HELP! Custom pricing issue...

BGtom · September 19, 2009

I need to price individual photos differently within the same gallery. Now, I know this is no problem, I have done it in the past. i also know that I can "re-use" pricing from previous galleries...and so here is the problem: The "apply this pricing/from previous galleries" drop-down list doesn't display the gallery I need to apply from. It is a gallery I just created and priced. I suspect there is a limit to the size of the list? If this is the case, is there a way to clear the list?...perhaps this is something smug must do?...either way...

I AM STRESSING OUT! :huh

Than-kewe

Tom

BGtom · September 19, 2009

now I'm really toast.
Was just fooling around with pricing individual images and trying to apply "dollar increase/decrease" to various product categories, such as "filled products" or "print products"...but when i click "apply" nothing happens. Normally, i see some green fields but all are white. i can enter a price, but it seems I would need to re-enter individual size/finish prices for each and every image I need to change! Surely this is not possible?! Please tell me i can apply a certain price list/price adjustment to individual images within a gallery by using the price adjustment tools to auto-fill previously filled price fields...

Backing up a moment...what I am attempting to do is:
Price photos from an event at different price levels, for instance; a football game...some shots are awesome close ups, some are medium shots, and some are just interesting, but no one is going to frame. Each photo needs to be available in different sizes, as you might expect. So, i want to set a "price list" for the awesome shots, and a price list for the medium shots, and so on. Then, i would price the gallery to the most common price (the so-so shots), then go back and find the better shots (of which there are many fewer, sorry to say) and bulk-price them using another price-list (applied from a different gallery). now, even if its not possible to do this, can I at least bulk price the previously priced items with a "dollar increase/decrease" per image?

help. me. curled. up. on. floor. fetal. position.

Andy · September 19, 2009

BGtom wrote:

Was just fooling around with pricing individual images and trying to apply "dollar increase/decrease" to various product categories, such as "filled products" or "print products"...but when i click "apply" nothing happens.

OK lets be sure the tool is working for you - make a new gallery load a photo to it and set pricing - does the tool work for you at the gallery level? Is the Apply button doing what you expect?

BGtom · September 19, 2009

Andy wrote:

OK lets be sure the tool is working for you - make a new gallery load a photo to it and set pricing - does the tool work for you at the gallery level? Is the Apply button doing what you expect?

The gallery listing i was looking for in the dropdown menu list showed up (I checked numerous times for it...can't see how i could have missed it before), so this is good. Unfortunately, the plan i had to set prices using the "apply prices from previous galleries" technique in order to create "tiered pricing" would not work. I found this out by essentially wiping out my newly created 2nd and 3rd tier price-lists when i applied them to the other galleries; now ALL the galleries had the same prices...and this was reflected in the "apply prices from previous galleries" dropdown list...all the galleries now had the same prices. Doh! Should have seen this coming.

Plan B was simply to use the "increase/decrease by dollar amount." This was actually fine, and this is how I finally priced everything. But...

When you've set prices at the gallery level, when you go back into "set prices" and choose "image," it resets all the prices to portfolio default. So now, I have to:

1. reset the prices to the gallery level using the "apply prices from previous galleries" and "to these products" (because not all my products are enabled, some prices are set to '0')...click apply, then...

2. choose "dollar increase/decrease" and "to these products"--(again, since not all prints/finishes are enabled) I select "that match: more than: 0" (so that those disabled products remain disabled); click apply; this results in a certain number of matches but does not change the prices; click apply a second time and now the prices change; then...

3. finally, click "save pricing."

Whew! It only took 40 seconds. Per image. So, about 45 minutes to price each gallery. Oi.

Needless to say, this is NOT sustainable.

Now, what I would like to know, is...if i price a gallery of images one way (priced at the gallery level), and then price a second gallery of images another way (also at the gallery level)...If I subsequently move the images from those two galleries into a third gallery, will those images retain their pricing from their original galleries?

Thanks

schmoo · September 19, 2009

BGtom wrote:

Now, what I would like to know, is...if i price a gallery of images one way (priced at the gallery level), and then price a second gallery of images another way (also at the gallery level)...If I subsequently move the images from those two galleries into a third gallery, will those images retain their pricing from their original galleries?

Thanks

Hi Tom,

Since the pricing is on the gallery and not the images, moving them to a third gallery won't transfer the pricing, no. However you can always apply the gallery pricing from the old one to the new one. Make sense?

Let us know if you have additional problems or questions!

BGtom · September 19, 2009

schmoo wrote:

Hi Tom,

Since the pricing is on the gallery and not the images, moving them to a third gallery won't transfer the pricing, no. However you can always apply the gallery pricing from the old one to the new one. Make sense?

Let us know if you have additional problems or questions!

Bummer. :cry Yes, I feared that might be the case, but my goal is to find a work-around for smugmug's inability to easily price multiple images within a gallery differently from the other images around them. If the hoops I had to jump through to price 20 images out of 100 in a gallery with one price list, and another 20 images from another price list, while the remainder of the images use a third price list--is any guide, I would hope some "multiple pricing" tool might be in the works in the mysterious Smugmug skunkworks...imagine the "buy photos in this gallery" tool, or the "move multiple images" tool repurposed into a pricing tool. I don't think my pricing experience is unique.

If you can suggest a way to accomplish what I would like to do, I would be grateful.

Tom

BGtom · October 12, 2009

...and here we go again...
I am soon to begin my pricing nightmare yet again. I have completed my (I believe) creative task of post processing images to ready them for sale to my adoring fans. I have (or will have) uploaded the images to their new homes on Smugmug. And now I must set individual pricing. It's great that I CAN choose to price individual images differently from others in the same gallery, but this can only logistically apply to a handful of images out of however many are resident in the gallery. For me, it means about half the images in a dozen galleries, with each containing as many as a hundred images. Sure, it may only be about an hour or two of work...but it's an HOUR OR TWO OF WORK. An hour or two of constant, mind numbing click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-clicking...So, I'm a little angry right now, and I don't mind telling you so. I thought you should know. Smugmug is an awesome place to host pictures, make no mistake. I will continue to recommend Smug at the drop of a hat because I like it here. But right now all the steam has gone out of my sails because I see that this pricing issue is one that has been around a little while, along with a few other things. I don't think there are any other major (or minor) features that Smug needs; It serves a particular market, and does so really well. I don't need—or want—a buffet of silly features or gee-whiz gobble-dee-gook to make it work for me—it does just fine. I just want to be able to look at a page of thumbs from a gallery, click-to-select-them the way I can in several other interface tools, and then choose a saved pricing scheme to apply to that particular group of images.

Sigh. You are all a great bunch of people. I've had nothing but great service from all of you whenever I have needed it. I request help, and I get it quickly and cheerfully...and it makes me happy. Seriously...no joke. I am a satisfied, enthusiastic, loyal customer. Thank you, very, very much. I really, sincerely mean that.

...and I'm angry.

carshop · October 12, 2009

BGtom wrote:

I am soon to begin my pricing nightmare yet again. I have completed my (I believe) creative task of post processing images to ready them for sale to my adoring fans. I have (or will have) uploaded the images to their new homes on Smugmug. And now I must set individual pricing. It's great that I CAN choose to price individual images differently from others in the same gallery, but this can only logistically apply to a handful of images out of however many are resident in the gallery. For me, it means about half the images in a dozen galleries, with each containing as many as a hundred images. Sure, it may only be about an hour or two of work...but it's an HOUR OR TWO OF WORK. An hour or two of constant, mind numbing click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-clicking...So, I'm a little angry right now, and I don't mind telling you so. I thought you should know. Smugmug is an awesome place to host pictures, make no mistake. I will continue to recommend Smug at the drop of a hat because I like it here. But right now all the steam has gone out of my sails because I see that this pricing issue is one that has been around a little while, along with a few other things. I don't think there are any other major (or minor) features that Smug needs; It serves a particular market, and does so really well. I don't need—or want—a buffet of silly features or gee-whiz gobble-dee-gook to make it work for me—it does just fine. I just want to be able to look at a page of thumbs from a gallery, click-to-select-them the way I can in several other interface tools, and then choose a saved pricing scheme to apply to that particular group of images.

Sigh. You are all a great bunch of people. I've had nothing but great service from all of you whenever I have needed it. I request help, and I get it quickly and cheerfully...and it makes me happy. Seriously...no joke. I am a satisfied, enthusiastic, loyal customer. Thank you, very, very much. I really, sincerely mean that.

...and I'm angry.

And thats why I wont commit to Smugmug yet.

lynnesite · October 14, 2009

In my 6 years as an event shooter, I have never run across anyone selling photos in a tiered way based on "merit" within a gallery before. I've only seen that done in fine art photography.

HELP! Custom pricing issue...

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