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Topic: Zip-change letters

Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 01-14-2019 04:21 PM

Before I retired, I sold a lot of letters. Typical cinema dealer worked at 10-12% markup. Typical sign company works at 300-400%. Neither stocks the letters; too many sources colors and sizes. Molded letters in BLACK have an advantage that they are less subject to UV deterioration. Letters on polycarb will freeze in the tracks, but are OK further South.

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Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 01-14-2019 04:50 PM

I've spent too much time standing on a ladder at midnight in a snowstorm chiseling letters out of the tracks and trying to warm them with a hairdryer. No letter signs for me, thanks. [Smile]

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-14-2019 06:27 PM

quote: Frank Cox
I've spent too much time standing on a ladder at midnight in a snowstorm chiseling letters out of the tracks and trying to warm them with a hairdryer.

This is why I hire teenagers...they are fearless about the weather.

quote: Bobby Henderson
I kind of prefer the look of slotted Wagner letters. They provide more of a classic marquee look. Instead of the letter being screen printed on a piece of flat clear plastic the letter is a solid dimensional object with .625" deep returns. The slotted letters hang on rails. The downside is those kind of letters require bigger sign faces to contain the same message as a flat changeable copy sign (due to how the rails are traditionally spaced).

Agreed on all counts about the dimensional letters. Our drive-in here (where I got my first projection experience) had a sign with those letters. Biggest issue there is space... we have a tiny basement room where the letters are kept and the dimensional letters would have been just too space-hogging. We've had flat letters all along so the new ones look fine compared to the old. I picked the "modern" font because it is basically the same font as the hand-made letters we had before. Just a little smaller. The letters float in the white space a little, but still nice and readable, and much neater.

I do worry about the freezing-in-the-tracks issue. Guess we'll deal with that when it happens. I know it's going to happen.

quote: Alan Plester
presuming thats come out of your tab savings then????

Not really, it falls under maintenance. But our curtain (tab) savings has pretty much been combined with "new projector" savings lately. Since we need to plan on upgrading projection every now and then we may never have proper curtains. Sad as that is. Maybe I should start a "gofundme" for that.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 01-14-2019 10:36 PM

quote: Louis Bornwasser
Typical sign company works at 300-400%. Neither stocks the letters; too many sources colors and sizes.

My company does not mark up changeable copy letters 300%-400% in price, much less anything else. We do pay a little less (the wholesale price) for those letters, but not very much. I don't know of any other sign companies in my region foolish enough to charge really high mark-ups either. Not many people get rich in the sign industry. The profit margins are not all that high.

To repeat what I said earlier, my theory is either the sign company who quoted Mike the super high price either had a serious brain-fart. Or (more likely) they did not want to mess with the job. That could be for a few reasons. If the sign company is too busy they might give a high price quote as a means of sending the customer elsewhere. Lots of people shop around after all. Another reason: if the sign company didn't originally build the sign then they're hesitant about touching the existing structure for any service work. Once a sign company starts doing any service work on a sign they didn't build the client will figure any on-going problems with the sign are the new sign company's fault. I've personally seen that scenario play out numerous times.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 01-23-2019 11:18 PM

Well, this company has been working on this old sign for at least 20 years now, maybe longer, so they know it inside and out. The same neon guy has been with them the whole time, too. I don't think they would ever think of me as a "problem" account -- I am not demanding, I always pay invoices in a timely manner, and they do a lot of other work around here too so it makes sense for them to work on our sign. I've never had a hint of them not wanting to mess with the job.

They are the ones who suggested that it needed to be rewired, and I always take them up on their suggestions. It seemed reasonable since all the wiring was original, as far as I know, and some of it looked pretty shabby. So, I haven't ever had a reason not to like this company. Until the high-priced letters.

Speaking of the letters, they are proving a huge pain in the ass to work with compared to the old ones... we've had a few snow storms followed by "melts," so the letters are getting frozen in the tracks. Plus the flat panels are harder to handle than the previous cut-out letters were. Maybe the molded ones might not be a bad idea after all. Luckily my hardy nephew handles the marquee job, so he's the one out there freezing. I feel bad for him. A bonus or a raise may be in order.

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