banners a month..who owns a chain of mattress outlets in SC...he sells a queen size set for $150. So that $500 mattress set you are wanting probably cost the guy about $200 or even less. There is a HIGH mark-up in te furniture biz... I should know,I was in it for 35 years. I could get a table/chair set for $100 that would retail for $600...have a half-price sale and still tripple my money.

In short,check around and see what others in your area are charging...don't sell yourself short but don't price yourself out of business either. Nobody's gonna pay you for sitting on your butt waiting for the phone to ring.

[Guest crshirts]

I agree with Graph on this one tho I am no expert by any means, I just know mark up on furniture is well

over 300% in most cases. Just my opinion tho.

Maybe 3 banners would be more of an even deal.

Carl

[SynFX 1]

they make it locally too... its comparable to mattresses of name brand of $1000 or better. memory foam pillow top.. top of the line..

[BannerJohn 1,324]

in that case...the deal you offered is a good deal.

[SynFX 1]

bannerjohn what would you charge for what I described?

[Cartierusm 0]

Syn, first off if you charged them your regular rates and didn't do a deal would they still want the job? If they do then your argument of "I really need a matress" is mute just make the banners, collect the money and then go back and buy the matress you want and if it's a little while later, a week or so, they might give you 10-20% off. If they only will do the deal if you trade then they don't really need the banners, but what you describe as what's going on it they do need it...seems like you have the power.

[SynFX 1]

What I ended up doing:

Today brought them price quotes for banners with standard

vinyl and one for hammered gold leaf.  They chose to go with

the quote for the standard vinyl which was $410 + tax.  The

hammered gold leaf quote was for $640 + tax.

We called a local major competitor and received a quote for

$788 + tax for hammered gold leaf and $533 + tax for the

standard vinyl. FOR 3' x 8' NOT 4' x 10' as needed.

We decided on an even trade for mattress and box spring.

After accepting the agreement we came back to get an actual

measurement to make sure the numbers matched the place

it was to be hung.  We found out they were misquoted to us.

The banner will be 4' x 10' with 14" x 108" detachable banners.

Rather than the original guesstimated size of 3' x 8' in size. The

price jumped to $211.74 out of pocket rather than $140.

But negotiated a bed frame with the deal!  So there you go.

A locally made bed worth $1,000 name brand, VERY COMFY

for $211.74 and a few hours.  Actual listed price $499 for

mattress and $100 for the frame. GREAT DEAL!

[Cartierusm 0]

All that matters if you're happy with the deal, then kudos.