> Somehow the idea of pricing a print based on how much it cost to print it
> doesn't seem like a good idea. The print should be priced on its artistic
> merit, not by the square inch or yard. I'd rather sell one limited edition
> print for $500 than 10 mass-produced ones for $50 each. No?
I absolutely agree, Tina, except to the following:
1. It is important to know your costs so you don't underprice your
product OR don't have cost-control in hand.
2. On any given day, the market may not support a single $500 sale,
but would 10 $50 sales. Failure to have both limits your ability to
have cash flow at each show.
The most successful guys and gals that I've seen have three distinct
tiers of product. They have the high-priced,
framed/matted/signed/limited-edition ooooo-aaaaah pictures hanging
there for the $500-2000 crowd, a stash of $20-50 prints inexpensively
matted and shrink-wrapped sitting in a bin not too different than the
bins record-albums were sold in years ago, and then a rack of post
cards being sold for $2 each. In most cases, the post cards pay for
the show and travel expenses and the print sales are the profit. In
the book store I've sold my stuff through, post-cards outsell
everything by a huge margin. Even at $2 each, I lose half of the
revenue to the shop and my costs are about $0.50 each, so I make $0.50
on each one sold. Doesn't sound like much, but we can make up for it
in volume.
Ed is right about the fact that the prices of my supplies are pretty
well known. I generally top out at 11x14" because of the size of my
easels, trays, wash tank, etc., but can go to 20x24 for one-offs.
11x14 for production quantity. With both daughters working with me, we
can roll 11x14s almost non-stop. The variances on my costs have to do
with where I'm getting my supplies. For the most part, I get my paper
and film from Freestyle and my chemicals from The Photographer's
Formulary. I do buy my paper developer from Freestyle only for what
matches the ADOX 110. Ilford papers use my other stuff and I'm almost
entirely acid-free. With chemicals and water (oh, the water...), I
budget $1.00 per sheet. So, an 11x14 B&W print is about $2 (give or
take depending on supplier and paper type) for the paper, $1 for the
chemicals and water. At minimum, I have one hour of setup/cleanup time
for the session. First print may take an hour of enlarger and test
time, but once that image goes into production, I've figured 10
minutes per print of human time when I have an assistant. It takes up
to 10 minutes to walk a print through the entire process and when we
have production going, there is one print sitting in each stage as
we've modified the process so each tray is the same length of time.
It's hard to value time, but if I figure my "I'd rather be playing
videogames for anything less than this" time/value of $10 per hour,
that means a production base cost of a mass-produced 11x14 print is
between $4 and $5. A rule-of-thumb that I go with is 4X, so my minimum
sale cost of a 11x14 mass produced print is between $16-20. Anything
less than this and I'm losing money on the endeavor. As you can see,
there really is not much of a difference, except in just the paper, in
cost between an 8x10 and 11x14.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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