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Kathy Moore
04-21-2011, 10:27 PM
We are looking for some pricing guidelines.
Customer brings an item to be engraved with a name and a date. We are at a loss as to what to charge. Anyone have any suggestions or guidelines?
Thanks Kathy

Joe Pelonio
04-21-2011, 11:09 PM
Everyone has their own way of pricing, but many will have an hourly rate with a minimum. It's not worth turning on the laser
$10. I have charged $60 for one-offs like the one you are asking about.

Gary Hair
04-22-2011, 1:57 AM
Not to be a smart a$$ but "an item to be engraved" doesn't tell us much. It could be 1" x 1", it could be 2' x 2', it could be a single character, it could be a very complex logo. The technology used to engrave it also make a difference. You have sandblasting and a laser, either could "engrave" something. Like Joe, I have a minimum charge - it's $35.00 - and no matter how small it is, that's the least I'll charge. Often that's losing money when you consider time spent talking to the customer, prep, layout, engraving, invoicing, etc., but the small one-off jobs tend to be like that. If I had too many one-off jobs like that I'd either go broke or raise my prices a bit.

Gary

Liesl Dexheimer
04-22-2011, 8:53 AM
Wow, I wish I could charge a $35 minimum! If I did that, customers would prob laugh in my face & leave. (no offense Gary, you truly are lucky). I've had so many price quotes on jobs fall through. A lot of people are shopping around for lowest price. I quoted $13.50 a piece for 2 jewelry boxes to be engraved with a name & date...never heard back from the customer.

As for pricing advice, most of those types of jobs take approx 1/2 hr between setup & engraving, but like Gary said it really depends on what it is. I usually try to charge anywhere between $18.00 - $35.00 but it really depends on what the item is & how long I think it will take to complete.

Scott Shepherd
04-22-2011, 9:19 AM
I refer stuff like that to a jeweler or "Things Remembered". I have no desire to engrave your $300 watch for $12. If I make a mistake, I don't have the resources to fix it. Jewelers do, and they engrave stuff like that all day. If they mess a watch back up, they know where to get a new one or can repair it.

I get calls almost every weekend where someone's found me on the internet and wants a cup, watch, or some piece of metal engraved with a name on it. I'm happy that I've not done a single one of them.

These are customers that will take 30 minutes of your time, explaining the font or what they want, then you'll have to setup a unique job, run it, get them back in, and deal with the invoicing, etc. For what? $15? Not worth it to me.

Martin Boekers
04-22-2011, 10:56 AM
Wow, I wish I could charge a $35 minimum! If I did that, customers would prob laugh in my face & leave. (no offense Gary, you truly are lucky). I've had so many price quotes on jobs fall through. A lot of people are shopping around for lowest price. I quoted $13.50 a piece for 2 jewelry boxes to be engraved with a name & date...never heard back from the customer.

As for pricing advice, most of those types of jobs take approx 1/2 hr between setup & engraving, but like Gary said it really depends on what it is. I usually try to charge anywhere between $18.00 - $35.00 but it really depends on what the item is & how long I think it will take to complete.

What works for one person doesn't neccessarly work for everyone. I usually tell them I price as competative as I can and as much as I like to I can't provide the quality and service for the price that they ae looking for.

You'll find what works for you after a while.

Sometimes you'll find, especially if your shop isn't to busy some of these jobs will help to at least
keep you at an even point.

I start at $10 and go up from there sometimes it hit's $50 or more.
Many of those customers have no idea what it costs, I'll bid $25 on a plaque
they bring in and say wow, it's that much? I have to explain that there is 10-15min
to set up, I usually don't have a template for customer supplied work, so a few more minutes
to make sure of placement maybe a test run. Then it may be 20-30minutes to run.

Most think it's a one, two, three process. I spend more time explaining it than the job is worth.
That's my biggest killer, working through the customer to get them to choose a product quickly
and efficiently, without them feeling rushed. If I spend more than 5minutes, It severely
cuts into my profit margin.

I do recommend Things Remembered alot to those searching prices if they think I am high
wait til they get a quote from them $$$$$$.

I do a lot of glasses for events, I end up selling just the engraving and recommend them
to Old Tyme Pottery or such. That way I don't have to buy and mark up the glasses as most don't
have that in the budget and I can then get a higher engraving fee.

Many engravers here sell mostly to commercial accounts which can be charged
more then the average "gift giver" so keep that in mind.

Pricing you have to be fluid to succeed, I hate the price shoppers they come in for one or two pieces to get a quote or have a quote for a local shop. then they come back and play
the "can you beat this game" They don't understand what it cost them to drive back and forth
to save a dollar or two.

David Fairfield
04-22-2011, 11:47 AM
Pricing is tricky. I find an easy way to set prices for stock items is to factor laser time at a certain amount per minute. The machine has got to earn its keep, it wasn't cheap and eventually it will need a new tube. Depends on what you paid for the machine I guess, but I think $2/min is about right.

For custom jobs its more difficult and personal. Like many others, I have a minimum, basically to prevent the time-drain of one-offs. My labor rate is based on a "happiness factor." Basically my hourly rate is based on my knowledge of the market and what I need to feel happy doing a job. If I charge too little, or too much, I just feel bad about it. Everyone has their own happy middle.

Dave

Gary Hair
04-22-2011, 12:13 PM
Wow, I wish I could charge a $35 minimum!

Martin got it right on the head - most of my customers are commercial accounts and I do very little that I would call "traditional retail engraving". I am usually busy enough that I will price those small retail jobs a bit too high, either they go elsewhere or I get paid enough to make the PITA worth it. For example, I engraved two watches last week a "his and hers" wedding gift. They had three words (14 letters total) on each but were two different sizes because they ladies watch was much smaller than the mans. It took me about 30 minutes total to setup, align, cermark and laser - $65.00. I quoted him a bit high because I knew it was going to be a challenge to laser 6pt letters in a space that left only .05 above and below the letters. Nobody else in town would even touch it so it was either me at my price or it didn't get done.

Gary

Kathy Moore
04-22-2011, 3:28 PM
Thanks to everyone who responded. This gives me a starting point and that is exactly what I needed. This group is most helpful!!
Thanks again Kathy

Ross Moshinsky
04-22-2011, 3:42 PM
If you want to, call up Classic Medallics. They do engraving at "industry standard" pricing. We've based our pricing off them for a while.

The honest trick with pricing is to make people think they are getting a good deal. On a piece of plastic with engraving, that might be hard. On a trophy, it's not as hard. We have one plaque in our store we make a ridiculous amount of profit on. It took 3 years but JDS is now advertising it in their catalog.

Kathy Madan
04-22-2011, 4:36 PM
We engrave one offs all day long, but not with the laser engraver. But we are a retail gift shop, not doing a lot of commercial work. We price very low and have been talking about raising prices again. Most of our one offs are on the diamond engraver and we have been doing this for 20+ years, so we have a pretty set rate and some loyal customers. It rarely takes more than 15 minutes to engrave most of the one offs we do and we make a decent living at it. We set up a font chart and pricing structure and can talk most customers thru the job quickly. There are always those few that we don't make any money at because they can't make up their mind. Things Remembered is definitely not the lowest prices around. Their engraving adds up quickly and we are usually less. Our set up charges start at $8 and there's no way I could charge $35 for most of what we do. I do charge more for most laser engraving one offs.

Liesl Dexheimer
04-23-2011, 11:41 AM
We have our regular accounts but occasionally we get those calls where someone bought something & wants it engraved. People have no idea the amount of time some things take to setup & engrave so I usually have to explain it to them. You certainly won't get rich with one-offs like this but it can be a little extra cash that can be reinvested elsewhere. I have had quite a few people go to Things Remembered & they are astounded @ the price. About a month ago I engraved one wine glass with about 5 lines of text. The customer was quoted $50.00 by TR, he thought that was unfair. I did it for $35.00, customer even complained about how he had to drive a ways out of the way to bring it to us. Oh, well was my thought...you either want it done or you don't. Not to mention this customer told us about how he had a boat @ a marina where my brother works, hence he has the $ to afford engraving. These customers can be PITA's...I try to do a quick price quote with some people cause I know they probably want it dirt-cheap or free...lol! It makes me wonder though, with the calls & emails I do get for price quotes, the ones that fall through...do they ever get the item engraved or do they simply give up because it's out of their price range...


What works for one person doesn't neccessarly work for everyone. I usually tell them I price as competative as I can and as much as I like to I can't provide the quality and service for the price that they ae looking for.

You'll find what works for you after a while.

Sometimes you'll find, especially if your shop isn't to busy some of these jobs will help to at least
keep you at an even point.

I start at $10 and go up from there sometimes it hit's $50 or more.
Many of those customers have no idea what it costs, I'll bid $25 on a plaque
they bring in and say wow, it's that much? I have to explain that there is 10-15min
to set up, I usually don't have a template for customer supplied work, so a few more minutes
to make sure of placement maybe a test run. Then it may be 20-30minutes to run.

Most think it's a one, two, three process. I spend more time explaining it than the job is worth.
That's my biggest killer, working through the customer to get them to choose a product quickly
and efficiently, without them feeling rushed. If I spend more than 5minutes, It severely
cuts into my profit margin.

I do recommend Things Remembered alot to those searching prices if they think I am high
wait til they get a quote from them $$$$$$.

I do a lot of glasses for events, I end up selling just the engraving and recommend them
to Old Tyme Pottery or such. That way I don't have to buy and mark up the glasses as most don't
have that in the budget and I can then get a higher engraving fee.

Many engravers here sell mostly to commercial accounts which can be charged
more then the average "gift giver" so keep that in mind.

Pricing you have to be fluid to succeed, I hate the price shoppers they come in for one or two pieces to get a quote or have a quote for a local shop. then they come back and play
the "can you beat this game" They don't understand what it cost them to drive back and forth
to save a dollar or two.

Bill Cunningham
04-23-2011, 8:53 PM
Not to mention this customer told us about how he had a boat @ a marina where my brother works, hence he has the $ to afford engraving.

The 'boat' probably keeps him broke..ha....

I don't do jewelery of any kind. Not worth the hassle. I also have no problems at all about sending a PITA job to a competitor:D And I do so about 5-6 times a month..
I'm a one man band, and I simply don't have the time for customer supplied 'one offs'. They 'never' come into the shop looking anything like the customer described, and the artwork (and I use the term laughingly), is almost always some low res web graphic, or something they whipped up on a .doc file using downloaded clip art. If the art won't produce a good job, I sure don't want to be associated with it when someone ask's who did it for them. When you see the real job, and quote them a price, you have to make sure it's worth it, you make a profit, and the finished quality is something you want other people to know that you did it! That sure beats "Price/Quality/Speed - Pick two"

Tim Bateson
04-23-2011, 11:26 PM
I both agree & disagree about dealing with "one-off" jobs. It's true no one will ever get rich doing these types of jobs & yes they can be time consuming & a pain to deal with. On the other side of the coin - every major job I've had originated from one of those "one-off" pain in the... job. Either directly or as a referral.

Back on topic - there is some very sound advice here. One more is NEVER undervalue your time.

David Fairfield
04-24-2011, 9:01 AM
Another potential for one-offs is they become two-offs, or more, when the original customer shows his friends. So always save the file. Or sometimes the concept and/or artwork is so good that you can do the job for free, or at a discount, in exchange for the rights.