For those of you that show mainly just risers, what if the customer wants a 24" or so trophy? For the ones of you that don't want to stock supplies being in this business, just send your customers to me when they want a trophy with size!
We carry mainly PDU and keep the catalog out to show customers every choice available as far as figures, column etc. When a customer wants something different, we pull out all the other catalogs and search. Sometimes we may not make as much money from buying column we don't normally stock but we have made another customer satisfied.
We buy checkrings by the case (2000) at about 5cents or less each. $98.00 a case I think. Ferrules we buy by the bag (500). Threaded rod by the 1000. We stock around 15 or so different sizes.
Just a tip...... I have shelves in the back of the shop area near the miter saw that I keep the column on. I use the boxes that marble comes in to put the smaller peices in. On the ends of the box I have what color and model/name. When I get ready to cut an order I try to use the scrap first. Also as far as using the styrofoam boxes for column I use it for trophy figures as well. I used my vinyl cutter to letter them with "school" "baseball" etc. Those boxes stack nicely and there's always plenty of them.
Keep in mind, if the customer halfway knows what they want and they don't see it at your store, they are GONE! John