I have taxidermy buddy who charges two different prices, and offers two different grades of whitetail mounts. He calls them a basic commercial mount and a semi-competition commercial mount. I am not for sure of all the differences, but I know supplies are higher quality on one and he spend a few extra hours on it also. He basically assembly lines the basic mounts and ads some personal touch to the other. He charges $325 for the basic and $425.00 for the semi-comp. piece. He has taken in 126 whitetails this season and his ratio is about 1:1. I have always thought this was a "goofy" practice. But know I am starting to wonder. What are your ideas on this selling technique. If you are wondering, he is a superb taxidermist with a wall full of blue ribbons. We are not talking hacksidermists here. How many of you use this business practice.
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I'm $390 this year and took in 140 plus whitetails. If I would have taken in all the deer that peaople were calling for price, I would have taken probably 60 to 70 more.
The whole idea is to get them into my impressive showroom where I'm sure I could get most of them to spend the extra cash for a higher quality mount. Make it clear that although it is a higher price, it is a better value and that you would rather do the better mount for them.
Remember, you must sell yourself as well as your work. Act and look like a professional.
I say we should strive to do our very best work on EVERYTHING as if it were being done for the Lord personally. Charge what you have to make a profit based on that; sign everything on the backboard or the base. If people do want or can not afford it on those terms we don't need their business. You and your work is worth every penny of what you say it is and the way you say and do it. Anything and everything less is a cheat and lie to your client and/or yourself.
I can see why your friend is doing it and I have witnessed it with several other taxidermists. It does give customer an opportunity to get a deer mounted at a lower price without all that detail.
Downside of it though is you may actually loose customers doing it this way. What if a potential client sees one of those basic mounts and thinks that is the best this taxidermist can do? He may not know that there are two different types of quality mounts offered. This could potentially deter a good client to bring you their animals to mount.
I thought about doing it this way for a while but then decided otherwise. I want all my deer to be of the same quality. If someone doesn't want to pay that price they can take it somewhere else, but I do not want to risk someone thinking I don't put a lot of detail in my mounts.
Just my thought on this matter.
THIS IS MY FIRST YEAR IN DOING TAXIDERMY AS MY FULL TIME WORK. I HAVE 2 PRICES ON MY DEER, #1 IS $330.00 YOU GET A SEPTEM IN THE NOSE, ROTATED EYES, EARS FRONT OR BACK, NECTATED MEMBRAIN IN EYE. #2 $450.00 IS FOR OPEN MOUTH,AND OR PEDASTOOL WITH ALL OF THE ABOVE. A PANEL AND BASE WORK IS EXTRA, ALL REPAIRS @ $10.00 PER HOUR, FIRST HOUR IS NO CHARGE.MY TURN OUT TIME IS 90 DAYS. I HAVE A SHOP WITH NO SHOW ROOM, JUST A SEASONAL DISPLAY ON ONE WALL, 3 WHITETAIL MOUNTS ARE ON IT, #1 SHOWING THE $330.00 WORK #2 SHOWING THE $450.00 AND #3 SHOWING A MOUNT FROM THE TAXIDERMIST 10 MILES UP THE ROAD. THE SHOP UP THE ROAD CHARGES $400.00, GOOD WORK BUT HAS NOT CHANGED IN 25 YEARS. I GIVE PRICES OVER THE PHONE. I HAVE NO PRITTED PRICE LIST TO GIVE OUT. I ALSO DON'T CHARGE BY THE INCH FOR FISH, I CHARGE FOR THE TYPE OF FISH. PEOPLE ASK WHY MY PRICES ARE LESS AND HOW I CAN GET OUT THE WORK SO FAST, I TELL THEM, AS YOU CAN SEE MY OVERHEAD IS LOW,NO BIG SHOW ROOM, I TAKE IN ONLY WHAT I CAN DO ,WORKING 40 HOURS A WEEK, 50 WEEKS A YEAR, AND ONLY TAKE IN WORK I CAN MAKE MONEY AT. I DON'T DO AFRICAN WORK, FULL MOUNT TURKEY AND GEESE, RUGS OR LARGE LIFE SIZE LIKE DEER AND BEAR. ALLSO NO CRAP LIKE TURTLES, SNAKES DOGS AND CATS. I ENJOY BEING A TAXIDERMIST, AND MAKE A NICE LIVING AT IT, TO MANY PEOPLE STRESS OVER MONEY. LIKE MOST PEOPLE, 2 NEW CAR PAYMENTS, 10 CREDIT CARDS,BIG MORGAGE AND JUNK YOU JUST DON'T NEED, 4 WHEELERS, 30 GUNS, ECT. YOU NEED TO CHARGE MORE, YOU DON'T DO ANY MORE OR BETTER WORK THEN I DO YOU JUST NEED MORE $ BECAUSE YOU LIVE OUTSIDE YOUR MEANS AND OR ARE GREADY. THE TAXIDERMIST THAT SAY YOU DESIRVE TO MAKE $30.-$40.00 PER HOUR MUST THINK TAXIDERMY IS HARD TO DO. IT IS THE EASYEST JOB I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. TO EASY. IF YOU CHARGE MORE THEN $350.00 FOR A GOOD W/T SHOULDER MOUNT YOU MUST THINK VARY HIGH OF YOUR SELF. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN GET MORE DOESN'T MAKE IT OK.
And here's BOB being a fool.
We had this conversation over two grades of work already in here. Look it up if you can, I think we covered it well. Im totally against it, myself. Read that post and see what you think of my view. Ill bet youll agree. Let me know...
By the way, based on upper case BOB's thinking, I must certainly think highly of myself.
Bob has been snorting DP to long its the most tediest, demanding work I have yet encountered. If its done right you have to have your sh,t together. Just my thoughts Jack F
We have a member in our association who feels exactly the same as Bob. Only difference is, he charges only $240.00 per whitetail. He is full-time and bosted about grossing $20,000 in wages last year. I told him, I grossed more than that doing it part-time. He also considers most taxidermists greedy and pushes this in advertising. His main sales pitch is his low prices. Bob, you would be greedy by his standards. To each his own though. The one point Bob forgot was taxidermy is an art. Not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can perform it. Exceptional work, should demand a premium price. Bob, I would love to see your website. Do you have a site address? Thanks
$30 - $40 an hour? What rock is he living under. I charge $400 and I spend between $100 and $125 on supplies. Then there's electricity and tools (of course I don't use the Fred Sandford trash he uses to flesh his hides with and those modern machines cost a few times more than his wire wheel and 2/4 and the fleshing beam. Freezers to keep the hides for the year before I get to them, the shop I work in, and the other utilities and supplies I use in tanning. Then I put probably 20 hours in a mount from start to finish and my wages look more like the hired help at McDonalds. (At least there, they have set hours and get paid every week whether they have lots of customers or not.) I like to think I make $20 and hour, but my math's probably as bad as his in the long run. So you keep underpricing us. You obviously know what your work is worth. But I know a secret. So do our customers. LMAO
Bob needs to experience the real world, the other day I had a plumber come over and fix the faucet.I found out it was a cartridge he pulled it out,put in a new one and charged me $80.00. He was only here for 15 minutes I could of done that if I knew how! Same as taxidermy, but taxidermy needs an artistic talant,which not everyone has.Look as these artists that do paintings their getting thousands of dollars! PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT !
I was thinking about a four wheeler for my daughter so we could each have one to ride, but after reading your post, I geuss I would be too greedy. By the way, it is "nictitating membrane".
to see your work Bob. Do you have a website by chance. I too was proud of my work my first year, then I went to a taxidermy convention in my state. Wow was that a wake up call. I bet your in the same spot I was, so therefore I would love to see your work!
We are overpriced? It is funny how I keep reading these posts by certain people bragging how they will take on our extra work and their turn around time is 90 days or less.Let me tell you something. We aren't stupid.This tells us that they are not busy and if they had freezers full of stuff to mount,how in the world would everyone get their mounts back in less than 60 or 90 days?The same ones are constantly offering their work for way less than anyone elses and guess what,I have looked at their work and laughed!Yeh,I could turn out a deer head for $200 but I won't.It would look like crap if I wanted to even make $50 on it.I have not yet viewed pictures of any taxidermist who is wanting the cheaper turn around work that I would put out to any customer.The time it takes to do all the prep work and detail work to make a nice mount takes a little time.Now, what is your time worth.Would you go out and take a job for $10 an hour when you get an offer for $20? Don't think so!
While I agree with some of you in principle, lets not go too far here. Bob, while sounding abrasive, must feel strongly enough about what hes doing to post it here. Theres plenty of room for Bob and Kenneth in taxidermy. What Im saying is, Ive seen plenty of posts describing business practices that made me shake my head. We might not wanna go too far chastising him, thats all. Hell, if you saw the mistakes Ive pulled in the recent past, you might be killing me in here too. Lets hope that Bob...uses lower case next time, and...sees his economic potential. I know you all mean well, but lets not just berate his site. You guys are good guys, dont slip!
One thing I have noticed is everyone thinks their work is good.I have learned this through many years of detail work and painting.I simply say that one can't judge his own work and everyones different as far as detail.I look at ebay and the amount of money people spends for mounts that aren't,shall I say,as good as others.And I'm not the best and have goals to reach,I can admit.I always have a way of saying things that come out wrong.I will say it like this.I have viewed work of others that I don't feel is worth the money.And I think everyone has.From here locally to Ebay to Websites and have guys ask what do you get for a deer mount.I tell them and they say well so and so only charges $250.There is so much that can be done in Taxidermy and alot of times customers only look at the dollar and the best value instead of the difference in work.I guess some people here look at the size of the rack instead of the detail but I still want to do my best to beat my competition.I guess I have also learned that there are people very happy with a lesser quality mount versus spending the extra money for a more detailed mount.All depends on the customer.