I have been buying from the same gun shop since I was kid. I can assure you that as long as I've been doing business with them that I can assure you it would take more than $20 one time for me to completely quit using them.

quote:

Originally posted by george roof:
Taxidermists would charge less any day just to take a customer away from the "guy across town". It's a mindset that I and some others have worked a lifetime to eliminate. (It ain't working yet, either. LOL).

I agree 100%. Case in point. My brother-in-law has turned out to be an exceptional taxidermist, but he's stubborn/bull headed and is already sinking his feet into an opinion based on only a few short years of experience. In his town, there is a taxidermist that has been around for 30 years. His fee for a deer shoulder mount is $250. So, my in law charges $225.

I told him that HE is part of the problem for you guys and your profession. It is my opinion that my in law's work is superior to the guy whos's been doing it (wrong) for 30 years. I've seen work from both and anyone who has vision would most likely agree.

I told him that he's cutting his own throat, but he argued that his fee is as much as he can charge because right now he's still a "nobody."

Regardless, I told him, that with the quality mount he's turning out, I've seen other guys charge $375. The biggest difference is he's not using a tannery.

I also told him he might want to check out taxidermy.net for awhile and get a feel for other's fees.

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I have been buying from the same gun shop since I was kid. I can assure you that as long as I've been doing business with them that I can assure you it would take more than $20 one time for me to completely quit using them.

Good for you. Longevity with one shop, glad you've developed a good rapport with them. But, you must have missed the part where I listed the OTHER reasons on top of this matter as to why I'm going to be changing. So, in essence, you and I agree. It did take more than $20 for me to quit using this taxidermist. The breaking point is his 2 year minimum turn around. And I've known him for 3 years, not since I was a kid.

Now, that's new information. A two-year wait is ridiculous, unless you were warned in advance. That alone would have me looking for another shop. The shop I use here in Albuquerque has never taken longer than eight-months, but I have a friends who's been waiting for his bear rug for over three from another place when he was told it would be "about a year".

quote:

Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
Now, that's new information. A two-year wait is ridiculous, unless you were warned in advance.

New? I already posted it before. Perhaps you overlooked it. And no, I wasn't warned in advance. And get this, it is 2 and a half years on any full body mounts. That is just too long.

Odd you mention a long wait on a bear. My 2 friends that went to NB with me this year are on their 3rd year waiting for their bears too, that they got in Ontario. Taxidermist said it was a problem with the tannery. Said the tannery shipped them to a different taxidermist somewhere in Idaho. Then the story changed 2 more times in the last year.

I took this same guy a coyote in June of 2003 for a shoulder mount. I just got it back this past summer. I was told that it was "lost" under a pile of African hides and didn't even leave his shop for the tannery until 2005. I paid a $150 deposit, and he waived the rest.

Lucky for my 2 other friends, they are getting full body mounts with their bear hides and he waived the rest. They each paid a third, $600. They will now be getting a full body bear mount, with base, and habitat for that price instead of $2000. We spoke about the mounts today, and I was told they'd be finished by Christmas.

I don't say this in a malicious manner and not to offend you George but after reading some of your postings you make it sound like the money that Doc has spent over the years with this taxidermist is chump change. To me, $8000 is a LOT of money on taxidermy work, I know it's over a period of years but still a lot of money. Then include the # of people he has referred to his tax and it adds up to a lot of money. The taxidermist is there to supply a service and as a customer, I expect to get what I pay for or my business goes elsewhere. Now in this instance, if it were to happen to me I would have bought the green hide from my friend in Wy and let the taxidermist have it one last time, screw that one up and you lose my business. I can understand you taking the taxidermist side on this issue but you can't lump all customers together, there are some of us that actually know how to skin and flesh an animal the correct way. Anyways, thanks for your insight George and Doc, I hope everything works out for you.

M70, you're reading MUCH too much into what I was saying. If I had to come up with $8000 right now, I'd be a little tight short of remortgaging the house. HOWEVER, I give the government more than that a year and they only send me another bill next year. I buy tires from the same company that I've done business with for 25 years. They wear out and I buy new ones but unless it's a "national sale", I have to pay the regular price. I have one customer who's spent between $50,000 and $75,000 in my shop. I take care of him when I can. He gets a free shoulder mount on occasion so that he knows I appreciate his business, but I explain to him that people he "sends" to me are just customers and they shouldn't expect the perks I afford him. Who he sends to me is sent to me because HE thinks I do good work and there's no strings attached to it.

And Doc, I'm sorry, I didn't read the 2 year bit either. Over the years I've been in a few binds with expected times, but I don't think I EVER told anyone over 2 years, much less 3 and when I did tell them 2, I immediately started subcontracting minor work to relieve me of some of the workload. I turn customers away when I get "over a year" now because I don't think it's fair to them or to me. Just my opinion, however.

M70, one more thing. Over the years, I've noticed with some chagrin that hunters from west of the Mississippi usually have better skinned/fleshed/defatted hides to bring into my shop than those east of it. If you want to see a MESS, look at a bear that's been skinned in Ontario or Maine and compare it to one from BC or Manitoba or Idaho. But since you live in Alaska, I could hate you easily enough anyway. Being trapped in this "cauldron of humanity" on the east coast and you there in God's Country, what's not to hate about that? LOL

Maybe I did read into it a little to much but you get the jest of my post. Money doesn't come easy in my household and I "try" and spend it wisely. In a way it's been kind of nice to not have a taxidermy bill hanging over my head, i get to spend that money on trips to Hawaii and back home during the holidays........yay. Hopefully though that will all change next fall when the wife and I are pursuing dall sheep, then having a taxidermy bill won't feel so bad. I hear you about living back east, the wife is from Rhode Island and I am from Maine, living up here is a totally different lifestyle and I wouldn't have it any other way! Now if only the sun would stay up a little longer during the day.............but life is good in the last frontier!

There's good and bad, cheap and expensive, and sometimes I really don't know what kind of taxidermy work I should get on a mount, No idea of the total amount of $$ I spent on various taxidermy work over the years, from birds, to rugs, full body mount ( my cougar) lots of shoulder mounts (deer and african stuff) and not sure who should have covered the cost of the extra cape neede to finishe the antelope mount, BUT what did gripe MY butt in this whole discussion was the mention of "tips" to a taxidermist. I ABSOLUTELY HATE TIPPING IN any form or to any service or anything I (think ) ive already paid for. If what you (the business) person don't think is enough $$, then by god raise your price to cover what you think u need to ear/make but don't expect or ask for TIPS and then get pissed at me because I didn't tip you or didn't tip you high enough (based on what you think) I should have tipped you.

Tipping a taxidermist???

I am sorry but that is way out there.

I guess if the taxidermist was an hourly employee of a large shop, and did a particularly nice job or something. But most taxidermists own their own shop. Tipping the guy that already builds his wages/profits into his price is rediculous...or more correctly... thinking that a tip should apply in this case is rediculous.

JMHO,
Canuck

Look guys, before you get your BVD's all in a wad, chill out on the "tip" bit. None of us ever EXPECT a tip. And I'm just like you in being paid for "services rendered", but it's still within the realm of the hunter to show HIS appreciation. I never expect it personally, but I am often cutting my better customers a price break or including an extra service such as installing a small diorama or maybe even installing an open mouth without charging the customer that extra $100 out of appreciation for his devotion to me. So why would I, in a similar situation with the guy rotating my tires while I waited instead of having me wait to the end of the business day NOT TIP HIM for going out of his way. There is such a thing as COURTESY.

quote:

Originally posted by george roof:
I am often cutting my better customers a price break or including an extra service such as installing a small diorama or maybe even installing an open mouth without charging the customer that extra $100 out of appreciation for his devotion to me.

Whoooaaaa ho hooooo!! Hey, that was MY argument to begin with on the whole cape issue! Glad to see you are on my side now! My guy should have CUT ME A BREAK and bought the new cape!

quote:

There is such a thing as COURTESY

E-X-A-C-T-L-Y!!

Antelope capes are a dime a dozen for western taxidermists. The processing plants will usually save all of them you want,or allow you to come in and skin yourself.

As for the one man taxidermy show being impossible and unprofitable. Thats pure bullshit and coming from a supposed guy thats on a national taxidermy board its plain pathetic.

Its not to tough to bring in 50 grand a year off of taxidermy. You just have to be an artist with business sense.

A guy that knows his shit and stays away from specialty crap like african game. Can stand on his head and make 45k a year take home. Crank out all the deer,antelope,elk and simple species of fish you can. Specialty work like african game will cost you money,because you can't get volume in most cases. And you aren't exposed to enough of it to become automated at mounting it.

The majority of your good western taxidermists turn down antelope and deer every year,because they're overbooked.

A guy I used to use has a nice house, a huge shop, and taxidermy is his only income. He's very busy. To my knowledge, his wife stays at home with his 2 kids. They seem to be doing well.

I just mailed out my skull cap and prongs to the guy in WY on Monday. He said he'd bump it up with my 2006 goat and ship them at the same time. I guess I got lucky. I sent him a photo of my 2005 buck and he said he's got 8-9 capes that match the color almost perfectly and most have a good 15+" neck.

I was just notified I lost an Afican civet cape. That's the breaks. I wouldn't think to ask my taxidermist in a million years to replace it. In fact, the thought never occurred to me.

Sledder, speaking of bullshit, that must be what your sled is on. In case you aren't an NTA member (likely) and you were never involved in the NSSF survey this past summer (more likely), you'll see that that brown stuff coming out of your keyboard ain't chocolate. You come up with one supposed example without knowing diddly about the actual situation and without a heavenly clue as to what 99% of the industry is comprised of and then you want to try to push that over as something other than bullshit. My perspective is based on fact and not on what you see from the outside looking in. Taxidermy is extremely labor intensive with the "market" determining the charges in most cases. The better taxidermists can demand higher prices, and rightly so. But they have to cater to better heeled personnel. I'm sure the profit margin of Macey's is better than Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart makes up in volume, keeping salaries down, refusing unions, and providing less perks. That's the law of supply and demand coupled with simple economics. I know those are probably big words to you, but factual never the less. Antelope hides MAY be dime a dozen out west, but the majority of hunters who hunt goats don't LIVE OUT WEST. Try finding one here on the east coast for less than $200 green frozen.

A self employed single taxidermy business will depend on the bread winner putting in 60 - 80 hour weeks. He has to pay for everything out of his "profits". A $400 prong has about $130 in supplies if he's top notch. From that $270, he's going to have to deduct the overhead of his shop, heating/ac, freezers, electricity, specialized equipment, mortgage, car payment, health and life insurance and God forbid that he plans to save a bit or plan a vacation (vacations aren't allowed usually as that's unemployment time), and don't you dare get sick or have a medical crisis for yourself and your family. What you're spouting off seems to be what you'd like to THINK about the guy and you actually don't have a clue about the reality of the situation. The taxidermy industry is believed to have about a 30+% turnover rate EVERY YEAR just because of the fiscal stain on families.

Sitting on the national board gives a person an insight into FACTS and not bullshit that some of you would like to believe.

Doc,just ask yourself,do I feel like going back there? If not then don't.It's as simple as that.Only you know the exact scenario.Were you welcomed at first then were stepped on?Fight back if you can by takeing your business elsewhere.Or boycott them for awhile and if things turn bad for them they will be on their knees.Maybe they got alot of work lately and feel like loseing some customers?