When it comes to buying tombstone, what people care about most is the price. It is often the case that when you have chosen a memorial, the price that the supplier told you is much higher than your expectation.

You may feel confused that a tombstone should cost so high and doubt that the seller was cheating you. Because the times an ordinary person will purchase gravestone are sporadic. For this reason, most buyers are difficult to know even the possible price of a headstone based on their life experience.

Recently, we have met some customers from South Africa who have similar questions. As a professional tombstone manufacturer that has business in this market. We are glad to help you understand what determines a memorial stone’s price and where to find a fine gravestone.

How Does The Price of A Tombstone Is Made?

Four factors affect the cost price of a tombstone. They are material, size, labour cost and shipping cost (If you decide to import gravestone from other countries, the shipping cost will be high ).

1.Material

In South Africa, the primary material of headstone is granite. Natural granite stone is solid, and it has a wide array of colours. Even the same colour has different patterns and threads. The types, hence, is miscellaneous.

The price of each type of granite changes frequently. Price changes usually vary with changes in supply and need. However, as natural granite belongs to non-renewable resources, materials’ price is getting higher and higher. Besides, since some countries begin to attach importance to environmental protection and forbid exploiting minerals, the price changes more and more frequently.

2.Size

Size is another factor that influences tombstone price. The bigger the size, the higher the price. It is easy to understand. Suppose the size of the monument is big. That means it needs more materials. Also, the workload is heavier. All these costs will be added to the sales price finally.

3.Labor Cost

Buyers often neglect labour cost. While it is inescapable, generally speaking, a gravestone’s craft indicates how much the labour cost you should pay for the manufacturer.

Usually, making a tombstone needs several steps. A specialized person finishes each step. If a monument is intricate, its production process will be longer and requires more workers to participate in the production. Of course, its cost is higher than a single one.

4.Shipping Cost

Once you plan to get a tombstone from the local market, you can ignore the shipping cost. But if you prefer to purchase a headstone abroad, the expenditure for shipping will cost much.

The reason is that most large- scale tombstone factories gather in China and India, which are far away from the South Africa market. Thus, even if you choose the cheapest means of transportation, you still need to spend a lot on shipping. Sometimes, the price of shipping is four or five times the gravestone!

What Is The Price of South Africa Tombstone?

When you have understood what influences the price of a headstone, you could use it to assess the price range. Every region’s gravestone has its characteristics, so does South Africa.

The tombstone in South Africa usually has bases, and the height is high. Dark colour materials are more popular here. The common materials are absolute black granite and other top-grade materials like blue pearl granite. A few customers favour light colour like Chinese pink or grey granite, Indian red granite.

Most styles are simple. Only a few customers will ask for comprehensive designs.

Please take one of our product for instance. The tombstone has been hot-selling in the recent past. As the photos showing, it is easy to be machined. The labour cost, therefore, is in a normal range.

The standard size is 1m in height * 1.6m in length and*0.65m in width. Now, we can evaluate its price when processed with different materials. Here we choose two granite stones: the absolute black granite and the cheapest material, G602, at this point. The gravestone’s factory prices made by the two materials are around $ 1000 and $400 respectively.

If adding shipping cost from our factory, located in China, to South Africa, the import price is several times the original price. So, the G602 tombstone with flower carvings will cost you nearly $ 2000, and the black one is more expensive, close to $ 3000!

Where to Buy A Available Tombstone?

The best option is to buy tombstone from the local market.

Take South Africa, for example. There are many gravestone dealers in South Africa. Some of them have their factories. Others import a large number of monuments abroad for selling.

Their price will be much lower than you importing only one tombstone from countries of origin. Also, this practice has another advantage-- saving the cost of short-distance transport and installation.

If you choose to buy a headstone abroad, Merchants will send your goods to the destination port. But after receiving goods, you must bring them back by yourself.

Besides, finding a professional person to install a headstone for the setup is not an easy job. All these steps need money.

While, if you buy memorial stone from local sellers, they usually do not charge an extra fee for these services.

Of course, there are some exceptional cases. A few rich individual customers still insist on purchasing gravestone abroad. The reason is that they don’t satisfied with the styles offered by local dealers or factories are unable to produce the sophisticated monument designed by themselves. In such circumstances, they finally decided to search for a foreign supplier.

Xiamen Mason is a professional stone manufacturer from China. We wholesale tombstone, sculptures, and other cemetery stone products. In the last ten years, we have cooperated with dealers from Europe, America, South Africa and Oceania. Visit our site www.xmmason.com to see more products.