Digital BW, The Print

I think, and 20/20 hindsite is always a wonderful thing, that you have
put yourself between a rock and a hard place by not determining a price
before you sell something. I've made this same mistake in the past and
it comes around to hit me in the back of the head...and I ALWAYS
undersell myself. IF you knew, before securing the deal, how much you
were selling the prints for you would be in better shape to know what
kind of profit margin you will have to work with.

As it is you'll likely underprice your work and yet work like a dog to
give good quality images...then be sorry you didn't charge more
(especially when the client says, "Is that all?" when receiving the
bill).

I've been where you are more times than I care to tell you. The lesson
I've learned is to not agree to a sale without determining a price and
letting the buyer know...before anything goes to a lab or a framer.

I can only offer empathy...good luck with your decisions.
Lea
----- Original Message -----
From: "chipcarterdc" <chipcarterdc@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 2:47 PM
Subject: [Digital BW] In a Bind on Large Format B&W: advice?


I've got a corporate client who, w/in the next 2 weeks, will be
purchasing 4 large (at least 20x24) B&W prints from me for their
office.  I currently have an Epson 2200 + ImagePrint, so obviously my
current equipment won't work.

Here's my dilemma, given that I'm currently looking at purchasing a
wide-format printer, but haven't done so yet.  Do I (a) go ahead and
get a 9600 (my top choice at the moment) plus ImagePrint and do the
job myself or (b) send these prints out and continue the long
painstaking process of deciding what to do in the long run for large
format B&W independent of this current job?  I haven't yet figured
out what I'm going to charge these guys (any help there would be
greatly appreciated).  But if I send it out to West Coast Imaging, I
guessing it will cost me around $100 (I had a 20x30 Piezo print done
there a few months back and it was around $120), thereby
significantly cutting into my profit margin if I charge anything like
a reasonable price for the prints.  (Another factor is that they also
want me to frame the prints -- I guess I could jack up the total cost
by "writing it off" to the framing cost....).  Assuming it costs me
about $10 each to make these prints myself on a 9600 (I just made
that number up), I could make $90 profit on each print.  Or, I could
send it out to West Coast and make almost no profit unless I want to
give the client a serious case of sticker shock.

What would you do in this situation?  I mean, I'm getting tired of
throwing money down the drain by having someone else do my wide
format work, but I don't want to be hasty on the purchase of a 9600
either....

(A final piece of the puzzle is that I have been thinking about
having 2 printers, one dedicated to B&W probably running the UT7
system when it becomes available.  But to do this job (right) myself
on the 9600, I need ImagePrint; and if I buy ImagePrint (I got a
quote from a dealer of $2000 for it for the 9600), I ain't buying a
second printer for a LONG time).





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