Pricing granite engraving

[Hannu Rinne]

Hi to all,

What would you charge for this kind of job, engraved and color filled on black granite, with unfinished (not polished) edges (size 7,8"x5,9" - with a simple table model acrylic holder) ? In the picture is my own dog (who obviously don't like to be a model as you can see) but I should engrave several different breeds and I don't want overprice/underprice those...

Regards from rainy Finland,
Hannu

[Terry Swift]

Hannu,

Pricing is totally subjective. Your costs in Finland may be double my costs here in the U.S.; so I don't have to charge what you would need too. Most folks here try to go for at least $1 a minute for their time; but there can be a perceived value that can add even to that price. Granite and crystal, if done right has a much higher perceived value than acrylic or wood. Nature of the material.

How do you like your GCC? Most of us U.S. types are not exactly intrigued by the Chinese lasers; but I think GCC is stepping up it's game by being at trade shows - thus relaxing that eBay fear of the rest.

[Dan Hintz]

If it's the same design every time, I might sell them for around $30... if it involves using their own dog's image, I would probably be closer to $60.

[Hannu Rinne]

Terry and Dan,

Thanks for your answers. Yes, my (our) costs here are totally higher than yours in the US as everything here is too expencive :) There is about 20 different dog images I should do, so I was also thinking something like 50-60,- (euros) / piece... The biggest job for me in this case is to prepare the dog photos - the material costs and the laser time are quite small. Maybe it is better to ask a little too high price and then give some discount if needed :D

So far I have nothing bad to say about GCC. The only problem is that there is only one dealer for GCC here in Finland and they don't keep any spares at stock (also here is only one dealer for Epilog as laser engraving isn't very common here). I case something will fail in my laser I propably have to order spares from middle Europe (not bad because that way I can get spares a lot cheaper than from my country).

Regards,
Hannu

[Terry Swift]

Great to hear Hannu. Yes, going to the old Soviet Block has its benefits in costs versus many main Euro countries. Having lived in Germany for 3 years; it was not bad compared to like Italy or the Scandinavian countries. The old Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were great bargains back in the late '80s / early 90's. Of course, the dollar was pretty low back then and it was hard to do anything on a military paycheck. I would like to make it back there sometime; but feel that Central / South America is my next home call. Cost of living there is very good compared to the U.S. and not as much political issues going on.

Your granite seems to have quite a bit of quartz in it. Are you not able to get what they call "absolute" black granite? Maybe a super black marble would be a better choice. Here, the costs are fairly close for sizes like 8" x10"; but we can get 12" squares at home centers at a better price; but quality is not as good throughout the material like some of our marble / granite sellers to laser people. I haven't tried dogs yet; but did you just do it in CorelDraw or use like PhotoGrav or one of the other picture to marble conversions? I think they came out very well and that is a definite market here in the U.S. - Pets!!!!!

Keep up the great work and post more of your stuff as we like to see what is going on around the world to inspire us as well.

[Hannu Rinne]

Terry,

Yes, there is a lot of quartz in the granite but not as much as in Finnish granite (this is Chinese). We have several dealers for granite here, but so far I haven't try to find any better choice as I have more than 100 square meters this stuff in stock and I'm trying to sell it out somehow before buying more. I cut the granite pieces with a tile saw, but I've planned to buy a waterjet to help the job (and for making something else too), but I haven't find any suitable machine yet for my needs (small enough). Mostly I modify the photos in PhotoPaint or in Photoshop and ran them trough Photograv but in some cases just straight through GCC's print driver, which seems to be quite handy also...

About the pets - I like a lot of dog's and cat's (and every animals, excluding spiders), but I just wonder why people are ready to spend so much money for every kind of "unnecessary" things - good for us, but in fact, I don't want pay a lot to see my dog picture on granite :D

Regards,
Hannu