Claw-foot tub refinisher

I spent the morning calling claw-foot tub refinishers in Alabama and Georgia. After getting estimates of $600 to $700 per tub (our budget is $500 each and we already have $150 in one and $175 in the other), I called a company I initially thought of when I decided to put claw-foot tubs in the house. If I'd done this to begin with, I could have saved us a lot of trouble.

The business is in a borderline-dangerous outskirt of Birmingham we drive through on the way to my parents' house. A bunch of tubs that need refinishing are chained up outside the place. We stopped there a couple times awhile back, but it was the weekend and no one was there. I turned to Google and the online white pages, and when this business didn't show up in my searches for bathtub refinishers I sort of forgot about it.

Anyway, I got the owner on the phone today and he sells refinished claw-foot tubs for $530. That's the excruciating part. He must not have surveyed the competition recently. An architectural salvage company in Cullman sells them for $1,200, and that's the next cheapest price I've found. The good news was I could bring him the tubs I've already bought and he'll have them refinished for $330. That's within the $500 budget and a little less than the $530 of buying one already refinished, but saving $25 doesn't make up for the trouble of picking up the tubs, unloading them (they're HEAVY -- I fear for my fingers and toes, not to mention my back, every time I help move one) and storing them. The owner told me he doesn't refinish the tubs there; the same man has been picking them up, refinishing them and bringing them back for 20 years. He must not have raised his price in 20 years either, I thought. A refinished tub is displayed in the store and it looks really nice. I kind of feel bad the guy is doing this work so cheaply compared to everyone else, but I can't be the one to clue him in.

Next week Dad and I are going to take the tub that's at his house over there to be refinished. It won't be back for five to seven weeks, but that's not a problem given the slow progress of the house.