Cost of Stringing Survey

[A Defenseless Creature]

Just curious to see what stringing services are charging nowadays. I have used the search function and have not seen any recent threads on this topic. If you string for others, what do you charge? If you go to someone or someplace for stringing, where do you go and what are you charged? Thank you.

 

[SavvyStringer]

Just curious to see what stringing services are charging nowadays. I have used the search function and have not seen any recent threads on this topic. If you string for others, what do you charge? If you go to someone or someplace for stringing, where do you go and what are you charged? Thank you.

You will certainly receive massive variation is service cost depending on location and cost of living. For instance, I saw a guy advertising 'basic stringing' which I would believe to be syngut for $25. That's steep for my neck of the woods but may even be cheap where he's at.

I'm just outside Columbia, South Carolina and string from my home. Typical charge is $10 labor plus cost of string. I don't have the associated overhead that many proshops do as it's mainly beer and gas money for me. The only time my margins increase dramatically is for syngut. It's a flat $20 even though the string is only $3-4. It's just easier to ask for a $20 than to make change at $15. Many of the local shops are at $15-16 for labor alone plus they mark their strings up on top of that. Cost of living here is cheap and I am mostly stringing for friends and teammates so it's no big deal that I'm not making more for my time. I may increase my base pricing soon as I'm thinking about purchasing and outfitting a shed so I can get out of the dining room but even then it'll only be maybe $12 labor. I'm not in it to get rich, I'm trying to turn out a quality product and help people improve their tennis outcomes by stringing more frequently and being more well informed of their equipment.

 

[jangotango]

This might belong in the stringing techniques/machines thread.

I charge $15 labor, round up a dollar for the cost of strings. No tax, I'm a small operation.

 

[vndesu]

Nylon: 12 dollars
Sun gut: 15 dollars
Poly: depending on poly 20-25.
Own string: 12.

So far no complaints from my people lol

 

[colan5934]

I use a tiering system for my stringing offerings at 3 different price points. Labor works out to ~$20 with the string around retail, depending on which tier I put it in. There are a couple local guys who string out of their garage and surely charge less, but when their customers come to me with warped racquets, friction-burned strings, strings broken on tie-offs, and other preventable mistakes like polyester at high tensions with resulting arm pain, I turn them to me pretty quickly.

I’m USRSA certified with 12 years of professional racquet stringing experience, so I know I know what I’m doing, and my customers know that they get what they pay for.

 

[jangotango]

I use a tiering system for my stringing offerings at 3 different price points.

Can you elaborate on this? Do you put lower end (let's say Prince Synth Gut and Isospeed Baseline Poly) all equal at one price point like $10? And then all higher end stuff like ALU and RPM at $25 across the board?

 

[JEDI MASTER]

when I was coaching my son's HS tennis team... I charged $5 and cost of string...
and $10 for adult player + cost of strings...

 

[boualvng]

My club charges $20 for labor.

Sent from my LG-G710 using Tapatalk

 

[SlvrDragon50]

$15 for labor here

 

[Herb]

Contract with the local University for $5 per racquet, local customers $10 per racquet (plus string which I sell for retail). Visiting Universities and tournaments $20 per racquet.

One country club and our local tennis center charge $10 plus string, I string for 2 country clubs and local tennis club. Specialty store in town charges from $15-$18 labor depending on who checks you out. The reason I have picked up most of their customers. There are a couple of other home stringers that charge $10 labor. A couple of the high schools charge $10 and put the money in their booster funds. One high school the coach strings free, but takes him a couple weeks to get racquets back.

 

[colan5934]

Can you elaborate on this? Do you put lower end (let's say Prince Synth Gut and Isospeed Baseline Poly) all equal at one price point like $10? And then all higher end stuff like ALU and RPM at $25 across the board?

Yep. That’s the idea. I bundle string and labor together. Syn gut and/or cheap poly is $26. Solinco, Head lynx, Wilson Revolve, Sensation, Addiction, etc. is $33. Lux, Blast, Poly Tour Spin G, Origin, Xcel, NXT, etc. is $40

I list as basic, better, and best with a few offerings and a “contact me for further questions or specific strings you want” kind of message. That has done the best for me and keeps things uniform for people. Also gives people an idea of what is a premium string v middle of the road v basic. Some strings like solinco are very close to or equal in quality to the higher tier, but the price point is better. That’s what I sell the most of, but some people are dead set on Lux or Blast and will pay more, though I don’t think Babolat Poly is on the same level as many of the lower priced offerings.

 

[Doubles]

$10 if you bring me your own string.
$20 if I’m stringing for you with syn gut, cheaper multi’s and “basic” poly strings.
$25 if you want luxilon, Babolat or other “premium” stuff.

 

[fuzz nation]

$10 if you bring me your own string.
$20 if I’m stringing for you with syn gut, cheaper multi’s and “basic” poly strings.
$25 if you want luxilon, Babolat or other “premium” stuff.

Same here - I like to make $15 per frame, so I only stock basic strings.

Isospeed Baseline has been a fantastic value for a poly at $40 per reel and my reels of syn. guts are only a few bucks more than that. I don't use a lot of multifiber, but I keep a reel of Prince Premier Control 16 handy - decent bang for the buck with that string.

 

[Big_Dangerous]

$10 if you bring me your own string.
$20 if I’m stringing for you with syn gut, cheaper multi’s and “basic” poly strings.
$25 if you want luxilon, Babolat or other “premium” stuff.

Natural gut for 25??

 

[Doubles]

Natural gut for 25??

Nope. Never had anyone ask for gut. That'd be a different matter. $25 as in ALU, RPM, and various Multi's that have the audacity to charge close to $20 a set.

 

[Big_Dangerous]

Nope. Never had anyone ask for gut. That'd be a different matter. $25 as in ALU, RPM, and various Multi's that have the audacity to charge close to $20 a set.

I used to buy V-Feel in sets that were sometimes around 17-18 bucks per set. I found a reel off another site for considerably less, that I believe it worked out to being 9-10 bucks per set, somewhere around there.

 

[Doubles]

I used to buy V-Feel in sets that were sometimes around 17-18 bucks per set. I found a reel off another site for considerably less, that I believe it worked out to being 9-10 bucks per set, somewhere around there.

I have access to places where I can get NXT and similar for well under retail, but I still mark them up a bit in price because they're still expensive relative to what other strings cost at wholesale prices.

 

[fullwesternforehand]

When I was at my university, I charged 15 for labor for my club team. Usually I would buy reels of solinco cheaper online, and charge whatever a set would cost. Ex: Tour bite is 12 bucks a set, but if I do the math on my cheaper reels, it would come out to about 7 bucks a set. So I would charge 15+12=27, and I would make 27-7=20 of profit. This was in so-cal, and is pretty standard.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I charge $15 if they supply the string. $20 strung with any combination of the 3 Pro’s Pro reels I stock (synthetic gut, smooth poly and shaped poly). I charge $25 for any single packs I have on hand that are more expensive (a bunch of Tier One offerings and a few multis).

I don’t stock any Luxilon or high end multis. Most of the guys that want premium-priced stuff provide their own strings. I use gut/poly myself, but I have never had a customer request gut in a full bed or a hybrid even though I tell people all the time how great it is.

 

[Big Bagel]

The local shop charges $20 for labor plus the price of strings.

 

[whorng]

Cary Tennis Park pro shop no membership $14 labor.
With membership $12.60 labor I think.
I bring my own strings so not sure what they charge for strings. They mainly use Wilson and Luxilon.
Labor is the same for natural gut.
The local pros / techs train teenagers to do the job. Not sure if a teen will string natural gut.

 

[n8dawg6]

around here its $14-16 labor

 

[n8dawg6]

$50 if you insist on having an 18x20, haha ...

 

[SteveI]

I hate 18 x 20... In general I will do a frame for $20.00 flat fee with a basic syn gut or lower end poly I keep in stock. If you want to bring in your own string. $15.00. Easy peasy... . I only have a few folks that use multis.. and they bring their own. I will also do a poly / syn gut hybrid out of my stock for $20.00.

 

[tennis347]

I pay a local independent stringer 15 bucks for labor with my own string. I buy a reel of Gosen Micro 16 so my string jobs are quite inexpensive! I only get about 8-10 hours so it’s still very affordable!

 

[Zoolander]

I will charge you a 6 pack of good beer, though you will probably get a crap job if i start drinking first.

In australia it seems to average $20 for labour by a real stringer and not a hack like me.

 

[Doubles]

I’m admittedly biased because I’ve used 18x20 frames for roughly half the time I’ve played tennis but I don’t think they’re that bad to string.

A Prestige Mid with full poly is not the best but most of the 95”-98” frames are not much harder to string than 16x19’s.