Why are life size carboard cut outs so expensive?
Gusto Brunt
Posts: 12,351 Forum Member
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It's my brother's 40th birthday on July 22nd, and I had this idea of getting two life size cardboard cut outs of him made.
One when he was 18 and now at 40.
Seemed a great idea until I got a quote. A staggering £180 for two cardboard cut outs.
WTF.
I was thinking maybe £50 tops. And even then I think that's excessive.
Why are they so expensive????
And anyone know some place that does them cheaper...
Cheers.
One when he was 18 and now at 40.
Seemed a great idea until I got a quote. A staggering £180 for two cardboard cut outs.
WTF.
I was thinking maybe £50 tops. And even then I think that's excessive.
Why are they so expensive????
And anyone know some place that does them cheaper...
Cheers.
0
Comments
Sounds a great idea though. Just get him one of them.
Even one of them is £95. I realise what you say but still...
I do think they're a bit greedy.
Thanks.
Why so much? It's a one off product, if you wanted thousands it would be cheaper, and the postage and packing is going to be a lot too.
Thanks for the link.
I agree it's a one off but isn't anything that's custom made. When you analyze it, what are the costs...
Some cheapo cardboard and some ink. Materials I'd estimate to be about £7.
That's a big profit.
Shame about the massive cost. I know it wouldn't be half as good but have you considered a cheaper alternative such as maybe a1 prints of each pic? Then maybe you could stick it on cardboard backing?
That's an idea, maybe. Cheers.:)
It's not all profit though. There is the cost of the printing machine and then either paying employees or themselves.
I don't actually know what their costs are but the prices quoted don't seem ridiculous for something that is a minority product. If everyone in the country wanted a life size cut out then the price would be extortionate but they don't.
Doubt it at £ 64.00, 20% is vat so there's a tenner gone for a start, postage another tenner, materials £7.00 so we're down to £37, then there's the business overheads, labour ect. If there making £10 I'd be surprised
You need a very expensive specialist printer to print something that big. There's a lot of ink being used. Carboard isn't actually as cheap as people think. It will have to be custom cut too, probably by hand. Still, it does seem a little pricey though.
As someone said, if you want it cheaper, make it yourself.
A1 is too small for a human size print. You would need to go to 2A0 for that. They're about £ 35 - £40 each. Then you've got to buy the cardboard...
Here's your business opportunity!
Thanks for the replies.
How often do you see them? Rarely because they are expensive, If they were available cheaper then you may see more of them
The best cost/effort balance would probably be get 4 or 5 A2 prints and then stick them together on the cardboard. You should be able to get a2 for about £5 so total cost would be about £25 assuming you can find a big bit of cardboard somewhere.
Exactly. The materials won't be cheap. If it is a high quality reproduction of a photo onto card, there'll be coated paper or card in there somewhere... you could hardly print high definition onto rough cardboard. Then there will be a lot of ink - and better quality than the home user buys at Tesco - and there'll be waste cardboard as most people aren't totally rectangular in shape.
There is the cost of the machines themselves. Usually, to pay for equipment to be bought / upgraded a percentage of the cost of the machine is factored into every product it produces and one-offs carry all the overheads, there are no economies of scale to be had.
Staff costs: someone has to spend time processing the order, setting up the machine, doing any hand-finishing such as cutting or trimming the figure, packing, dispatching... I'm sure it doesn't take 10 minutes.
The price doesn't sound cheap, but if you are getting a full-size (if flat!) unique, high-quality product delivered to your door... it won't be cheap. I'm sure there are cheaper routes to the same thing but the quality is unlikely to be as good and if you actually cost out the time you spend trying to produce something inferior, you might understand the value as well as the cost.
Try making it yourself and you'll understand why it's not cheap.
For something that big, the quality (in terms of resolution) would not need to be that good.
But if I had to do something myself, I would look at using an on-line service to get just the photos done. One I just looked at wanted £5.50 for 16x20", and you might need three or four of those for each cut-out (That involves using software - any image editor - to split one image into several closeups. Some overlap is needed to help assembling them later; and care is needed to ensure that the image, as printed, is at 1:1 scale.)
Then you just have to paste these onto a backing (I've no idea where to get large format cardboard, but B&Q used to sell hardboard at £5 or £6 for 4x8'. You might need a jig-saw to cut out the shapes after you've glued the photos on.)
(25 years ago, I would have used photographic paper in roll form, and an enlarger, to directly create the image at the exact size I need from a negative. Of course technology means this stuff can now be done effortlessly by anyone...)
I don't think it's too bad for a one off product...
He would probably appreciate it... A cheaper one may not be as good
Will add we don't do cardboard cutouts though. We just usually mount on wood etc and the person cuts around them. We don't do many.
You're right that the materials are reasonably cheap but the CNC machine to do the cut out is bloody expensive let alone having a large format printer that prints direct to board etc.
A cheaper option would be a vinyl banner made lifesize and just have a white background around the pic. As an example a 6' tall by 2' wide vinyl banner with eyelets for hanging should cost you around £25 each inc. delivery, possibly cheaper on ebay. if you need any advice / quotes for stuff feel free to drop me a PM
That assumes no other costs though.
With businesses like this, the raw materials may be the smallest consideration.
Printing is expensive (the equipment, the ink, the energy) especially for 'one-off runs', which this would be.
It's far cheaper to make something if you're making a lot of them - then the costs are spread out.
That isn't even taking into consideration everything else dull people forget that a business has to pay... bills, staff, insurance, H&S conformity, website bandwidth, toilet roll.. every little thing.
Then stick a photo of your brothers face at 18/40 yrs old onto each!
https://www.cardboardcutout.net/index.php?_a=product&product_id=740&cat_id=145
Register the domain Cardboartcutout.com immediately.
There is a whole business opportunity waiting in the area of cardboard cutouts for people who don't appreciate the importance of the occasion.
Cardboard cutout:
wedding rings, anniversay dinners in Paris, birthday cakes and many many more...
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