What Do You Charge For A Deer Head

George should have asked him what he was looking at. I feel confident he was quoted that price for some good competition work.

 

after being in biz. for 30+ years doing this thing we all love,this price comparison always surfaces. our industry is immense in talent and spirited people,but way short on Business experience. competed pricing,is one thing,but anyone that wants to run a successful business should be in touch with reality....profit. do all you artist no your cost of producing the piece your on? or do we just base our prices on our nearest shop and hope hes smarter than we are.
the best thing you can do, take a business class.your local community college will help. then you'll no how much to charge for hard work and the guy down the road wont matter.

 

Profit? We're in this game for profit???

 

That is a good question. I've seen some outstanding work from taxidermists, but if it takes someone 20 hours to process, tan, mount and finish a deer head, they they would need to be charging over twice what I do to make what I do per hour.

I'm charging $600 for a deer head in the northern, lower peninsula of Michigan. I went to a Hunting Time Expo in Grand Rapids last month and talked to a few taxidermists there. They were all priced similarly to me, so I'm probably about average for the state. Not really sure though since my survey was very limited. I do also offer a cheaper, economy mount on my price list that is a DP job that looks like crap, with the sole purpose to get the opportunity to explain to people the difference between higher quality and lesser mounts to price shoppers. Nobody opted for an economy mount this past season, but I have done a few over the years dispute telling people that they are poor quality and likely will not last. Those people were the ultimate cheap skates and thankfully they were rare.

 

im not high at all. $450.00 a deer mount. and there are people taking there deer to a guy who charges $395.00 a mount.i ant coming down.

 

600 central penna

 

Did you get a chance to explain the difference between your good work and crappy taxidermy? If not, then you may have lost a client for no other reason than he may have thought all taxidermy was the same, so why not go with the cheapest one. I've run my businesses (taxidermy and fishing charters) for 20+ years and always tried to maximize my profits with the goal of early retirement in mind. I did make plenty of money along the way. I'll be retiring this year at 59 years old. I've been selling various taxidermy stuff over the past month and have talked to some other taxidermists, all older than me. They just can't believe that I made enough money to retire in this business and all of them had no plans of ever retiring because they won't be able to afford it. It's not surprising after seeing how most people operate in the business. Sometimes you have to think a little outside the McKenzie box.

 

i have found, most people hav'nt got a clue what a good mount is anyway...even if you try to show them what quality is. In all my years of taxi, i can count on one hand , the folks that really knew what to look for. Remember you are the artist, they are not.
There was a guy here in my local city that started taxi long before anyone else ...his mounts were beyond horrible but he had a catchy company name and he was well established before anyone else..he kept pumping out garbage...so bad that antlers were falling off heads and cracks around eyes so big you could slip a silver dollar in....they just kept coming in droves. I think near his retirement he stated to me that he did 700 heads a yr. cough cough...i wonder if he ever, now, sits in his retirement chair and feels any guilt. Somehow i doubt it. This man never belonged in the taxi industry just like many other fields of trade a lot of people struggle in and should never have been doing from the get go. Hope im not sounding too harsh but its reality man

 

That's what I've said for years. Nobody really cares but a select few. I can't even imagine how antlers could be falling off a mount though lol.

 

Part timer here north of Dallas and I start at $600.

 

$850 Central Illinois