Hi All,

Lately I have had a couple of organizations walk in with about 10, very old, dusty trophies. Some of them have been around since 1991. Anyways, they need the engraving done. Typically the engraving plates are 5 to 7 inches wide and 1 inch tall. Also I will end up changing the figure on top to either soccer or football etc.

My question is, how do I go about charging for something like this? The figures will be cost times 3 but what about the time and engraving and cleaning and dusting.

I could use flexi or alumn for engraving.

Regards
Nash

Nash,

Maybe the folks around here are klutzes but I replace a fair number of broken figures each month. I charge between 2.5 and 3 times the cost of the figure.
For engraving charge 2 - 3 times your cost (remember shipping costs too) for the material plus your standard engraving rate.
You should also have a standard shop rate for artwork, repair, etc. That would apply to cleaning and dusting.

I had a customer come n last week and ask what I charged to polish silver. I told her $65.00 an hour.....after she closed her mouth she asked what special machine I used to preform the task.. I showed her a bottle of silver polish and a soft rag and then motioned.. Wax on, Wax off........ She said she could do that alot cheaper......... sold!

I get horse trophies in for update that have been proudly displayed in the barn next to the hay, feed and whatever.. They come in that way.....they go out thay way. I would not want to remove the valuable crust that time has placed on these beauties....

what is your time worth ?

Mark,

I will dust a trophy for a customer but I would not remove the "crust" either. I would wear rubber gloves while working on it though.

$65 per hour is pretty reasonable for labor.

Thanks a bunch folks, I was thinking around 50-60 dollars per hour. Also I will charge for engraving on top plus the figures

regards
Nash

Hi: We charge $2.50 to remove and 2.50 to replace or place new plates, plus a $5.00 min.
for plates regardeless of size, and regular engraving rates (per character, dots, dashes, etc.
included.) We wanted to discourage this kind of business, and instead, it has just grown.
Our minimum for a figure on a base with a line of engraving is $8.00, so they sometimes figure out it's cheaper to buy a small new award instead of maintaing the old one.

I really like that formula. It is simple and easy enough to explain. Just so I am understanding this correct, the $5.00 for any size plate does include engraving. Or do you charge per line and or character on top of it. Thank you.

On a different note the problem is sometimes I get so busy I dont have time to sit there and count each character, dash etc..( at this time I wear many diifferent hats, solo operation.)

Hi:
Glad it helped
Remember, we're talking old trophies here. If they want the lord's prayer, I count Char.'s
The five dollar plate charge is just for the plate, with cut corners, any holes, and tape.
In terms of counting, after 40 years it takes me about 30 seconds to count up to 100
characters. We are talking about tropy plates and they usually don't contain all that
many characters. In a rush, on a multiple line plate, I just count one medium length
line and double or triple it. I'm believe that it averages out. If they want to count,
I'll accept their count unless it's obviously off. They can remove the
old plates themselves and put the new one on if they want to save money.
"NEVER COUNT BY ONES, ONLY COUNT BY TWOS.", old sheepherder's rule.

That is an excellent formula. It really helps especially when I get busy. On a laser is it safe to assume that 25 cents per character is average, or is it on the low side. Especially when the laser needs recharging every so often.

regards
Nash