fribhey wrote:KingOfNothing wrote:Supply vs. demand. Like a stripper lap dancing in Vegas on Super Bowl weekend.
it has nothing to do with supply and demand.
- materials cost money (preservation/archival quality materials are very expensive, especially museum glass)
- tools cost money
- knowledge and craftsmanship costs money
- time to do the job it costs money
if you want it cheaper then do it yourself. go out, buy the tools, materials, etc and frame the artwork you have. do you think an electrician will only change you $20 to come to your house to change an outlet or light switch because of supply and demand or because a switch/outlet only costs $10-15 at home depot? electricians, plumbers or any kind of skilled craftsmen are not going to charge you less because there are more customers, if anything, the more in demand you, which usually is a result of the quality of work you do, are the higher your costs are going to be. there's no difference to hiring a professional framer, who uses professional materials and professional tools and the knowledge to use them than hiring an electrician to replace an outlet or light switch for you. you can either change that switch/outlet at cost yourself (or frame the art/print yourself) or higher someone to do it for you.
until you learn a craft, or get an education, about something you no nothing about, stop dictating the value of someone else's knowledge, craft/skills and time. if you think a CUSTOM frame should be less than a $40 print then good luck finding it, museum glass alone costs a hell of a lot more than that. if you do find a cheap ass framer then don't come here in a few years when you try to take the print out and find that it's either drymounted or severely sun damaged... you get what you pay for.
Oh, ok son, I'll presume you were referring to me? Says the person who can't lead off a sentence with proper capitalization. Get an education? Ok, check! Learn a craft? Let me look, yup, 25+ years and going strong, check! I'm not claiming to be the framing master that you supposedly are, my opinion isn't meant to be taken as gospel like yours apparently is. Mine was more of an overall generalization sprinkled with a little tongue and cheek humor, especially my last sentence. I apologize for speaking out of turn/giving an opinion without first checking in with you. Next time I will, I can guarantee that. Or maybe not, yeah, I'm probably lying there. So you can push your glasses back up on your nose and take a deep breath. Relax Francis, you can breathe now. Ahhh, that feels good doesn't it?
From your response I'll put your age range at somewhere in your early to mid-thirties. Some knowledge under your belt but not quite there yet. You're argument is craftsmanship, and you'll always pay a premium for that, I don't disagree ok? But if everyone and there mother were buying frames/glass/archival material everyday 24/7/365 and demanding frame-ups, you would for sure see a rise in people providing that service - and along with it - undercutting rates competing for business, hence, costs go down. You see how that works? Sure, you'll have those "true" craftsmen like in every single industry, who will charge accordingly. You're paying for the experience not the materials in that case. There's an ecosystem in place. And high quality frames are costing a premium because it's not like there's a mad dash for college graduates to jump in the "super lucrative" field of custom framing. I'm being completely sarcastic. So no need to get upset and correct me on the fact that "most framers do it for the love of the craft and most live paycheck to paycheck." That's blatantly obvious already. There, I finished your sentence for you.
I wish I could prove my point "supply vs. demand" in a simplified way that you could understand. Put it this way, if there were custom frame shops on every street corner alongside every McDonald's and Starbucks but not just monopolies, legitimate competition like Taco Bell and Del taco price would come down all across the board. Suppliers would be cranking out material, its not like all archival material is made from some extinct "archive tree" in the Amazon where rarity dictates price.
I'm going to slowly back out of this thread now... so if I don't respond anymore it's because I lost interest and have moved on.
Good day!