Here's what the same headstone actually costs when you buy from the people who made it — and why most families never find out.
Funeral homes typically mark up monuments and headstones 40 to 60 percent above what they pay the monument company. This is not an estimate from one source — it is the consensus in multiple consumer-pricing surveys, industry reporting, and the everyday experience of families who shop the market.
The reason is structural. Funeral homes do not own granite. They do not run engraving equipment or stone-cutting saws. They are sales offices that arrange the funeral service, the casket, and a long list of other items — including, often, the monument. When a family asks the funeral director about the headstone, the funeral home calls a monument company, gets a wholesale price, and quotes the family a retail price. The difference is the markup.
On a typical $2,800 single upright monument, that markup is roughly $1,100 to $1,700 added to the family's bill. On a companion monument starting at $4,200 from the manufacturer, the funeral home price is often above $6,000.
Manufacturer
$1,204
Funeral Home
$1,800–$2,000
Family Saves
$596–$796
Manufacturer
$2,800
Funeral Home
$4,200–$4,800
Family Saves
$1,400–$2,000
Manufacturer
$4,258
Funeral Home
$6,400–$7,200
Family Saves
$2,100–$3,000
Manufacturer prices are Gifford's actual starting prices. Funeral home prices reflect a 50% markup, which is the middle of the industry-reported 40–60% range. Your local funeral home's number may be higher or lower.
The markup is not an accident, and it is not corruption. It is the structural result of how the funeral industry sells monuments. There are four reasons it persists:
Families arranging a funeral are exhausted, often grieving, and rarely in a state to comparison-shop. The funeral home offers everything in one place. That convenience has a price, and the monument is one of the most marked-up items in the funeral package because families are least likely to question it.
The family does not know what the monument actually costs at wholesale. The funeral home does. Without a reference price, there is nothing for the family to negotiate against — they either accept the quote or walk away from the entire funeral arrangement.
Many funeral homes have an exclusive relationship with a single monument company. The family is not offered options. The funeral home recommends 'their' monument company, and the price reflects whatever margin was agreed to in that arrangement.
The FTC Funeral Rule requires itemized pricing on funeral services, but it does not require the funeral home to disclose what they pay the monument company. The markup is legal and unregulated — which is why it persists.
You are not obligated to buy the monument through the funeral home. Federal law (the FTC Funeral Rule) requires funeral homes to accept goods purchased from outside vendors, and the same principle applies to monuments. Read the full breakdown of consumer rights →
The practical steps:
Most families who follow these four steps save between $500 and $2,000. On larger monuments the savings can be higher.
Gifford Monument Works has been a monument manufacturer since 1936. We are not a funeral home, not a reseller, and not a broker. We import granite directly from the same factories that supply the rest of the industry, cut and finish it at our Ada, Oklahoma yard, and install it at the cemetery.
Every quote we issue is Not-to-Exceed — the price we give you is the ceiling. We do not pad numbers, we do not bundle hidden fees, and we will tell you when something is not necessary. The whole reason this page exists is that we believe families should know what their monument actually costs.
We will quote you a Not-to-Exceed price on the same monument the funeral home was going to mark up. No obligation, no pressure, no sales script.
Gifford Monument Works · Manufacturer since 1936 · Ada, OK & Wylie, TX