Car lot is making their own banner...

[Pat Whatley]

A local car lot I used to do some work for bought their own ebay plotter a year or so ago. It didn't really bother me, they mainly use it to cut windshield price decals, so it made sense for them to get their own.

Well last week they called about getting an 8' x 45' banner saying MEGA TENT SALE in 5' letters. I priced it at $850 because I was offered a really sweet price from the company I sub some printing to. They called back and said "No, we just need the blank banner, we'll letter it ourselves."

I explained that I'd been doing this 18 years and I wouldn't want to do that in vinyl, that it's cheaper to have it printed, and it'll look perfect but they didn't care because they want to do it in vinyl so they can pull the letters off and reuse the banner for their next sale.

At that point I just gave up and charged them $665 for the blank banner.

 

[gabagoo]

LMFAO your kidding... they would pay 645 for the banner and think it will cost less than 200 to letter it themselves and then strip it off?

 

[miguelon.lizarraga]

You should have charged 2.00 a square at least!

 

[TheSnowman]

I would rather do that w/ cut vinyl than REMOVE the vinyl. That's gonna SUUUCK. At least you were able to sell them the blank!

 

[Brandon708]

idiots.
I really would love to see them apply vinyl to a huge banner like that. What size plotter do they have? 30",24", 15"!!! lol

Try to drive by when they got it up and take a picture.


go there and buy a car and ask how much. Then reject their offer and ask to buy a car without a motor because you have a motor making machine at home.

 

[ddarlak]

my bet is the banner never gets finished

 

[DigiWriter]

I agree with ddarlak. That banner will probably never be finished. WOW. What else can you say.

 

[jayhawksigns]

What is going to happen is that they come back in, and ask you to now print the banner, with the material you already sold them.

 

[Bradster941]

What is going to happen is that they come back in, and ask you to now print the banner, with the material you already sold them.

Was thinking the same thing.

God, what fun it would be to see the look on their face when you say;

"Nope, can't be done once off the roll and hemmed and grommeted, you'll need to buy a whole new one..."


,.

 

[Bigdawg]

One of them will have a buddy with a plotter that will only charge them $50 to cut and install the vinyl on it...

 

[joeshaul]

Expected finished product below

 

[Mike Paul]

Bet it ends up as a Slip 'N Slide real soon...

 

[klmjff]

Just curious Pat, whats an ebay plotter? An inferior plotter?

 

[weaselboogie]

"Nope, can't be done once off the roll and hemmed and grommeted, you'll need to buy a whole new one..."

,.

And then they'll be back later in the day with a hemless, grommetless, slightly smaller banner blank.

 

[Pat Whatley]

my bet is the banner never gets finished

my thoughts exactly.

An ebay plotter would be any of the cheap, 24" $300 plotters from ebay

 

[cdiesel]

LMAO Pat. It'd be a great sight to see them with that thing spread out on the lot trying to letter it.

 

[heyskull]

We have a car dealership across the road and he did exactly this "bought their own ebay plotter" started by putting prices on windshields, offers on the windows, etc....
Then he lettered his own vehicle transport truck bought some blank banners.
Well you should see it!!!
Plain Jane, Squint, Colours!!
There is glue all over the banners were it hasn't been cleaned properly.
Nothing matches his other truck and signs and it's got a 3D look as there are so many bubbles under the vinyl!
This site looks awful and cheap now and this use to be one of the more upmarket secondhand dealers.

About 2 months ago he came in to my shop and asked if he could buy some vinyl as his stuff didn't cut nice and could I come and have a look at his plotter as it wasn't working right!!!!!
My Jaw dropped.
I couldn't believe it and printed a picture of the front of his dealership about 2 years ago just as we had originally fitted the signs and lettered the truck.
I told him his truck was not just a bad advert for him it was a bad advert for me as some of my customers thought I had signed it!
I told him to trust me take the picture and go compare it to what a monster he had created now with stickers all over the cars and scabby banners all over the lot exclaiming theirs a SALE. You're a car dealership, it's always a SALE!!!!

We have since re-lettered his truck and the banners have gone and he is a bit more conservative with the windshield pricing.
All it took was a before and after picture to prove he was damaging his business as at one point it looked like the Circus had moved onto the lot!

SC