You've got three quotes for the same storefront sign. Same letter size, same text, same basic idea. One says $2,100. One says $3,400. One says $1,400.
Which one do you take?
Most people take the $1,400. And most of those people are back at the drawing board by month nineteen, staring at yellowed acrylic and a row of dead LEDs. I've watched this exact scene for 16 years, from both sides of the factory floor.
Here's what nobody tells you: there's no such thing as "the same sign" at two different prices. The price difference is the difference in parts, in labor, and in honesty. Your job is to force the supplier to tell you what you're actually buying.
Good news — you don't need a lighting engineering degree. You need seven numbers, written down, before you sign anything.
I had a customer last year send me three quotes for front-lit channel letters. Low bid was $19 a letter. High bid was $58. Same letter height, same storefront.
The low bidder was using 0.8mm aluminum instead of 1.2mm. The LED was a no-name chip that loses 30% of its output in the first year. The acrylic was domestic grade — 1 to 2 years before it yellows. And the transformer was the cheapest switching supply you could order on a slow boat from Shenzhen.
That's not a deal. That's a maintenance contract you didn't ask for.
The $58 guy wasn't greedy either. He was quoting 304 stainless, Samsung LEDs, 3mm UV-stable acrylic, and a Meanwell power supply. He's also the one who'll answer his phone in year three when something actually goes wrong.
Now here's the twist: I can quote you the honest version for $28 a letter — because I build them in Lu'an, Anhui, where I've got 50 people and zero sales commissions. But you still need to know what "honest" looks like. That's what this guide is.
Every quote that crosses your desk should answer these seven questions in writing. If a supplier dodges even one of them, that's your answer.
Run every quote through this list. The one that answers all seven, in writing, is the one you take — even if it's not the cheapest.
Look, if a quote says "LED: high quality," it's a lie. That's not a spec, that's a wish.
Quality modules from Samsung or Osram carry an L70 rating of 50,000 hours — that's the time before a chip dims to
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