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Top Ten Reasons I Don't Do Unmounted
"ums" = unmounted rubber stamps
Number Ten:
Having designed every stamp in the Meer Image collection, I think it imperative to have the company name permanently attached in a way that won't be lost or covered up by the customer. I know you carefully label all of your dies and would never let the company name get lost, but somebody else might.
Number Nine:
Nobody - but nobody - mounts stamps better, and you deserve the best; my mounting insures that each and every stamp will look and perform just the way it was meant to.
Number Eight:
Bringing both mounted and unmounted versions to shows is cumbersome and difficult to display in a logical and pleasing manner, so I choose the mounted version because it has the image right there on it, whereas ums need a separate display to show the image.
Number Seven:
Offering both versions on the web site is complex; I like to keep things simple.
Number Six:
Most ums are extremely overpriced and I won't support a tradition that rips people off*. Some companies will aggressively promote ums because they know it's their highest profit margin, and they will sell you on inferior home-mounting techniques only because it will justify - in the customer's mind - buying more ums.
Number Five:
It's expected of me.
Number Four:
I do not subscribe to the myth that some people "just don't have enough storage". If you really want it, you will find a place to store it -- maybe by offloading some of the stamps you never use. Scores of stampers have drawers full of unmounted dies that have never felt the touch of a wet ink pad. I would much rather you owned just one Meer Image stamp that you really love, than a whole bag full of ums that become forgotten, lost, covered in dust, dry out and then you eventually come across them one day in the basement under a box behind the exercise bike when you're 94 years old and ask yourself "if I had stamped these images on letters to my friends when I was younger... would things have turned out differently?"
Number Three:
At rubber stamp conventions, ums are very easily stolen by creeps.
Number Two:
Mounted stamps are beautiful and they feel good in your hands.
And the number one reason I don't do unmounted:
I don't want to. I enjoy the process of mounting, it brings each of my pieces to a finish that feels right. It's not like I'm just cranking out cookie-cutter designs and selling them as fast as I can. Let's face it, rubber stamps are not one of life's necessities, they are art, and if you are going to indulge yourself, why not do it right?
* Not all half-price ums are a rip off! Traditionally an unmounted stamp is sold at half the price of a mounted stamp, even though the materials and labor that went into it are a tiny fraction of what goes into the mounted version. Thus, the gross profit on an unmounted die is far far greater than on the mounted version of the same design. An artist-owned company can justify selling ums at half price because they are not just selling the physical product, they are selling the creativity and experience that went into the design itself.
A "cookie-cutter" rubber stamp company selling ums at half price, on the other hand, is not only ripping you off, they are hurting the artist-owned companies by pretending to have something that is more valuable than what it's made of. Some cookie-cutters don't rip you off in this way, instead they sell ums really really cheap in huge messy bins - and this is devastating for the artist-owned company because they cannot possibly drop their prices that far and remain in business.
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