Smugmug vs. Bayphoto print costs

delrusso

Hello all. First post! I did some quick searching and didn't find a thread on this topic. If there is one, I don't mind just being redirected there.

My question is: Why is our print cost so much higher than that actual print lab cost? For example, the cost for a 4x6 print (Bayphoto) via Smugmug's pricelist is *over* 30% more than if that same print is ordered directly from Bayphoto.

I got caught off guard when I told my customer that they would get cost pricing for prints. My customer followed up with me, somewhat upset, when they realized that they were paying almost 30% over the print lab's internet price. (Note: They were ordering close to 1000 4x6 prints, so it adds up.)

Is this something Smugmug is going to address? Perhaps there was a recent price drop on the print lab side and Smugmug didn't catch up? What gives? We already pay 15% of our profits back to Smugmug, but we're also being told the cost is one thing when it really is much lower. The way the cost is presented to us in our pricelist leads us (at least me) to believe that this is the "print cost" and not a SmugMug price.

I think it's pretty obvious that Smugmug is extended a cost, from the labs, that would be *lower* than what the print lab charges to retail/web customers. Yet, as paying Smugmug Pro account holders, our print cost is greatly inflated.

Just looking for some justification or more info. on this since I/we are paying for it.

Roger

Teach

price differences
Hi Roger,

I am sorry that you are upset with the difference in prices between the print lab and what we charge. We negotiate contracts with the print labs as to how much we are charging and these do not change very often. The print lab has the ability to change and set their prices much more fluidly than we do. We are set to the prices that are negotiated at contract time. [/COLOR]

delrusso

Thank you for the quick reply.

That is upsetting. It's a 31% premium we're paying to Smugmug (in this scenario anyway), and that's before we're asked to pay another 15% of our profits, on top of our annual service fees.



Oh well.

Andy

delrusso wrote: »

My question is: Why is our print cost so much higher than that actual print lab cost? For example, the cost for a 4x6 print (Bayphoto) via Smugmug's pricelist is *over* 30% more than if that same print is ordered directly from Bayphoto.

You are incorrect. Please review the prices. The price from SmugMug is actually lower.

Bay Photo 4x6 http://www.bayphoto.com/bayweb/pro_standardsizes.htm
Color Corrected: .49 Non color corrected: .29

SmugMug 4x6 printed at Bay: http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog/ABCP#BayPhoto
Color Corrected: .38 Non color corrected: .25

delrusso

Andy,

Thanks for the followup. I stand corrected and should have spent more time comparing the prices. I'm trying to figure out how I and my client arrived at the conclusion that we on this topic. My only guess is that I failed to compare apples to apples. In this case, color corrected costs vs. non-color corrected.


Also, thanks for taking the time to link to the pricing pages.

jchin

I've had clients complain about pricing in the past. One key thing that I keep having to explain to them is the differences between getting them printed by a pro lab versus Walgreens. Educating our customers should be the first thing before we even discuss the cost of prints. This way they know why it costs more. Too bad, so many people think a print is just a print ... that is until they see the differences side-by-side.

BayPhoto prints ROCK!

jcdill

I know I'm following up on an old thread here, but is there any way to get a page with all my Bay Photo prices without going thru and doing a thousand clicks to add products to a price list then open up each price list section to see the prices for the items in that section? Apparently Andy linked to such a page, a while ago, but now it just lists the types of prints with no pricing. (I has a sad.) This is very, very tedious.

I don't want to carry all the products but I DO want to see all printed products on one page (e.g. spreadsheet) organized by product in rows and sizes in columns (or visa versa). If this is available as a single spreadsheet, awesome. If it's not available as a spreadsheet I'll reinvent the wheel but I really do NOT look forward to the problem I'm experiencing right now of just trying to get the data, before I can even get it into a spreadsheet.

denisegoldberg

jcdill wrote: »

I know I'm following up on an old thread here, but is there any way to get a page with all my Bay Photo prices without going thru and doing a thousand clicks to add products to a price list then open up each price list section to see the prices for the items in that section?

I just did a search for smugmug bay photo catalog and I found a SmugMug Blog post from April of 2013 that linked to two spreadsheets with Bay Photo prices. Someone from smug will need to verify that the linked spreadsheets are still current.

The blog post is at http://news.smugmug.com/2013/04/19/new-bay-photo-products-to-buy-and-sell/.

To a Smug representative - are these pricelists current?

--- Denise

zacHer0

Send an email to the help desk and we can send you a current price catalog. The one Denise linked is a bit outdated.

Email us

denisegoldberg

zacHer0 wrote: »

Send an email to the help desk and we can send you a current price catalog.

You have a version easily findable by search that you say is out-of-date. Is there a reason why that version hasn't been updated to the latest price catalog?

--- Denise

zacHer0

denisegoldberg wrote: »

You have a version easily findable by search that you say is out-of-date. Is there a reason why that version hasn't been updated to the latest price catalog?

--- Denise

I believe some pros where worried that their customers would see the base/default prices of the prints and then wonder why a pro was charging them $5 for a 4x6 when the cost was only $0.19. Of course we all know the reason but a customer may not realize how much time/work/money/passion actually goes into photography. Hmm, that blog post should probably be edited so the old catalog links are removed. Kinda defeats the purpose . I'll let someone know, thanks Denise.

denisegoldberg

zacHer0 wrote: »

I believe some pros where worried that their customers would see the base/default prices of the prints and then wonder why a pro was charging them $5 for a 4x6 when the cost was only $0.19. Of course we all know the reason by a customer may not realize how much time/work/money/passion actually goes into photography. Hmm, that blog post should probably be edited so the old catalog links are removed. Kinda defeats the purpose . I'll let someone know, thanks Denise.

Thanks Zac.

--- Denise

zacHer0

The blog post has been edited. Denise can you edit your post to remove the catalog links? Thanks

denisegoldberg

zacHer0 wrote: »

The blog post has been edited. Denise can you edit your post to remove the catalog links? Thanks

catalog links are removed.

--- Denise