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I went to Staples last night to do some pricing on various items. As I wandered around the store, I came to a very interesting aisle. It was the "sign" aisle. I've seen them before, the "For Sale", "Restroom", and stuff like that, but this time there was something that caught my eye that said "vehicle". I picked it up and just about fell over laughing!
"Vehicle Sign Kit" - contains: 2 - 12" x 18" white vinyl-covered magnetic pieces, 2 - sets of vinyl letters (one red, one black) in a few different sizes (the whole alphabet), and 2 - rolls of striping (one red, one black) to add those "special effects"! Turn the package over and on the back laid all of the instructions for making your very own vehicle magnetic signs! With pictures for examples!! Cost = $30.49.
I felt the need for a person like me to just dwindle away when everyone can see how easy this signwork is! And I thought...OH MY GOD, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO LETTERVILLE?!?!?!
Of course, the "kit" was sitting right next to the "do-it-yourself divorce", "do-it-yourself incorporation", and the "do-it-yourself wills".
Maybe we could buy some kits wholesale and add another "tier" to our pricing levels. hmmmmmmm??
[ February 14, 2002: Message edited by: Randy W. Robarge ]
-------------------- Randy Graphic Details Promotional Merchandise Distributor South Glens Falls, NY Posts: 381 | From: South Glens Falls, NY USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Buy one of those kits, have your wife, girlfriend, kid, neighbor, or anyone else you know (who would do a crappy job) make up a sample sign and use it as a display in your shop. Put a little card next to it that says "Dont be fooled by do-it-yourself kits" and maybe even make up a GOOD looking set of magnetics and display them next to the crappy ones for comparison.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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There will always be those people that a kit like that will satisfy and let them have it! The people that would buy those kits are EXACTLY the kind of customers that a quality sign shop DOESN'T want as customers! You should thank Staples for weeding out the annoying people who would call for a price and then bitch and moan about how much it costs.
Nothing to sweat about my friends - stand confident in knowing that as Letterheads you produce the quality signwork that you can and should be proud of.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne
Posts: 3722 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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we have had several"fly by night" vinyl graphic shops pop up. as quick as they come, that is how quick they go!! someone buys a computer ,with a vinyl cutter,puts their wife or teenager in business not aware of the complications of design ,application, or the fact if you scrape your windows wrong in winter you ruin it, and back to square 1...it is not as easy as it looks. even weeding the vinyl is a tedious ,often time-consuming task. lotta work...they need to forget do-it-yourself...
-------------------- Faye Welsh (fiddles) 4848 cherry street allison park, pa. 15101 fiddles51@yahoo.com Posts: 259 | From: 4848 Cherry St. Allison Park,Pa. 15101 | Registered: Dec 2001
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We all have done the " do it yourself " thing at one time or another, It is in every industry.
Scary story...I was lettering an excavator the other day and the owner was telling me about a Doctor that was trying to save some money, so he rented a backhoe and was digging a trench. He hit a gas line, burned down his barn, burned down his house and the kicker is his mother was in the house at the time and she died.
But he saved a buck or two!!!!
Hence my tag line..... " Some people's Kids"
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you."
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I have one of those kits! When the right cheapskate comes along, I pull it out to sell as an alternative. They get duly offended and leave, or usually it functions as a sales tool.Hurry back and buy one.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6799 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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