pricing of prints

[brantfordbandit]

Hello all is there a formula for figuring the price that i should charge for my prints, i've heard 2.2times what it cost's to print them. seems a little low to me. if i print an 11x14 at a cost of $13 does that mean i sell it for $28.
hardly seems worth it.

[michael_]

For a 8x12 print i charge $35 + 10% (GST/Tax) + $3.50 postage, so in total $42, the print itself costs me between $5.50 and $8 depending on the paper + $3 to collect the print and post it (petrol) + postage ($3.50), so all up my costs are between $12-15 the rest is profit for my time getting the photo in the first place. From memory i worked out roughly a 250% markup from cost which is industry standard here in sydney to cover GST/Postage/Profit.

work out all the costs then add the markup so for you 13 + tax? + postage , i would say closer to $45

[Mike R]

$13 seems hgh for an 11x14. Mpix charges $8.79 and Exposure Manager is only $3.95
I have used both andf the quality is excellent. I am now with Exposure Manager because of the ease for customers to order prints.

[ssim]

I've never seen a formula that is standard. Each photographer is going to decide for themselves what is standard for them.

You charge what the market will bear. This involves researching your competition and finding out what they are charging. You have to take off some of the very low and the very high ones and come up with a median rate.

I sold some 16X20's today and when I just figured it out it comes out to a mark-up of around 650%. I don't my pricing on formula though. I charge what the local market is charging give or take. I'm slightly on the higher side of the average. The only real math that I apply to my price list is to make sure that I have a reasonable separation between the prices on different print sizes but again keeping in mind what the going rate is. I have found that once you start to get up in the bigger sizes you can take a bigger profit margin.

[vwpilot]

Depends on what you are doing. Are you running a high volume print business, such as for events and youth sports, or are you selling fine art prints that will end up being much more limited and valuable?

Its common for high volume printing to be in the ballpark you stated, these days with places like Costco and Smugmug and the such, you can get ok prints done really cheap and pass that along to customers as you are selling a lot of them.

However, for any real printing and one off sales and such, the pricing should be much higher. Here is a price list for some stuff I sell and even that is low by many accounts (but the nature of the photographs doesnt always command more).

8x12.......$50
10x15......$60
16x24.....$100
20x30.....$125
24x36.....$150

And of course mounting and framing costs on top of that.

Dont get caught up in markups, what we sell is not a commodity like you buy in your average retail store with set markups. You are selling the actual product, but you are also selling your creativity and skill to make that print. You cant put a set price on such knowledge.

[New Hobby]

I have to agree with the folks who are talking about what the market will bear when it comes to pricing. Most if not all companies base pricing on this. The reason is if the market will not bear the price your charging then there is no reason to sell the item. It has nothing to do with the markup you get.

If a grocery store sells 1,000 items but 20 of them no one else sells in the neighborhood then those 20 items will be priced higher because there is no competition. The other 980 will be price by what the market is paying in the neighborhood. If any of those items the store can not make money on because of the competition they will not sell them. The only exception to this is if the item is a "loss leader" - something to get folks in the store.