How to Price Caskets
Because he has always believed in getting plenty of bang for his buck, Julie's practical cousin went casket shopping for himself. He compared styles, materials and costs and wound up picking a plain wood casket to showcase his daughter's painted designs (both are artists). These days, it's living in his garage and anyone interested in seeing it is invited over. You probably have no plan to go to this extreme, but if you're a pragmatist and wish to spare your family the pain of choosing a casket, do your homework now. No garage storage required.
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Instructions
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Let your keyboard do the walking before you start the car. Check casket manufacturer and retailer resources included in this article (links below) before heading to funeral parlors in your area to see examples of the manufacturers, materials and styles to which you were most attracted when you surfed the Internet.
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Price caskets by material to get apples to apples comparisons. Create a hand-drawn or computer-generated spreadsheet to match prices for cherry, mahogany, oak, poplar, pecan, maple and pine models if you prefer a wood casket. Match up various gauges of stainless steel caskets if you like metal. Create a third listing to cover unique, customized caskets that require additional handiwork, embellishments or crafting.
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Use these figures as a starting point when you shop: expect to find low-end wood caskets that run from $600 to $1,600. Anticipate spending $4,000 to $5,000 for premium oak and maple hardwoods and around $3,000 for high-quality cherry. Seek middle ground by investigating wood veneers that allow you to have a casket of high end wood for half the cost because not as much wood is used when the casket is fabricated.
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Compare 18- and 20-gauge steel caskets that cost between $900 and $3,500. 16-gauge steel is considered top-of-the-line so you shouldn't be surprised to find this type of casket in the $5,000 range.
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Save money by ordering an unfinished casket with no interior or exterior cover, particularly if you are shopping for a casket that meets stringent religious guidelines or if you desire minimal construction for philosophical reasons. Expect to pay around $400 for the simplicity of a pine or other inexpensive wood casket. Opt for a cardboard container if you're planning for a cremation (around $250).
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Evoke your practical sensibilities by choosing the middle ground and selecting a casket from a discounter that may cut the cost of even a pricey 18-gauge steel or fine hardwood casket by up to 70 percent of prices found elsewhere.
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Factor in shipping costs when you compute casket pricing facts and figures. Allow for regional price fluctuations. Ask whether shipping is included with your purchase and keep this in mind: buy a casket from an in-state vendor and while you may not be stuck paying shipping costs, you must pay state taxes on the purchase, a fact that makes the epithet "nothing's inevitable but death and taxes" a true but ironic statement.
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Tips & Warnings
Expect to add several hundred dollars to your base casket price---no matter what material it's made of---if you're buying an over-sized casket to accommodate an overweight decedent.
