wrote in message
ups.com...

Self serving? Of course - but it also serves to provide better pricing
to working artisans. If you use the materials to make a for sale
product, you should buy those materials wholesale. Retailers are to
serve the hobbyists.


Nonsense. Absolute total nonsense. By your logic, then, I should pay
retail pricing for the materials on any gifts I might make?

All you are trying to do is lend some artifical credibility to a bunch of
basement bandits and wannabes.

The cost of the glass and metal in any stained glass project is a very small
percentage of the selling price...that is, if the project is actually being
built by a real professional artisan. Me spending $30-50 more for supplies
on a $1000 sale is certainly worth the convenience of having a local source
for that odd piece of glass or whatever I need on short notice.

I'm far from a hobbyist...and I use retailers for virtually all of my
supplies. Know why? Because when that retailer gets an inquiry on a major
repair or restoration or for new work that they can't handle, I get a phone
call. So, I spend a few extra bucks a month keeping the local economy
going, and it comes back to me in spades. When I walk into a store, they
know me. I don't have to give them a customer number and a password and
wait for two friggin' weeks for some bozo to process an order.