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Art Prints – The Hidden Cost
A year ago, my wife and I went up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to spend the weekend. While we were there, we went into the local town shops and stumbled across an art gallery. We were pleasantly surprised to see such great works at such economical prices. We were so excited that we ended up purchasing several art prints at very, discounted prices. Like any other happy art buyer, we were thrilled to see that we were able to get such good value. The only challenge we found was that the art prints did not come framed. We thought that this would not be a big deal. So, we happily packaged up our art prints and headed back to our home in Chicago.
About a week later my wife decided it was time to go and get the art prints framed. The art prints that we purchased were a combination of standard and nonstandard sizes. For the standard sizes, it was fairly easy to find the right frame. The reason being is that many frame companies and art supply stores have these frames in stock and readily available for purchase. The price we paid was quite reasonable for the standard art frames. We chose several art frames and had the art prints quickly mounted under glass and quickly up on the walls of our home.
However for the art prints that required custom framing, we entered a new and bizarre world of problems. With custom frames, costs go up dramatically. Standard frames may cost $30 or even $50. However, custom framing can cost significantly more. In our experience, we saw that the price of custom framing, for oversized or nonstandard art prints was roughly 4 to 5 times as much as a standard art frame of comparable size. At first, we thought this was quite comical because the prices we were getting quoted for custom framing were a multiple of the price we paid for the actual prints. Upon investigating further with several different framing stores, we found that prices were, in fact, all within the same general range. As a result, we ultimately did not get the oversized prints framed. They still remain unused and invisible to the rest of the world.
For all those people that are looking at purchasing art prints, be sure to purchase prints that are of standard size. If you are not sure what those standard sizes are, be sure to visit a frame supply shop or a custom framing supply company. They would be more than happy to provide you what their standard dimensions are, not only for the picture frame or the art frame but also for the art print that will reside within the frame. Hopefully, your experience will be more positive.
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