Customers reselling prints?

sirensofsong · October 31, 2010

I recently had someone contact me about buying photos in bulk, saying they collect female pro sports 8x10s, but my immediate thought was that they planned on reselling the photos.

I did a little research and it turns out the person resells various things on ebay.

Has anyone else come across people reselling their prints?

Should I call the person out on trying to resell my prints or just politely decline the offer?

Photog4Christ · October 31, 2010

Your prices start at $3.00 for a 4 x 6 and $5 for an 8 x 10????!!!!! Are you out of your mind?!

Now you know why someone is contacting you asking to buy photos in bulk. If you charged the right price for your ** WORK ** then you wouldn't be getting such a ridiculous proposition.

sirensofsong · October 31, 2010

Pricing has been a real issue for me. When I first started selling last year, I looked at what other people in my area were selling for prints of similar photography and my pricing was right in the middle. Although this is a hobby of mine, I do realize my profit margin is very slim. I've noticed a few have recently raised their prices a bit which will give me more leeway to do the same next season. I'm just afraid of losing past customers.

Blaker · October 31, 2010

sirensofsong wrote: »

I recently had someone contact me about buying photos in bulk, saying they collect female pro sports 8x10s, but my immediate thought was that they planned on reselling the photos.

I did a little research and it turns out the person resells various things on ebay.

Has anyone else come across people reselling their prints?

Should I call the person out on trying to resell my prints or just politely decline the offer?

There is nothing wrong or illegal about reselling a physical piece of artwork , including photographs. Why do you care if the person resells your photo or keeps it for themself, as long as they pay you the price you are asking?

(Now if they were buying only 1 print , then scanning it and making several copies and selling the copies, that is an entirely different matter!)

Glort · November 1, 2010

sirensofsong wrote: »

Pricing has been a real issue for me.

Clearly.
Pricing at this level will get you nothing but frustration both through discontentment within your self and the inevitable nagging whingers that will still moan about everything which undervalued work seems to attract.

When I first started selling last year, I looked at what other people in my area were selling for prints of similar photography and my pricing was right in the middle.

At $5 for an 8x10?
If your in the middle, what are the low end guys doing?
Paying the Clients to provide them photos ????

While price comparisons -can- be helpful, you shouldn't just blindly follow what the other guys are doing. There's a better than good chance they followed the guy before them who is now broke or in debt.

If you can't charge a worthwhile price for your work then do it strictly for enjoyment and don't try charging at all. If the other dilettantes want to undercut each other and think they price is the be all and end all of selling their work and there is some achievement in selling something for a fraction of it's worth, then don't get sucked into it as well.
With what your charging, how much would you really be missing out on?
I'll bet if you take all your real costs into consideration, your losing out at what your doing now.

Do yourself a favor and charge a respectable amount for your work. If you are above the others in your area, so be it. I have always made a point to be at the upper end of the market because that's where I feel the sweet spot is.
Being the most expensive can limit your market, in the middle puts you with everyone else and I'm not even going to mention low end because that is a mugs adventure.

Although this is a hobby of mine, I do realize my profit margin is very slim. I've noticed a few have recently raised their prices a bit which will give me more leeway to do the same next season. I'm just afraid of losing past customers.

Losing past Customers???
You'd need to have 1000 buying from you each week to make losing them remotely a concern! How much a month are we talking about here your risking? $50 a month? 100??

If you put your prices to anywhere near the level you should be at, you'll be able to loose 50% of the clients you have now and still be better off! Chances are at those prices, half your customers are whining, unappreciative tightwads that cost you at least as much as they spend anyway.
Good riddance to them. The ones that you continue to sell to will make up for them anyway.

What do you say to justify your increase? The truth.
" I realised that I had made a significant miscalculation on my costs and I was loosing too much money. In order to continue to provide you pictures of your kids/ events/ pet Wombats, I needed to raise my prices to a level that covers my investment outlay. "

That's more than enough to tell them, don't go into details about the cost of your shoe leather and gas and all that rubbish, You were losing money and now your charging enough to cover yourself........ Are you ready to give me your order or would you like to look at the pics some more to see if there are any you have missed?

If you do put your prices to where they should be, chances are people will value your work a whole lot more, your overheads and expenses will go down and you'll not only end up with a lot more $$ in your pocket, you'll end up with a lot more pride and satisfaction in your heart and that's worth real Big $$ to get that feeling.

If your selling your work, full time or part time, that puts you in business and as a business person, you should charge a fair and worthwhile price for your product.
You should do this to be fair to yourself and to be fair to other people in the game that do know how to market themselves better than you do and don't have a problem with it.

And that's what I think your dilemma is really about.
Your not happy that someone can take your work and make more profit from it than you can yourself.
I hope you don't have aspirations to work in retail anytime soon! That shirt you bought has at least 100% markup and if its a fashion label it's probably closer to 2-300%.

It seems to me that other than this, you should be happy your getting bulk order requests for your work so why not sell as much as you can?

Putting the shoe on the other foot, If someone came up to me and said I want to buy 10 or 100 of your prints, Yee ha! I'll give you a ( small) discount on 1000 if you like! I'd be getting back to the people quick smart and saying " BTW, are you interested in this that and the other by any chance? and is there anything I can shoot for you in the future?"

If you are selling sports pics direct to the end user, then I would base my pricing around $20 for a 5x7 and $30-35 for an 8x10.
If you don't think/ can't/ won't put your work at that price level, stop offering your work for sale all together and get your photography/ marketing skills/ hangups to a level where you can.

What is the guy that wants to on sell your work charging?
The fact he can has seen your work and can buy it and make a profit from it tells you he values it a lot more than you do yourself OR, has a better marketing knowledge.

One thing I have a pet hate for is people selling 6x4 Prints.
Why in heck would you offer that size?
If you want to make the greatest pic ever taken look like a happy snap your Uncle Bob took, go have it printed ( to the best standard possible) to 6x4" and show it round and see if anyone questions it was Uncle Bob. Now get Uncles Bobs best work and the same print as before and enlarge it to even 5x7 and listen to the difference in perception.

And yeah, I know, people want 6x4's.
Baloney!
An amount of them want to get out of it as cheap as possible is what they want and 6x4's is the way to do that. If you start your pricelist at 5x7 and show the people only 8x10 sample prints, the 5x7's will be small enough.
The past Customers may complain because now your not giving your work away like before but I'll bet none of the clients you start off on the right foot will object to the new prices and if they do, the ones that like your work will buy anyway.

The people that want the pics for scrapbooking or whatever will either cut the 5x7 down or they will specifically ask you for them at which point you sell them 4 4x5s on an 8x10 sheet for $30 and they can go nuts with their scissors or whatever they use.

You could try raising your prices and then getting back to the person who emailed you and give them the pricing structure and see how you go. It would of course be doubtful they will be interested if you raise your products to where they should be as that gives you the profit margin not them but given what you have been selling your work for, as a bulk deal you may be able to offer them half your new price and still make a lot more then you have been previously.

Photog4Christ · November 1, 2010

Glort put it better than I did (as always)

Basically, you have to decide, is this a hobby or a business. If this is a hobby, then you shouldn't be selling prints. (you shouldn't give them away either)

If this is a business, then you have your talent, your equipment, your time, your expertise, your experience, business expenses, etc.... to factor in to your pricing. If you want to sell them a piece of paper, then charge them $2 and give them a blank sheet of 8 x 10 photo paper (credit: Bambi Cantrell)

As Blaker said, there is nothing wrong or illegal about someone reselling something, after all, that's why there's yard sales and flea markets! But if you're charging the right price, then it would be very cost prohibitive for someone to resell your prints.

Just tell them that you don't sell prints to anyone other than the subject of the print, otherwise, you are willing to discuss a fee for usage rights.

Art Scott · November 1, 2010

Blaker wrote: »

There is nothing wrong or illegal about reselling a physical piece of artwork , including photographs. Why do you care if the person resells your photo or keeps it for themself, as long as they pay you the price you are asking?

(Now if they were buying only 1 print , then scanning it and making several copies and selling the copies, that is an entirely different matter!)

I have to agree here...and also with others on the under pricing of your work...as to the possible client......the only request would be that all of my personal info as the photographer of the image is left intact, not covered by labels or removed in any way........that way other "collectors" could get in touch with me and I would get a rubber stamp made and purchase some fast drying black photo stamp ink and stamp the back of the photo......also all my photos get a signature (signature, not a copyright statement and I found a font in photoshop that is real close to my own real signature when AI am careful in signing a document), either in photoshop or by hand......and that is positioned in such a way that it will not be covered by a mat...........

WillCAD · November 4, 2010

My comments may be out of place here, since I'm not a pro photog and don't make my living at it, but...

I agree with Blaker and Art; I see this as an opportunity, not a problem. Let the guy resell your prints. Just make sure that every print you sell him has your water mark on the FRONT, including your web address. Not only will you sell more pics - with the other guy doing the packaging and shipping and dealing with PITA customers - but having your watermark on them may just get you some additional work, or some additional sales.

As to your pricing, I'm not going to fault you for pricing yourself in the middle of the pack in your area; to me, it's smart business practice NOT to price yourself out of work, providing that you make at least some profit and don't lose money. And I include labor in the cost of business - you should be compensated for your shooting and processing time when you determine your price. Many small business owners start out setting their prices just above the cost of their equipment and supplies, and forget about their labor entirely, assuming that it's free. But they wind up changing their tunes a year or two down the road when they decide that they're not making enough money to justify 60-hour work weeks. So if you can make your business viable with those prices, and you're happy with the amount you're making on each job, then you're okay.

That being said, I do think that $5 for an 8x10 is mighty low.

Enlightphoto · November 5, 2010

I'd like to just throw an earworm into the mix. Simply repeat this 10,000 times:

"If you don't value your work, no one else will either."

My 1 cent contribution...

Photog4Christ · November 5, 2010

Gary just said what I said, but phrased it a whole lot better.

ThatCanonGuy · November 6, 2010

I would charge at least $30 for an 8x10 and like glort said, probably not sell 4x6. 5x7 should be like $20 or something? If you feel your photos are good enuf to sell, then charge a fair price for them. Your clients will value your work more than those other cheap guys. And I can't imagine anyone who would sell their work for less than your current price.

As for reselling, well, after you raise your prices, contact the client again (don't mention you raised the prices) and if they want to, then great. You make a lot of money, just make sure that they have your logo/website somewhere in them and make sure the client is not allowed to scan/copy/reproduce them.

Customers reselling prints?

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