framing posters.. Need some input.

mrbill2084

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I noticed that michaels was having a 60% off + 10% off sale on custom framing... So I decided to ask about doing up a few atari posters..

Sales guy was nice an helpful, but it gets to a point where, where do you stop... I mean real wood frame, anti glare, low E, matting, acid free backing, ect.

So I thought I would ask what people do to frame their posters.. The sales guy was was taking about press mounting and using a foam core backing. His estimate was about $150 to do up the 24x36 centipede poster. I think that was even before we talked about the glass or plexi..

Just thought I would ask what others have done.
 
personally I would look at what the cost is for the frame (with glass), foam core mounting and if necessary matting. Personally I buy the frame myself, cut the mat myself and just fit the poster or picture in the frame. The foam backing would be nice and make it look that much more professional but I'm generally cheap. Personally I couldn't imagine paying $150 to frame one poster or pic but I know plenty of people pay in that range.

Personally I could care less about a real wood frame vs cheap wood look alike as long as the look alike looks good. I would not pay for anti glare. I just don't think it's worth it. Just place the picture where the lighting does not cause glare. I don't really know about acid free backing. I figure we have stored these items thus far without any special container other than maybe a cardboard tube. I guess the question is how much longer life will the acid free backing give? Personally I'm thinking I could live without it.
 
so that was $150 BEFORE the 70% off or after? Because if it was before then you're looking at $50 and if it was after that's freaking insane.
 
thanks for the input.. I really don't have the patience to make matt boards.. Just want to get it done right..

thats about $150 after.. the discount. I think the discount is on the frame, the mounting and other labor is probably not discounted.. Professional framing is expesive. My buddy spent $250 a pop framing some (double matt, uv glass).

I really only plan to do up right the nude centipede, 20th anniversary, star wars, and space duel.

Most of the other posters are not as nice so I bought some 60% off pressed wood frames for like $28 a pop. He was saying mounting them would cost like $22 and it would eliminate most of the wrinkles. I figure I would try a few of my lesser quality posters (dig dug, gravitar, joust, warlords, tron, ect) to see how they come out with the cheaper method..

I sort of forgot all the posters I picked up over the years.. Not sure what I am going to do with:
crystal casltes
firefox(I have both large and small. leaning towards framing the large)
liberator (ugly poster of a game I like.. )
pole position 2
sky diver

I did find a funny poster. Its about 8 ft tall poster of donna spier. Its signed "to all the atari games guys"(4 or 5 atari employees listed by name).
 
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thanks for the input.. I really don't have the patience to make matt boards.. Just want to get it done right..

thats about $150 after.. the discount. I think the discount is on the frame, the mounting and other labor is probably not discounted.. Professional framing is expesive. My buddy spent $250 a pop framing some (double matt, uv glass).

I really only plan to do up right the nude centipede, 20th anniversary, star wars, and space duel.

Most of the other posters are not as nice so I bought some 60% off pressed wood frames for like $28 a pop. He was saying mounting them would cost like $22 and it would eliminate most of the wrinkles. I figure I would try a few of my lesser quality posters (dig dug, gravitar, joust, warlords, tron, ect) to see how they come out with the cheaper method..

I sort of forgot all the posters I picked up over the years.. Not sure what I am going to do with:
crystal casltes
firefox(I have both large and small. leaning towards framing the large)
liberator (ugly poster of a game I like.. )
pole position 2
sky diver

I did find a funny poster. Its about 8 ft tall poster of donna spier. Its signed "to all the atari games guys"(4 or 5 atari employees listed by name).

Bill, I had some movie posters that were professionally framed at a art store. I think mine was around $130.00 and that had that new anti-glare film on there....

I think your buddy got hosed for paying $250 for whatever. That just doesn't sound right....
 
Michaels does an average job. I got a couple prints done there last year. They are always ~60% off...You can't pay full price there if you tried. I dont know where you guys get art/prints matted/framed because $150 is a GREAT price even for the most basic job.

I've also paid $200 for professional jobs in on other prints in the past (not michaels). Start with an oversize print, get a good quality wood frame with non glare glass with a 2 or 3 level acid free matt and the price really starts to climb. Add into that a professional (not a high school kid) matting it and it gets expensive.

Depending on the size of the poster and your level of pickiness, you can also try to just get the a frame that fits it. Michaels has massive frames that you can just slip some smaller prints right into...I did that with my the two arcade prints this week...Cost was like, $20 a print.
 

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thanks for all the input.

I want to see what michaels guy says he can do with my dig dug poster. Its decent, but has some issues. He says he has been doing framing there for 15 years.. Probably see how that turns out before I mess with more expensive options.

I was thinking I could also visit Univeristy Art in SJ. I am pretty sure they do framing.. I think I might go see what aaron brothers has to offer.
 
Bill, I had some movie posters that were professionally framed at a art store. I think mine was around $130.00 and that had that new anti-glare film on there....

I think your buddy got hosed for paying $250 for whatever. That just doesn't sound right....
Anybody who pays $130 is getting hosed IMO. I'd just throw em in one of those $9.99 -$19.99 frames and be done with it.
Glennon
 
Well, I just got back from michaels and it was not that bad.. It was about $65 each to do up the 5 of them with standard glass and preservation mount.

The centipede and the atari 20th anniversary are getting a defferent mount and a custom frames with upgraded glass and are going to be $120 each.

went back and I am having them properly mount the star trek and star wars posters.. So 9 total for now.
star wars
star trek
dig dug
gravitar
space duel
warlords
centipede
20th anniversary (signed)
space paranoids

I still want to dig out some more as I would like to do up(if I have them in nice shape) night driver and red baron..
 
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got back the first batch of prints today. Here are some pics. I was happy how warlords turned out. It was pretty messed up...

I think I will now frame up liberator and crystal castles too(plus a few more).. I took joust to be framed, but that print was in worse shape than warlords..

warlords.jpg


spaceduel.jpg


gravitar.jpg


digdug-1.jpg


all these were the cheap frame jobs.. each 24x36 cost about $60 for the frame and mounting.
 
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got back another 4 of the prints. only one left to get back now is joust. here are those pics. The centipede is supposedly their masterpiece glass. Yes, its less glare, but not by much. I would not get it again..

starwars.jpg


centipede-1.jpg


startrek.jpg


spaceparanoids.jpg
 
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Michael's has frames for xx% off all the time, but they're cheap, low-quality Chinese frames unless you get the ones they custom-make for you. I ended up buying a number of poster frames from them last year and hanging some 20x30 photos from a trip to Italy, as well as some smaller frames for autographed photos, etc. None of the poster-sized photos are matted, I put the paper from the frame in behind the photos and that, along with the foam that came with the frame, is enough to keep it in and looking nice.

I'm no artist, but I think matting is overkill for posters. Just my opinion. Post some photos of your matted posters, maybe I've just not seen the right ones :)
 
Anybody who pays $130 is getting hosed IMO. I'd just throw em in one of those $9.99 -$19.99 frames and be done with it.
Glennon

I agree completely.

If you are only framing arcade posters then it certainly seems like overkill to spend so much.

You can get a 24x36 poster frame from http://www.frameusa.com/posterframes.htm for as little as $10 each and they will look just fine for an arcade poster.
 
Michaels is a rip off. Can any of you guys knock off 60% off your costs to build a game or service a game??? Its inflated so they could give you the discount which means your paying regular price. Best thing to do is go to your local famer and have them do it. First they are professional and second they can get your job done with better quality for the same price. It also all depends on how you want to frame them. Do you want to just slap them in a frame??? Or do you want to preserve them. Those old posters will fade in a heart beat and I would recommend at least putting UV filtering glass on them. If the purpose of framing them is just to get them on the wall and your not interested in what happens to them, then go the less expensive route.
 
It also all depends on how you want to frame them. Do you want to just slap them in a frame??? Or do you want to preserve them. Those old posters will fade in a heart beat and I would recommend at least putting UV filtering glass on them. If the purpose of framing them is just to get them on the wall and your not interested in what happens to them, then go the less expensive route.

I had several automotive posters framed in cheapo frames in my old man cave and they were there for many years with no sign of fading. I actually gave them all to my friend's son when I moved several years ago and they are still on his walls and they still look just fine.

Unless they are sitting in direct sunlight for several hours a day, I don't think UV protect glass is worth investing in.
 
lol you guys should see the CAVE posters people frame, they pay like 300 for the poster and 300 for the frame. stupid imo..
 
Michaels is a rip off. Can any of you guys knock off 60% off your costs to build a game or service a game??? Its inflated so they could give you the discount which means your paying regular price. Best thing to do is go to your local famer and have them do it. First they are professional and second they can get your job done with better quality for the same price. It also all depends on how you want to frame them. Do you want to just slap them in a frame??? Or do you want to preserve them. Those old posters will fade in a heart beat and I would recommend at least putting UV filtering glass on them. If the purpose of framing them is just to get them on the wall and your not interested in what happens to them, then go the less expensive route.


Local framing was going to be very expensive. 2x to 3x what it cost at michaels. The frames are sort of cheap but they are wood and they were about $25 each (star wars was custom framed as is the joust). Those chinese child laborers do a decent job on the cheap frames..

Michaels sells some cheap frames too, but the guy says they are made from plastic and they are harder to hang. These wood ones you can attach hooks to easily. Since my plan is to put them on the ceiling, it made more sense to me to get the wood frames. the cost difference was about $8 more.

My plan is to shove them into tracks and suspend them from the ceiling in my garage. Some will hang in the hallways in my home..

They are doing a preservation mount to all of them. Thats like $30 each and puts them on an acid free backing. They guy at michaels has been doing this for 15+ years. He said its not a dry mount and can be removed, but it would flatten out the prints. Some of these prints were pretty rough. the star wars print was rolled in a plastic when I got it, but it was crushed. The warlords and the star trek were pretty abused when I got them.

The only one that was matted is the star trek. It was an odd size so it would have needed a custom frame. Adding the red mat was cheaper and then it would match the other framed art.

I did the UV anti glare glass on the centipede poster and the joust(it was supposed to be for the atari 20th anniversary, but I cancled it). If you ask me, it not worth the extra $50-$60 for the upgraded glass..

I was asking about getting the 3 tron legacy double sided prints framed and its going to be $175-$225 each for custom framing 27x41. So I am probably going to see if there are other options for those.
 
I had several automotive posters framed in cheapo frames in my old man cave and they were there for many years with no sign of fading. I actually gave them all to my friend's son when I moved several years ago and they are still on his walls and they still look just fine.

Unless they are sitting in direct sunlight for several hours a day, I don't think UV protect glass is worth investing in.

I should have said keep them out of the sunlight. Indirect sunlight will fade them to, but will take longer.
 
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