Chuck,
On a Tropar plaque we charge their listed price and give 100 free letters. After that it is .22 a letter. We tried charging .25 per letter and met a great deal of resistance. They would say things like ,"The word that costs a dollar?". At .22 cents our customers don't seem to blink. We do not carry any low end Tropar product. Our 2nd best selling plaque in the store is item P4137 which retails for $120.00. Most end up costing the customer between 140.00-150.00 with the extra letter charge. Our best selling plaque is something we put together. We use an 8x10 gray simulated marble "wood" from Liberty and Harv cuts the brass. We charge 36.50 with 100 letters. With the extra letter charge the customer usually pays about $50.00. Our material cost is under 2.50. We sell on average 5-10 per week. The vast majority of our plaques are done for kids to give to their parents, spouses to give each other, employees to give to other employees who are leaving and for churches. These are the consumers that probably would never step into a stand alone engraving shop.

Dee

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)