What’s the bigger scam: College textbooks or custom framing?

Yeah, it’s textbooks, but framing is a complete racket.

True. You can get framing kits and teach yourself easily enough. But if it’s anything other than standard sizes you’d have to cut your own glass. So yeah it’s textbooks. It’s almost as big a scam as prescription drugs.

No tenured, respected educator ever made me buy his own frame that he designed and was only good for 3.5 months and had zero resale value, is all I'm saying.

StylesGShmooth wrote:No tenured, respected educator ever made me by his own frame that he designed and was only good for 3.5 months and had zero resale value, is all I'm saying.

That one still pisses me off all these years later. No way that should have ever been allowed.

Rocinante wrote:True. You can get framing kits and teach yourself easily enough. But if it’s anything other than standard sizes you’d have to cut your own glass. So yeah it’s textbooks. It’s almost as big a scam as prescription drugs.

It’s a matter of time and quality for me. Some people are born with or work hard to reach a level of quality that’s worthy of displaying. That would never be me. I’m a terrible artist, and my lack of talent seeps over into anything in need of a quality fit and finish, in this case, framing.
Side note for Kingston and/or Turtleneck: I set you two up pretty good for a snarky response here; come at me, bros.

tGreenWay wrote:

Rocinante wrote:True. You can get framing kits and teach yourself easily enough. But if it’s anything other than standard sizes you’d have to cut your own glass. So yeah it’s textbooks. It’s almost as big a scam as prescription drugs.

It’s a matter of time and quality for me. Some people are born with or work hard to reach a level of quality that’s worthy of displaying. That would never be me. I’m a terrible artist, and my lack of talent seeps over into anything in need of a quality fit and finish, in this case, framing.
Side note for Kingston and/or Turtleneck: I set you two up pretty good for a snarky response here; come at me, bros.

Mrs. Greenway can attest to that.

Cameron wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:



It’s a matter of time and quality for me. Some people are born with or work hard to reach a level of quality that’s worthy of displaying. That would never be me. I’m a terrible artist, and my lack of talent seeps over into anything in need of a quality fit and finish, in this case, framing.
Side note for Kingston and/or Turtleneck: I set you two up pretty good for a snarky response here; come at me, bros.

Mrs. Greenway can attest to that.

That’s the spirit.

I've got an original concert card that features Steppenwolf, Ten Years After, CCR, Butterfield Blues Band and It's a Beautiful Day that I'm trying to put in a standard frame and it's not happening. I suppose I'm going to have to drop another chunk of change to get it matted and framed.

Rocinante wrote:True. You can get framing kits and teach yourself easily enough. But if it’s anything other than standard sizes you’d have to cut your own glass. So yeah it’s textbooks. It’s almost as big a scam as prescription drugs.

The drug scam is likely many billion times bigger.

Can someone give me the cliff notes to this thread so I can catch up and post in here?

Jake from State Farm wrote:I've got an original concert card that features Steppenwolf, Ten Years After, CCR, Butterfield Blues Band and It's a Beautiful Day that I'm trying to put in a standard frame and it's not happening. I suppose I'm going to have to drop another chunk of change to get it matted and framed.

This is similar to what prompted this thread. I have both a small display of Carrier Classic swag I want framed, and a large poster of the 100th Rose Bowl game signed by Kyler Elsworth. Getting custom job prices are such a ripoff, especially since those who do the jobs know they can get away with it because of saps line me who want it done right.

steveschneider wrote:Can someone give me the cliff notes to this thread so I can catch up and post in here?

Because a now-11 post thread takes too much of your time?

steveschneider wrote:Can someone give me the cliff notes to this thread so I can catch up and post in here?

Old fuckers discussing the clear box that holds decorations on the wall of their man cave instead of the correct answer to the question

tGreenWay wrote:

steveschneider wrote:Can someone give me the cliff notes to this thread so I can catch up and post in here?

Because a now-11 post thread takes too much of your time?

The thread was veering all over the place. I couldn't tell what was going on and nothing in here seemed to relate to the original question.

StylesGShmooth wrote:

steveschneider wrote:Can someone give me the cliff notes to this thread so I can catch up and post in here?

Old fuckers discussing the clear box that holds decorations on the wall of their man cave instead of the correct answer to the question

Lies! I said at the very beginning texts were the bigger scam. And your characterization of me as an old fucker is a complete mischaracterization.

I’m a cheap old fucker.

steveschneider wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:



Because a now-11 post thread takes too much of your time?

The thread was veering all over the place. I couldn't tell what was going on and nothing in here seemed to relate to the original question.

I forgot how easily confused you get.

tGreenWay wrote:

steveschneider wrote:

The thread was veering all over the place. I couldn't tell what was going on and nothing in here seemed to relate to the original question.

I forgot how easily confused you get.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get worked up about custom framing and then ask if it’s a bigger ripoff than college textbooks before. I guess my thought is if it’s a fine piece of art then a custom frame is probably worth it and they say you can’t put a price on education so I’d say the text books are worth it too.

What’s the bigger scam: College textbooks or custom framing?

Fucking steve wrote:Neither, both are great values!

Fucking steve...

steveschneider wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:




I forgot how easily confused you get.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get worked up about custom framing and then ask if it’s a bigger ripoff than college textbooks before. I guess my thought is if it’s a fine piece of art then a custom frame is probably worth it and they say you can’t put a price on education so I’d say the text books are worth it too.

It’s weird how you think I’m worked up about this. Par for the course, though, as you frequently offer bad takes around here.

tGreenWay wrote:

steveschneider wrote:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get worked up about custom framing and then ask if it’s a bigger ripoff than college textbooks before. I guess my thought is if it’s a fine piece of art then a custom frame is probably worth it and they say you can’t put a price on education so I’d say the text books are worth it too.

It’s weird how you think I’m worked up about this. Par for the course, though, as you frequently offer bad takes around here.

So then you are happy about the costs of custom framing or do you think it’s a ripoff? At this point I admit I’m confused. You have some strange concepts, Mr. Greenway.

I've bitched about this before, but fucking college is a scam. Wife and I have paid for a vaction house some where when this year is over. The past six years we've been strapped and we'll be poor because of this for at least the next 5 years or so. Look, I get it, prices rise. But WTF? It was 36 dollars a credit hour when I was going there. The debt yhou accumulated you could get Rid of in 4 years or so without blinking an eye. Mild irritation at best. This? holy mother of god.

StylesGShmooth wrote:No tenured, respected educator ever made me buy his own frame that he designed and was only good for 3.5 months and had zero resale value, is all I'm saying.

For the record I have never written or sold a textbook (other than selling back). And I absolutely think it is wrong to require one's own textbook, publish in-house, and sell for a profit. I know folk who have published in-house and sold at cost (which is usually less than a comparable text from Wiley or Norton, say).

I am also grateful that most textbooks are available as electronic copies, looseleaf etc. and even more grateful that free texts (such as from OpenStax) are getting better and better and thus worthy of adoption.

But frames are everywhere. Have you ever bought a frame? Of course. Have you ever bought a molecular genetics text? Probably not. Fifty years ago the texts were black and white. No student would want to buy a text on molecular genetics today that has shades of gray for all of the recognition sites on a gene activation sequence. So a lot of texts are costly production items with very few buyers. It's going to be expensive. There is zero way around that other than electronics and crowd-sourced authoring for free (like OpenStax).

And Dwags I agree that college is expensive... too expensive. But do your kids want more campus security than we had? Do your kids want more career services than we had? Do your kids want more counseling services than we had? Etc. etc..... It is the amenities and services and administration expansion that has mostly caused college costs to increase. Not the academics budget.

Also for the record... I am not a molecular geneticist nor a college administrator.

DWags wrote:I've bitched about this before, but fucking college is a scam.  Wife and I have paid for a vaction house some where when this year is over.   The past six years we've been strapped and we'll be poor because of this for at least the next 5 years or so.  Look, I get it, prices rise.  But WTF?  It was 36 dollars a credit hour when I was going there.  The debt yhou accumulated you could get Rid of in 4 years or so without blinking an eye.  Mild irritation at best.  This?  holy mother of god.

You should’ve let the girls skip more school when they hit age 16. Dumb ‘em down so their grade points wouldn’t get them into anything but pet cosmetology school.
Really, this is your own fault.

Rick Saunders wrote:

StylesGShmooth wrote:No tenured, respected educator ever made me buy his own frame that he designed and was only good for 3.5 months and had zero resale value, is all I'm saying.

For the record I have never written or sold a textbook (other than selling back). And I absolutely think it is wrong to require one's own textbook, publish in-house, and sell for a profit. I know folk who have published in-house and sold at cost (which is usually less than a comparable text from Wiley or Norton, say).

I am also grateful that most textbooks are available as electronic copies, looseleaf etc. and even more grateful that free texts (such as from OpenStax) are getting better and better and thus worthy of adoption.

But frames are everywhere. Have you ever bought a frame? Of course. Have you ever bought a molecular genetics text? Probably not. Fifty years ago the texts were black and white. No student would want to buy a text on molecular genetics today that has shades of gray for all of the recognition sites on a gene activation sequence. So a lot of texts are costly production items with very few buyers. It's going to be expensive. There is zero way around that other than electronics and crowd-sourced authoring for free (like OpenStax).

And Dwags I agree that college is expensive... too expensive. But do your kids want more campus security than we had? Do your kids want more career services than we had? Do your kids want more counseling services than we had? Etc. etc..... It is the amenities and services and administration expansion that has mostly caused college costs to increase. Not the academics budget.

Also for the record... I am not a molecular geneticist nor a college administrator.

Frames are ubiquitous, no doubt. As I wrote, though, I’m referring to custom made frames. The kind for a grad school or professional degree, or family heirloom, or the concert and Spartan game memorabilia we discussed earlier. Even Michaels charges too much. I always use a local small biz owner who does good work, but the cost is crazy. And of course, I pay it every time.