Museum Glass

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 8:43 pm

Do you offer it? - What brand?

Do you stock it or only order cut to size?

What POS display methods do you use?

I stock it - bought by 'box' (4 sheets) Full list is about £124 per sheet - there are deals to be had!

My retail is twice my glass supplier's cut-to-size price, which is approx a 3 times mark-up on what I pay, or should, for box quantity - actually, on this stuff I go for £ profit, not % profit, and pass my discount on.

The brand is 'Flabeg' - but two suppliers I use call it something else. It has a 90% UV Filter compared to Tru-Vu's museum glass which is 98%, but Tru Vu is not 'water white' - you get a green discolouration plus the normal Tru Vu 'ripple' neither of which I want on a product I am buying mainly for clarity. If protection is utmost - I'll use Tru Vu Cons Clear.

I won't buy any 'invisible' glass without the UV filter as it lets more light IN - therefore Mr Customer is paying extra for summut that will accelerate fading!

I used to have a couple of mounted samples of glass - clear, 'invisible' and N Reflective (spit) which I'd put over customers' artwork - never sold much - bought it cut to size.

Then A.N. Other supplier provided me FOC - a set of 3 keys, mounted in a shadow box on black mountboard - black mountboard around. Same - clear, invisible, N Reflective (spit) - it stands on the counter and it really shifts the stuff, now it's just silly to pay the extra for cut to size.

Should/could, of course have made my own shadow box!

Grilled a rep recently to find no-one else around here is shifting it.

Are you missing out too?

I'll spill the best prices but not in public!

Strange factoid - the glass, regardless of size so far, always seems to come to about the same price as the whole frame with standard glass! Today, for example £95 with standard £195 with 'museum'

Post by **John** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 9:08 pm

I think museum is a bit too rich for our customers, Robo.

A bit of Tru Vue UV from time to time is as far as we go. Though with a visual aid and a local stockist, you never know...

markw · Post by **markw** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 10:22 pm

I sell the Nielsen Clearcolour plus Uv - mark up about the same as you Robo - I have a display - I think most customers miss the point of the display because its so effective - they genuinely don't believe that glass can be so well disguised as nothing.

I buy in packs of four - sells very well - customers love it.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 10:26 pm

Well I'll tell you what - you can sell down, but you can't sell up - (easily)

If I start with the museum glass price - take the job quoted above - £100 and then add - "or, for (say) £26 you could have UV filtering ......"

Never sold so much conservation clear since I had the '3 keys' shadowbox!

If I could treat Cons Clear with the same disrespect as I treat regular glass, I'd take it on as standard in a heartbeat. But I'm never going to pratt about with having to interleave offcuts.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 10:29 pm

we use the occasional bit of tru-vue. Although I am noticing that a small number of customers are beginning to ask for UV protection lately (and arquadia board by name).
I believe its been a syndicated tip in some house and style magazine suppliments handed out by some estate agents lately.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Wed 21 Feb, 2007 10:29 pm

markw wrote:I sell the Nielsen Clearcolour plus Uv

Yep - that's 'Flabeg' - when I point to the glass in the display, they say 'what glass' - then put their fingerprints all over it - which is fine!

beth · Post by **beth** » Thu 22 Feb, 2007 5:30 pm

I sell a lot of tru vue con clear, more and more people are asking for conservation glass. I use more con clear than normal float. And I do ask customers what type of glass they want and explain the options. I always say conservation glass does not offer 100% protection from fading.

I have a sample of tru vue museum glass framed witha medal, but it is hard to sell due to the cost to customers. And even though it is extremely clear I still get some reflection, the mount in the frame is a mid green, I must frame up something with a black mount to really demonstrate the museum glass, been meaning to do it for some time

Tue vue I buy by box, musum it depends on the size needed If I have none in stock and I needed a piece 400 x 500mm I would get it cut to size,
Pricing is same as robos

Do use glass and mirrors art shield uv and clear cut to size, find it really good for oversized jobs.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 22 Feb, 2007 6:32 pm

beth wrote:
Do use glass and mirrors art shield uv and clear cut to size, find it really good for oversized jobs.

That's a great product - hate peeling the paper off though!

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Thu 29 Mar, 2007 11:33 pm

Roboframer wrote: Then A.N. Other supplier provided me FOC - a set of 3 keys, mounted in a shadow box on black mountboard - black mountboard around. Same - clear, invisible, N Reflective (spit) - it stands on the counter and it really shifts the stuff, now it's just silly to pay the extra for cut to size.

would really love to know who that supplier is,

we've stayed away from the Tru Vue et al. type of glass because we fear we wouldn't be able to shift it. a box frame such as this would be a really really good idea.

just hope its not one of the Suppliers whom we fell out with because of their shoddy customer service.

Bill Henry · Post by **Bill Henry** » Fri 30 Mar, 2007 2:29 pm

Tru-Vue (in this part of the world) offers a framed display which contains three vertical strips of differing glass – Regular, etched non-glare, and Museum (or, maybe, just their AR variety).

The display has a triple mat (to exaggerate the blurring of the non-glare) over a cheesy, very contrasty poster.

They would be easy to make. A suggestion, though, if you were to make your own display is to start with a very detailed image on a very dark background.

This kind of display makes upselling a whole lot easier although trying to convince people to use Museum on a £5 poster is generally doomed from the start.

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Sat 31 Mar, 2007 4:44 pm

just received the Britannia Mounts catalogue through the mail today, and it appears that they have a few different displays showing the benefits of the Tru-Vue glazing.

i'll be looking into purchasing one of those to start off with!

osgood · Post by **osgood** » Sun 01 Apr, 2007 7:56 pm

I think we as framers and business people have to be careful not to pre-judge our customers. Some of the comments in above posts lead me to believe that some are pre-judging customers.

If you think they won't buy a certain product then they won't. Not because they don't want to buy it, but because you don't offer it or explain the benefits. How much Museum glass will you sell, if you don't offer it? Correct.............none!

I began selling almost the entire range of Tru Vue glass about 14 years ago and although I don't sell a lot of museum or anti reflection, I do sell it sometimes, because I promote it. Some customers just have to have it because it costs a lot.

We also need to be careful about being negative to customers. We should not say that UV glass does not block 100% of UV light, we should explain that it blocks 98%, or whatever the number is and assume that the customer has at least one brain cell that functions and leave it at that.

Always promote positives, not negatives.

In my area there are at least a dozen framing businesses and I am fairly sure that none of them offer any glass other than clear and non-reflective. Why? because they assume that customers won't pay for it and it because it costs too much to stock. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

A "CHEAP" mentality from the framer will encourage a "CHEAP" mentality from customers.

Tru Vue has special display presentations to show customers, so it's not a big deal to get one of those and promote glass to your customers as if it is commonplace to use the different types of glass. It will probably then become commonplace to sell it!

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Sun 01 Apr, 2007 8:12 pm

Classic the other day.

Lady with a X stitch - only about 10 x 8" - has to match all her others (not done by me) Smallest frame poss, Non-reflective glass - work against the glass.

Would not hear of a mount, did not want to pay for spacers - would not look any different. Condensation? Flattening her work? Phhht - whatever!

I told her we would lace it and charge for that - that was grudgingly OK - last framer she used used self adhesive board.

For a laugh I showed her my 3 keys display, she was gobsmacked and actually went for it!

I know what I am going to do when I get the time (not soon then!) I'm going to find something very colourful; three dimensional, and frame it in a deep shadowbox with a very dark surround and museum glass, slap it on the wall that you can stand furthest back from and when it comes to it I'll say "Or, you could use no glass at all .... like this ... then we'll discuss the problems of dust etc etc, and then I'll take them closer, tap the glass, watch the jaws, make the sales!

Mary Case GCF · Post by **Mary Case GCF** » Mon 02 Apr, 2007 12:55 pm

Hello guys,

Grahame here, and in the shop on dial up - (Boo hiss!)

i wonder if you'd be able to look over these prices for me, and tell me if the Conservation clear and Museum prices seem on par. I'm totally out of my depth here.

I've added the glazing types we plan to take on into estlite, and have prices for

40x50cm listed below

PRICES INCLUDE BACKINGBOARD

2mm Float &Back £14.10
3mm Float & Back or 2mm Non Reflective & Back £17.90
Tru-Vue Conservation Clear & Back £28.00
Tru-Vue Conservation Reflection Control & Back £40.80
Tru-Vue Museum Glass & Back £72.00

a backing board at this size is £5.10

does this sound roughly right? £72.00 seems a bit excessive for something that costs around £116 a sheet

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