Why is it that no matter where you go, everyone expects less for your work. They dont realize that a huge chunk of your work is supplies. Forms, eyes ears, paste, thread, clay, epoxy, paint. It all adds up. They expect you to give them a $400 mount for $150. Which only covers the eyes ears and form! They dont think about the work that goes into the mount. Tehy only thik of the bargin! I wish more people would appreciate the work and talent it takes to do these animals, then how hard its going to hit thier pocket book. You pay for what you get. You want a Pinto, you pay $300 you want a Ferrari, you pay $60,000. Its what you want and what your willing to pay!
I had a new client come in a week ago and refuse to pay the agreed price for the mount. Thankfully I had not mounted his deer yet. He told me he knew someone who would do a quicker and cheaper job. He said he wanted his antlers and hide back. I gave them to him and he went out the door feeling rather proud of the deal he was getting.
Today, the guy came in with his mount.
It stunk!
I mean literally! The thing was rotting off the form! The person he went to, salted the cape, threw it on the form and glued it down as if that was all it needed. Well, needless to say, the client looked rather embarassed and angry. I could not save the cape, but I did find him a new one...for a price.
He complained about the additional cost, but I told him, he should have come to someone who knew what they were doing before he went to someone who did not. And for that it cost him. He could not argue with that, since the mount was sitting in all its glorious odor right next to him. He paid the cost and he has to wait, but it will get done properly.
It irks me that people will do whatever it takes to get a bargin and spend money on a lost cause. Only to find out what a mistake it was and have to correct it. Inevitably spend more money and cost them the embarassment too.
People come in all the time and make outrageously low offers on great mounts, expecting me to jump at the deal. They haggle and try, but i never give in. The work is just as exausting and alot more detailed than your average blue collar job. They just dont get it. They think it all comes out of thin air.
I really appreciate the work that Taxidermist do. I wish more people did.
With all that we go through, We should have our own holiday!
LOL
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Sorry, that part was too funny. Yep, he sure got a bargain did he? HAHAHA Serves him right.
BP
Oh, Gina, do I know what you mean! There was this guy that has come around my shop a few times , bringing in a little this and alittle that for me to fix. He inherited his dad's educational farm and I don'tknow if he had much income himself. But he wanted a snake skinned and mounted just stretched out on a board off the farm. Snake was form farm also. So kind of in his dad's honor I cut him a deal. It wasn't going to break me anyway $1.00/inch. It looked rally good and he was happy. Then there was a squirrel. Then he brought 3 rattlesnakes wanted them all mounted with a base in a glass coffee table. I thought that was going to be out of his price range. So I told him to start with the coffee table. He ended up ordering one and having it sent to me and I had to put together and then voer the coarse of a year aksing for depsoit etc on forms. Got the 3 snake forms and mounted 2 snakes. Then told him all wouldnt fit with what he wanted in case. So he finally came back and said he wanted to just stop there and wrap it up as he thought it was getting too expensive. I had quoted him $3.00/inch (thinking that was still the going price as I hadn't done one in 8 years) well he had a fit said I quoted $2 but he paid.. Now I see it is $6! hahah on me. But goes to show you...
Everyone is looking for a bargin, Most people do including you & I, but since it is our field we look at it different. We have to get paid...Grocery shopping, car shopping, sales etc?. If Ford doesnt make a profit, they lay off... Buy that coffee from walmart to save a buck, guess what the guy at folgers gets his pay cut, the list goes on. In taxidermy alot of people do just that.... bargin shop. (its all the same;) Most Customers are clueless....otherwise the Pat wagners', Scott Brewer and the other best in world winners would have all the work... I mean ALL THE WORK........just my thoughts.steve
I had a guy call me at the end of deer season and said he had a buck he shot in Ohio that scored 213". He told me he shot it in the neck 2 times with a 12 guage slug and wondered if I could fix it. Trying to get him in my shop to see my work, I said " bring it over, I can probably work with it!" when he got to my shop he pulled up in one of those big dually wheeled doge hemi trucks. He told me he had went to Ohio and stayed every year in his motor home for deer season. He went on to say he retired from an auto plant, Ford or GM or somthing.
I gave him the grand tour, showed him what septums was. I showed him the differnce between tanned and DP hides. I showed him the white banded eyes VS. Aspheric. I talked to him for an hour. It was a massive buck. I even told him I would repair the bullet holes for free, as I only charge for split briskets, and skinning cuts.
The guy said he had already been to all the Taxi shops around and he really liked my work around the eyes, and overall face.
Then the ball dropped....... He said "Now I am a poor boy.....This buck is going to be in Buck Masters, and Rack magazine, Its going to get a lot of publisity (spelling?) I am going to let the first one that wants to stuff it for free, stuff it"
Well, I hate to say on a public forum what I was thinking. I told him that those magazines never mention the taxidermist. I asked "could I borrow it when I go out and hand out bus. cards or compete with it?" He said " Naw, I couldn't let go of that one when I get it back, In fact, I would like to take the antlers home with me till ya get ready to mount it."
I stopped him right there and said....."WELL WHAT THE HELLS IN IT FOR ME?" I almost had a Stroke. I said when someone ruins it for him, he can bring it back to me and I will mount it for $300 plus a $150 cape.
I shouldn't have told that story, I get stressed out everytime I tell it!
Peoples ignorance will be the death of me.
Tony Johnson, Johnson Taxidermy Studio, East Ky
I had a guy call me after bringing me a deer the week prior and he said I have another one for ya, now how much are you going to charge me! I gave him a price of 50 bucks more and told him I didn't need the work and that I was to busy already and he would have to wait even longer. Then 2 days later i had another guy tell me the only reason he brought me his deer was that the guy that was real good in his town was all booked up and the whole time I was talking to him about poses ect ect.... he was saying so and so does it like this. I mean he wouldn't shut the hell up about it! As he was leaving my shop he kept saying "man I sure wish blankety blank wasn't booked up"
God bless the taxidermist for all the work they do. I for one can appreciate the work that goes into these mounts. God bless!
Tony, your story is the norm. I have to say I enjoy running their asses off when they get to that "big deer" story. I have some bruisers of my own and it's so comforting when they come in with that BS story and ask, "You ever seen anything better than this?" and I tell them I have 2 or 3 bigger than than in my own trophy room. That usually bursts that bubble.
A couple years back, a good friend and customer calls me during deer season. He has two clients who've taken nice deer and he asks me as a personal favor (they're big money clients of his) to instead of giving HIM a deal this year, to pass along a small discount to these two guys. I figure 10% is more than enough off of two $400 deer heads so I wait for them to come. The come with their entourage of impressed followers and come barging into the shop telling me my buddy sent them and they need me to come out to the truck to check these deer out before they go to the butcher. Both are bragging that these are the best deer they've ever taken and they'll both go over 160B&C. Well, I get to the back of the truck and both deer are mature, well massed bucks, but and 8 pointer and a 7 pointer with 18 inch spreads ain't cutting no 160. I tell them they'll both be lucky to make 130. They scoffed at that, but I'd already had about enough of them anyway. Then they asked the big question. "Your buddy said you were gonna cut us a deal, so how much you gonna take off." I told them exactly what I'd told my friend: that he'd forfeited his discount with these two and that I'd do them for 10% off. "Well, how much is that?" I told them that since my rate at that time was $400, it meant that I wanted $360 but I'd need $200 deposit on each deer. I thought they were going into coronaries. "That's way too much. I'll give you $200 apiece in cash right now for each of them." I told the guy he was wasting my time and keeping paying customers out of my driveway and to get the hell out. I walked back inside and called my buddy and told him his discount was still safe and if he ever sent jerks like that back to me, he'd lose his breaks even if he did do several thousand dollars worth of work every year. They ended up taking to a guy downstate here who fell for that trick, but so did they. They had their deer back on their walls before Christmas (less than 2 months time). They came back the next year and both admitted to my buddy that their deer were literally falling apart and wanted to know if he could recommend anyone to fix their mounts. He's as bad as I am. He told them that he'd done that the year before and that they'd made such asses of themselves as well as hurting his own credibility that they were on there on from then on.
I had a sign to put on my door this year, but Connie didn't think it looked too professional and I listed to her. It said, "The only people who come into my shop and get discounts are family members and I'm an orphan with no kids." I may not have posted it, but I damned sure practice it.
I had a guy come in to my shop and asked me IF I could work on his trophy during my spare time. Because he has a family to raise. Like my two teenage girls eat for free. Some Poeple.
is from a well known taxidermist. A guy that owned a plumbing shop comes in one day with a big ole' mule deer. He tells this taxidermist that if he'll mount the deer for free, he'll hang the head in his shop with a plaque under it saying who mounted it, and it will send all kinds of work his way. The taxidermist says "That sounds great. I need a new comode installed in my restroom. If you'll do it for free, I'll put a plaque over that saying who did THAT work, and I'll send all kinds of business your way." The plumber took his head elsewhere.
i get it alot here too. all of a sudden there are 5 taxidermists here in my area of colorado and 2 of them do terrible work. there prices are cheap and their work sucks. so now the price checkers call me and want me to do their work because my mounts look better but they can get it done cheaper by them. so i tell them to take it to them. those customers will learn in the long run and i hope those partime taxidermists gets tons of work. they`ll find out that they are constantly working and not making any money. take it to them.
tell the plumber to blow it out his barracks bag and take it somewhere else.
customers always try to hagle in my shop too. whenever they do i tell my customers to go to work tomorrow and tell their boss they will work overtime for half the wage of regular time or i tell them to hold on i need to shut off my lights. they usually get the point.