Bigmike and others:
I'm glad someone else noticed the spike in pricing for frames at Michaels.
I have to tell you, I love Michaels frames and have had only positive experiences with them. But they have gotten so expensive! Back when I was in high school in the early 2000s, I got a lot of Belgian posters (around 14x22") framed by them in black matte aluminum frames. The price before discount was around $50, then factor in the 40-50% off sales that they were running CONSTANTLY, and I could easily drop off two posters at once on my paper route money.
Well, fast forward a decade or so, and the same poster will run you upwards of $160 WITH a discount! So, that's an increase of about 5 TIMES within ten years. Man, even real estate hasn't increased nearly that much. Not to mention, our economy sucks (DANG, it was easier to find a job BEFORE I went to university!).
So for a special job, I still would trust Michaels, because of the quality, but they are a chain store, so bear in mind that you may need to screen the teenage associates. I was always able to tell them exactly what I wanted, and they delivered. Never used dry-mounting or anything like that. I tried pricing Hobby Lobby, but they didn't seem much cheaper, and I was very put off when I tried to buy some acid-free backing board, but nobody on staff could tell me whether the board was indeed acid-free or not.
For standard frame-ups, I'd like to try americanframe.com. Nice prices, but their acid-free backing is only 1/8th inch thick... Sounds very thin to me. Can anyone comment on how study or flimsy their framing material is?
OK, so funny story about my frames from Michaels. A few years after having some things framed (I was probably in undergrad by now), I took the posters out of the frames, because I was concerned about the paper being pressed up against the glass, as I live in a rather humid environment (East Coast, anyone?). I wasn't sure how I was going to approach the situation, but it wasn't urgent, since the posters in question were out of the frames (and when you're in undergrad, is anything ever urgent, except turning in your next paper?).
I mentioned to my mother that I was considering selling some of the frames at our upcoming garage sale (thinking I could get a good chunk of money back to invest in an alternative, or.. more posters!). Well, the day of the garage sale, I sauntered out of bed around 10 am, and my mom tells me, "Hey, good news, I sold almost all of you're frames!"
I responded groggily... "Huh? Oh... really? For how much?"
She responded "Well I didn't know how much to charge, so I figured a dollar each, but then one guy wanted to buy the whole lot..."
"A DOLLAR??!!!! EACH???!!!!"
Umm... yea. Wasn't happy. I still tease her about it to this day, but I'll never let her near my custom frames again!