Little is heard about second-choice of mouldings. But the second choice for producers is a major problem and for framers it could be an interesting solution.
At the end of the production process there is always a certain percentage of moulding that is defective.
• Especially the framers who reside in areas with low standard of living and therefore with a labor cost much lower than the average labor cost of the Western world. The framers of these areas have a certain advantage of buying defective mouldings because for them the time of eliminating the defects of the moulding has a limited cost.
What should be the price of defective mouldings? It should be significantly lower than the price of normal mouldings. The discount for defective mouldings should be around 40% - 60% depending on the type of faults.
The defects can be of various kinds such as, for example:
• The finish, especially for the first mouldings of the production batch, may not be the desired one.
• The moulding may be crooked.
• The moulding may be faulty only at a particular point.
Usually defective mouldings are discarded and placed in a particular container. Sometimes they are grouped by type of moulding, other times they are piled in bulk.
The percentage of defective mouldings can range from 5% to 10% of the mouldings produced.
The second-choice moulding market therefore exists.
Who is interested in the second choice?
• Defective mouldings can also interest the framers that produce ready-made frames. These framers must efficiently organize the cutting of the mouldings to eliminate the defective points.
• Hobbyists too could be interested in second choice. For them, the time does not have a cost. They can therefore spend all the time choosing the good parts of the moulding. Moreover they can make frames even with defective pieces.
• Another category consists of frame workshops run by charities. Even in these cases the cost of labor is of no importance.
• Second-choice mouldings may also occasionally interest “normal” framers under certain circumstances, particularly novice framers who can thus practice without destroying expensive high-grade mouldings.
• In addition, some framers could use defective mouldings in times of poor work.
• Finally, some framers can also manage the sale of second-choice mouldings in their shop.
The price of defective mouldings
If the defect is only at one point in the moulding, some manufacturers have chosen the solution to identify these mouldings by applying a colored label at the defective point. These mouldings are sold with a discount equal to 30 cm of the moulding.