Did you say picture framing discounts, no problem! Firstly, find out how much your picture framing project might cost by getting online 
, or, if you really have to, by ringing around. Good, competitive picture frame shops won't be reticent in offering free quotes or of telling you their prices. Some, like ourselves, even have free, online Picture Framing Price Estimator for Customers to .. do just that. A few, like ourselves, even have permanent site Picture Framing and Picture Frames Discounts Coupon to encourage Customer to shop with us. Remember that picture framers are under just as much pressure to make sales as anybody else and will readily discuss discounts if asked.
However, if you don't ask or bargain, then they'll charge you their full, undiscounted, retails prices, it's as simple as that. They'll still make the cheaper frame using the same materials and workmanship as a full-price one because their business depends on repeat customers. If you're not happy, you won't come back and you'll probably tell a dozen or so other people about your bad experience.
On the other hand, if you're happy, you'll probably keep coming back and even recommend your picture framer to others. With that said, we must add that there's such a thing as haggling etiquette or how to haggle nicely, politely and ultimately, successfully. Before you start asking for a lower price than what the item you want is priced at, have a reasonable target in mind. By reasonable, it's meant anything from 5 to 10% per cent.
Anything more is probably not affordable by the seller who might only be annoyed by the unreasonableness of such a high discount. Do remember than many retailers only make a 50% return on their investment. If they buy an item for the wholesale price of $5 and retail it at $10, they're only making 50%. And if you want to buy it at less than $7.50 than they're making only about 25% on their investment. That's just not commercially viable for most store owners.
When you do ask for discounts, don't do it first thing on Monday mornings when the store owner may be busier than normal. Try instead to do so towards the end of the day and towards the end of the week when the retailer is about to shut and may be more amenable to a quick, cheap sale before closing. If possible, try to increase the quantity of the items you want instead of buying just one. Buying half a dozen (Christmas presents maybe) cheap 8"x10" picture frames gives you more bargaining power than buying just one.
Lastly, if you're going to haggle, do so with style. Always saying please, with a smile and never, ever, insist more than twice or thrice at the most. Any more than that and chances are that your discount persistency will become counter productive and annoy or irritate the seller, with negative results for you. And if you still, or really, really, think that custom picture framing is too expensive, how about making do with Ready-Made Picture Frames which can be as llittle as one quarter the cost of custom picture framing.
Thought I’d share with you my wife’s and my own experience. We had our large wedding photo picture we needed framing . We weren’t sure how to chose the photo frame or which border colours or even if we could afford becaues we’d heard how expensive framing photos is. So we went to a well-known Melbourne bayside picture framer. For a start we had to ring a counter bell for ever to get noticed. Eventually a grumpy, metro guy (the resident framer) came to see what we wanted. He explained that the owner was away, that he was on his own and that he was very busy trying to catch up with his work. He tried to hurry us with the picture frames selection and said that nowadays everybody framed wedding photos with white mats and black picture frames. But that’s not what we wanted. He then went back to the rear workshop and left us by ourselves to choose what we wanted. When we chose all the colours and the frame we called him back to the front to give us a price. He said it would be $535. When we queried the cost he got narky and gave us the old line about if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. So we left and went to a picture frames factory in Moorabbin. We got exactly what we wanted for $272 and the owner gave us a 10% discount of the invoice price for cash. True story! So my advice is: Shop around !!
Don’t know about you but I never, ever pay full price for anything whether picture frames, picture framing or what. I always ask for them, am happy to haggle and I normally get what I ask for. But if you want to get discounts you’ll be more successful if you pay in cash. Waving your Amex card in a picture framer’s face whilst bying a $10 picture frame won’t get you very far. But mentioning a possible cash payment for a $200 framing job will. In other words, give the retailer a reason for giving you the price discount you ask for!!
Ha! I had some holidays photos I wanted to put into some picture frames and had a quick look at Target for their photo frames and they were Ok but looked a but cheap and plasticky. So I went to a picture framer in our mall here in Katoomba and looked at better-looking frames. Problem is these were 5 times the price Target. When I told this to the store owner and asked for cheaper prices he went BALLISTIC !!!! He said people like me were ruining the country and I’d better leave his shop and go to a 2-dollar shop nearby. Now, at Target, the 11×14" frames I wanted were $14.99 each and the mall framer’s were $89 each. All I wanted was about 10% off the picture frames. Who was unreasonable, me of the store owner?
Have you noticed that people don’t use pastel or bright colours and golds for picture framing and picture framing anymore. All I see in people ‘s houses now are big white mats and either big black or white picture frames everywhere. Babies, weddings, posters, prints, photos, all have white mounts and white frames or black mounts and black frames, all of huge dimensions. Boring.
There are hagglers who are sooooooooo embarrassing! I was in an opportunity shop a couple of weeks back and there was this old guy haggling rudely with a young volunteer girl about 2 old picture frames that he wanted. The frames were old-fashioned but gilded and substantial. You could tell that they weren’t cheap and that someone had paid top dollar for them once upon a time. They were priced at $19 each which I thought as quite reasonable. Anyway this old miser wanted to pay $19 for both frames instead of $38. He had the girl call the store manager because he was very, very insistent and he only wanted to pay -his- price. He went on and on for over an hour and carried on like a pork chop. I very nearly butted in because he kept arguing with the store staff who would only discount the frames down to $30 for both. In the end – they asked him to leave! Good on them !
Picture framers, like anything else, depend to vary their prices. Some are just way too expensive while if you’re persistent you can find a framer who is cheap and does good work. I think its ok to ask for a discount provided you bring some proof-of-cheaper-prices along. If they are dearer and you can get it done around the corner for less, show them the quote and they’d be silly not to match. However if they are the cheapest you can find, then i think its not right to ask for a discount. Some framers do offer discounts for cash so be sure to ask for that.