Saturday, May 28, 2016

Not such a bargain

2mm thick cork for 3 quid a roll? Not bad from a high street bookseller you might think.

So, I measured the contents. The sheet is 60 X 30cm.

Which works out at 1800 square cm, 600 Sq cm per £.

A roll of Gaugemaster cork is 900 X 600 cm and costs £5.50 from eHattons.

That's 540,000 Sq cm or 98,181 Sq cm per £

(Please, someone check my maths. I failed both my AS and A levels as well as only scraping a pass at O level so I am an acknowledged thicky)

The bookshop version isn't quite such a bargain as I first thought. On the other hand, you can buy it in a high street and there is a very nice cardboard roll in the centre. Handy if you need a tiny bit at the end of corking your layout maybe.

5 comments:

Andy Elms said...

You're confusing millimetres with centimetres. Hattons is 90 x 60 centimetres, so 981 sq cm per pound sterling.

I bought some IKEA Avskild cork place mats, 4x42x32 cm for £3.50. 1536sq cm per pound sterling. That is, if you don't mind the joints on the baseboard. Or being in Ikea

I was in the shop looking for suitable baseboard material and found a mirror frame, wonderful solid thing.

Unknown said...

You have mixed your units up. The gaugemaster is 900x600mm (not cm) and works out at 981 sq cm per £

Still 50% more for your money but not as bad as your original calculation.

Andy

Leigh said...

Gauge master is 900x600 mm not cm. That's still 90x60cm so 5400 square cm and 981 square cm a £. About 50% better value but not quite as good as you had.

And no one is a maths tricky, least of all the average modeller. And I've seen architects muddle up units so I think your allowed!

Huw Griffiths said...

I suspect that, like me, Gaugemaster might quote their measurements in millimetres - so, at 900 * 600 mm (or 90 * 60 cm), their roll contains three times as much cork as the one from the high street shop - at slightly less than twice the price.

In other words, the Gaugemaster stuff still sounds like better value - as long as you need a reasonable amount of it - and you're not in too much of a rush to get it.

Anonymous said...

comparison costs for duffers like me-

Shop @ 0.0016p/cm2
Gaugemaster @ 0.0010185p/cm2
Ikea @ 0.000651p/cm2

Prefer mine by the square foot & £,S,d!!
yes and when dinosaurs ruled.

Pete