Yet another pricing question - Per letter?

[Dave Yanke]

OK, still trying to get a feeling for things. Most of what we have produced have been designs, plaques etc. Now we have a client looking to mark items, mostly with just lettering with maybe an occasional logo, on items they supply. In this case it's handcuffs and mag lights for a law enforcement supplier.

I have seen some charge by inch and some charge by the traditional engravers per letter charge. Set-up on items will be minimal once I get templates set-up and other items, like the cuffs, it will be almost none existent. There will be a mixture of items that need something like Cermark (cuffs) and items that do nit (mag lights, pens, etc).

[Joe Pelonio]

The only thing I do by letter is laser cut letters,and for those my chart is for 1/8" and 1/4" acrylic, then gets adjusted for detailed fonts, other materials or thicknesses. I do this only because I do so many of them and it's a lot easier.

For engraving I still think time is better than per letter, since the time it takes can vary so much between fonts, letter sizes, and materials. You can end up short changing yourself or being to high to be competitive.

[Ray Uebner]

On the rotary engraver I charge buy the letter and works well, on the laser I agree that time is the factor so I charge by the min. There have been other discussions on this so you have to figure your shop rate and then come up with a per min charge. You can do a search on this I am sure you will find the formula. Everyones cost is different for different location in the country so one persons charge may not apply for your costs and area. Hope this helped.

[Mike Null]

On something like handcuffs and flashlights I would set a price for the job rather than using time or letters. The job has a value, say $5-$10 as an example, but in time it takes only a few seconds to engrave and a minute to set up.

For example, I have a 4.50 minimum on pens or $5 on singles. It's not worth it to me to price it lower.