As our product line has grown significantly in the past several years, we've had to make some modifications to our pricing policy to reflect this diversification. Presently, we have two separate pricing systems in place: one for finished inks and another for ink components.

Our pricing structure for ink components is fairly simple, so we'll explain it first. We price any given ink component by the amount of 55 gallon drums of that product that you purchase or would have purchased if you buy that product in another type of container. If you buy a certain product in 15 gallon metal kits instead of 55 gallon drums, we then calculate the amount of 55 gallon drums you would have bought. Now that we know the actual or equivalent amount of drums you are purchasing of any given ink component, we look up a table that gives the discount for the number of drums of that product that you are purchasing. We can then add the upcharge for any special packaging you might require.

The way that we price our finished inks is similar to the method we use for ink components, with a few extra rules. Just like ink components, we price the finished inks by the number of 55 gallon drums or their equivalent that we sell per color. The more drums of any one color we sell to you, the greater the discount is for that particular formula. And just like with the ink components, the type of packaging in which you buy your finished ink does not determine your volume discount, because we always calculate the equivalent amount of 55 gallon drums of product you purchased.

For example: you buy 15 kits of ink, each holding a net weight of 30 pounds. This totals 450 pounds, which is approximately the net amount held in a single 55 gallon drum. Thus, you are charged the one drum price for this color plus a small charge for the cost of the kits.

Another example: you buy a tote bin of newsink, and you furnish us the empty tote bin. A tote bin comes closest to our 4 drum price category. We take the 4 drum price, then subtract the tote bin discount for customer-supplied tote bins.

Since we manufacture such a large variety of special order and custom-made inks, most times we have to make a batch when the order comes in. Nearly all of our finished ink batches, especially blacks, are four drums in size. This means that if you order just one drum of special custom-made ink, we have to "eat" the other three drums of special custom-made ink. In order to encourage potential purchasers of special and custom inks to buy the whole batch, we have developed three different pricing tiers for all finished inks, along with order minimums.

Many "special order" and "custom" ink formulas carry a minimum order amount. This is because so many of our inks are made to order, and we need to sell as much of the batch as we can when we make them. The minimum applies almost exclusively to finished inks, not ink components. Most color inks that have a minimum amount need 400 lbs., or about one drum. Black inks with a minimum order amount usually call for 850 to 900 lbs., or about two drums. You can always try to order less than the minimum amount: if we have product in stock that day, we'll ship it regardless of the minimum requirement for the product. If you do order less than the minimum, we may still be able to make an ink but we will charge and extra $0.25/lb. Whenever you see the "no minimum" symbol in this catalog, you know you don't have to worry about ordering the minimum amount, since there is none. We also can FAX you convenient "minimum order" reports that tell you the minimum order requirement for every formula that you've bought from us in the past year.

We have the capability to make hundreds of "centerline" colors like 347 Green, 185 Red, and many others. As long as you are able to order at least 400 lbs. (181 kgs.)

 of any single centerline color, we can make almost any shade you want. Order less than 400 lbs. and we'll still make the product, but we'll charge an extra $0.25/lb. There are some minor exceptions: tan, brown, and grey shades are much more difficult for anyone to manufacture due to the "delicate" nature of these shades. We discourage orders for these shades, especially if the batch size is below 1000 lbs.

When you read a price list printout from Kerley, you'll notice that if the product is a finished ink, it will be marked as a "Standard", "Special Order", or "Custom" ink. Below is a more thorough explanation of what these price classes each mean.

The first pricing tier for finished inks is what we call our "Standard Ink" price. Across our lines of finished inks, we try to make sure there are a few "Standard Inks", although we do not have many. These are formulas that we always manage to keep "in stock". That means you don't have to worry about taking the whole 4-drum batch. You can take as little as one drum, or less if we have the ink in stock that day.

The second pricing tier is what we call our "Special Order" ink price. Special Order inks may appear in our catalog, but are usually less widely used than their "Standard" counterparts because they may have some modification that is application-specific. This is where the amount of ink you order starts to count. Remember, orders of less than 4 drums of a Special Order Ink mean that we have to charge you list price: no combination discount will apply. If you order one, two, or three drums of this type of ink, there is a graduated upcharge for each of these quantities. Think of it as a "discount in reverse".

The third and last pricing tier is for what we call our "Custom" inks. Custom inks are similar in status to "Special Order" inks. Occasionally, a Special order ink may prove to be popular enough to be used by more than one customer. At that point, we change its status to "Custom", which effectively lowers its price for smaller orders. Just like with "Special Order" inks, if you order one, two, or three drums of this type of ink, there is a graduated upcharge for each of these quantities. Again, no combination discount will apply for less than 4 drum orders of "Custom" items.

You can save thousands of dollars with each purchase of Kerley products when you take advantage of our volume discount plan. And what's great about our discount plan is that you don't have to buy a very large amount of any particular Kerley product to immediately save money!

That's because we offer you a two-sided discount plan. You can save two ways at the same time by buying first in quantity, and then by variety. So if you buy ten drums of heatset black ink plus five drums of quickset black base, plus another five drums of quickset vehicle, you'll get the twenty drum price on all three items!

Our discount plan spans across this entire catalog. No matter what you plan to buy: base, varnish, compound, oil, ink additive, or finished ink (exception: less than 4 drums each of "Special Order" or "Custom" inks.) you get the volume discount applied on each and every item you purchase that day. Even "Special Order" inks and "Custom" inks count towards purchases of other Kerley products like ink components.

"Special Order" and "Custom" inks are not combination discounted themselves until you reach the 4-drum order minimum of any "Special Order" or "Custom" ink formula. In other words, you always pay list price for less than 4 drums of any single "Custom" or "Special Order" formula. However, purchases of "Custom" and "Special Order" inks count towards the volume discounts of "Standard" inks and all ink components like varnishes, bases and compounds.