Just a heads up, this article is written in more of a rambling on style, lol.  Not a whole lot of structure, just me typing out the story.

 

To start, here is some background on why I finally came to the decision to stop selling our wood frames with the powder coat finish and create a totally new line of frames, it was mostly due to increasing costs and availability. 

 

  As of March 2025 we finally made the (what seemed to be eventually inevitable) decision to walk away from the wood frame with powder coat finish, which has been the way we made our frames since the first prototypes we did in 2009.  At that time we (Rob and Myself) both worked for a wood manufacturing company that had been powder coating wood for years and it was a perfect fit for the frames.  Everything was going great for years, Rob and I went to work elsewhere and and then about 2019 that company sold to a new owner. At which time we had a big halt in our products as they went through and re-quoted all of the projects they produced for their customers.  We endured a small price increase but after a few months we were up and going again, then Covid....and we all know the affects that had on everyone and every thing. 

  So after everyone started getting back up and running again we had to deal with another price increase as material prices skyrocketed during that time.  Then unfortunately in 2022, again, that company was bought our by another company and this time the new owners decided to remove the powder coat lines completely ending our supply of all frames. 

  Sometime during those couple years I had bought out Robs half of The Collectors Resource and so I seriously considered just giving up on the frame idea all together.  I ended up deciding to press on and eventually found another company that could supply the frames for me.  After awhile we slowly started getting back up to speed with most of the frame styles back in stock, but then AGAIN this new company went through an ownership change which again halted supply for a short while.  Then in mid 2024 they apparently lost their equipment to an unpaid bank loan on all their machinery, essentially putting them out of business.  They tried to set up with a temporary new company to continue to produce parts (like mine) for their customers but it was a bit of a mess. 

 

  Now I should tell you that powder coating on wood is much different than powder coating on metal,  the ovens, production lines, powder material and electro-magnetic application process is all different, so finding new companies to produce the frames are few and far between. 

 So that brings us to just a few months ago, and now again I reach out to three other companies that I find that can and will produce the frames, every one of their quotes come back at about 30-50% more than what I had been paying from the last company.  Now when we started making these frames about fifteen years ago we were able to make a price point of $19.95 for a standard (non-museum edition) frame, we actually did not even start offering the UV safe option for another year or more back then. 

  I realize everything has increased in price quite dramatically over the last fifteen years but my thought had always been, as a collector myself, that if these frames became too expensive nobody would spend the money on them, or look for cheaper alternatives to display and appreciate their books.  Because we all love to buy more books and if we spend all of our money on displaying them, we cannot afford those books we want. 

 

  These price increases is also the reason that for many years now we have not offered our frames at wholesale to stores, only because with some of those price increases we did not pass them along to you, the buyers.  So our margins became smaller and as a result basically left no room for stores to buy them from us and resell them at enough of a profit.  So I hope you all believe me when I tell you I offer these frames because I do really enjoy being a part of the industry, it is not making me wealthy, lol. 

 

 

  With the latest quotes I received I would have to list our standard graded frames at about $38-40 each, Museum Edition at about $50 each, for a single book frame, and just imagine how expensive some of the fancier Triple, Inline4, Connecting cover and Tri-Fold frames would be!  I just did not want to do that, so back to another tough decision, just give up on the frame idea? Couldn't do it, I have always loved producing products for an industry I am quite fond of... so back to the drawing board. 

 

So now, for the exciting news!

 

 I spent the last few months searching for, testing, trying new materials, processes and options to produce frames, especially something that I can do in my own facility.  -If anyone is not aware I also own a manufacturing and display design/build company of my own, Be Bold Displays.  We do a lot of CNC, laser and machining of woods, acrylics, plastics, ACM, aluminum, and various other materials.  Our main industry is Bars, serving carts, photo walls and backdrops but we do a lot of component work for other companies as well.  So we have had the ability to manufacture the frames, just not powder coat them. A powder coat line (for wood) is a very costly investment, both financially as well as a large square footage commitment. 

 

  But anyways, back to the exciting part, we landed on a material that as a sheet good, is much more expensive than the MDF the frames were made of previously.  However this new material is already black with a nice looking face so we will not have the cost of powder coating. The material "officially" is a closed cell PVC extruded sheet, it is rigid and strong, about 40% lighter than than a finished MDF frame and honestly as you can see in the pictures, looks very similar to our old powder coated frames, -especially when they are hanging on the wall. 

 We had been using this material for projects for many years so we are very familiar with it's capabilities, we are actually using sheets of it to build an 8' wideby 7' tall back bar wall for a customer right now.

  Switching to this material will allow us to now do 100% of all of our products in house, which for me personally is a huge relief!  I can control quality, supply and costs, well as much as I can, materials still seem to increase in price for no reason all the time, but I will not have to pay the markups of the other suppliers on top of materials. 

  Another awesome part about this is being able to produce new frame styles very easily and MUCH cheaper, so if anyone has a specific frame design they want, or for something other than comics, we can design and machine it at a fair and much more competitive price than a typical frame shop. 

  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, instead of having to increase the frame prices another 30-40%...we will be able to lower the prices on likely every one of our frames about 10% or more from where they have been!

 

 With that being said we are already improving some aspects of our frames and introducing some new designs and options, and frames for graded sport/non sport cards are following soon as well!

 

All of our graded frames will no longer utilize the plastic clips in the back to hold the slabs in the frames, they will all now use a neoprene soft flexible rubber flange which will protect the slabs better and not stick out the back of the frame like the old clips did.  We will still use the clips on the frames for loose, ungraded books but we can sink them in to the frame much further as the thickness of a slab is a lot more than the raw comic, acrylic and backer.  

 

 

And how about a WHOLE NEW FRAME with a very cool design option!

 

 

The frames that you see in the pictures with different fronts are a new design we will start very soon as well.  These use the same material for the body of the frame but the slab will load into the frame from the front instead of the back.  The fronts are interchangeable and will be sold individually as well, we will offer the fronts in many different colors and finishes.  We will also offer laser etched options on the fronts as well.  -Thinking spider webs, bats, claw marks, etc.  Just to customize them a little more if you want.  This way if you want to switch out your book and add a new color front that highlights the book it is as simple as putting on a new face that simply sticks on with high strength neodymium magnets. 

 

 

I am pretty excited to get these out!

 

 

 

 

I think that is enough rambling for now, I have to get to work making these new frames.

 

We will start off with just the Graded Single frames, in both standard and Museum Edition but we will be adding more and more frames quite quickly over the following weeks. 

 

We will have a lot of new pictures to take and add to the website along with new content so please bear with us.

 

Also, we will be selling our old style frames until they are sold out so what is left on the website now will pretty much be it for the wood frames.

 

I do truly appreciate all of the support everyone has given over the years, Rob and I still talk about how we never thought we would sell this many frames, for so many years.

 

But I am excited to be able to stick with it and hopefully you all enjoy these new style frames as much as the old ones!

 

 

Thank You!

 

 Tony Pucilowski

The Collectors Resource