Small things can make a big difference and in this day of cheap imported goods what you see isn't necessarily what you get. Most people find this out by buying something that looks good but doesn't perform as expected and needs to be replaced. After a few times it becomes apparent that maybe you really DO get what you pay for.
While not wanting to get on my soapbox I must say that something made in China is often made to LOOK good but not BE good. Living in Asia (where I call home) there is a flood of these inexpensive goods on the market and buying American means spending quite a bit more because of tariffs and import duties. It's been my experience that most people here prefer to buy 'cheap'.
Mom sent me the latest photos of herself and Dad and this required a trip to the mall to find suitable photograph frames. The place we went had a display of hundreds of frames of every size and style imaginable but not a single one that wasn't produced somewhere here in Asia. I realize now I should have gone online to find a quality product that would suitably frame my octogenarian parents but I bit the bullet and laid down my 100 Philippine pesos (about two bucks worth) for a couple of gilt-edged models that looked pretty good. At least they were the right size.
When we got home and tried to install the photos the first thing that happened is that some of the plastic clips broke. This caused the backing to become loose and the picture to slide down and become un-centered. The solution was a couple strips of duct tape to hold the back in place.
That worked for a while but then the tape lost adhesion and began to peel away. The next idea was to employ two rubber bands to hold the frame together. We tried this and it worked okay but looked like junk. It was back to the drawing board.
I searched online for 'photo and certificate frames' and was surprised to receive nearly half a million hits on my query. There must be a lot of frame purveyors out there. I started at the top of the list and didn't have to travel far before finding what I wanted.
Metal frames, wood frames, shadowboxes and custom-made units all available and most very reasonably priced. True it would take some time for delivery but anything was better than looking at the cheesy rubber-band set-up. Anyway, Mom and Dad deserve to be displayed with some style and panache.
