Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pricing

Small Freelance Graphics Pricing?

Mizu — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:40:48 -0800

How much should I charge for two small illustrations that will be printed on wedding invitations? Times are tough, so when my friend asked if I would make some small graphics of two types of cameras for her wedding invitations, I said that of course I'd do it! I do have training in this area and have worked design jobs with an hourly salary, but I've never actually sold anything freelance. I definitely do not want to overcharge my friend, because it's kind of a combination wedding gift thing, and because she'll be doing all of the grunt work, making the invitations and doing the printing/technical aspects. All I would be providing is two little one-color graphics for her to use. I have many months to work on this, so there isn't any time pressure, either.

If it helps, we're both in the USA and I won't need to provide physical prints of anything, just the files.

How much should I charge for these? If I wasn't doing this for a friend, what would I charge? I honestly cannot judge how many hours this will take me, probably not many, so how can I give her an estimate before I make the graphics? Is there a very simple (and freely available) contract format I could write up to make payment a concrete and straightforward affair?

Thanks so much for helping me out!

Help me price my (amateur) photography

AnyGuelmann — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:26:29 -0800

Photography pros: I've been approached by an editor who wants to publish my photos, and he asked me for my rates. I never sold a photo before. How do I price them? (I realize there are a few previous postings on the subject, but most were 3+ years ago, so I thought I'd ask again and see what comes up.)

I took photos of a parade a few months ago. An editor for a small, local travel guide wants to use them and asked for my rates, but I have no idea how to price them. I read all the links on previous threads (this thread was very helpful), but I'm still lost on figures.

I'm in New York City, if that makes any difference. This is also where the parade happened and where the guide will be published and sold. They will credit each individual photo on the caption.

The guide will be distributed for free AND sold on bookstores. It will run twice a year. Although they call it a "travel guide" I assume they're mostly of local interest and small, as each sells for about 5.00 dollars. They sell adds on it for anywhere between 400.00 (1/8 page) and 7,000.00 (2 page spread).

Does the number of copies on each edition affect the price I should charge?

Do I give a price for each individual photo, or a batch?

Do I ask for a copy of their standard contract to take a look?

Not only are there many people all over the images - busy parade - but the best photos are closeups. I don't have model releases. Does travel-guide photography count as editorial?

PLEASE, if you have any idea on what photographers charge and/or an opinion on how much an amateur should charge on a first time sale, GIVE ME FIGURES! I don't know if I should go 100 or 1,000 so actual numbers would be greatly appreciated!

Time to gut airline pricing.

paultopia — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:31:24 -0800

Arline prices: a specific question (Italy, late September, how to minimize cost?). And a general (airline econ 101). I'm flying from the SF Bay Area to to Milan in late September. How on earth do I minimize my cost on this? Particularly, when do I buy? The fares seem to fluctuate wildly from day to day, with almost a hundred dollar swing in the lowest price in a single day recently. And, based on previous experience, not always upward either -- sometimes they go down, or sales crop up. So I feel like there should be some smarter strategy than just "buy as early as possible."

And, generally: can someone explain to me the economic reasons behind airline pricing? It seems almost impossibly random from day-to-day, airline-to-airline, source-to-source -- far more random than any other competitive industry I can think of. I can understand how if they dealt in extreme commodities like stock, gold, or oil, these fluctuations can happen (and I suppose some of it may be tied to fuel prices). But I can't come up with a theory for this happening in an ordinary service industry.

I'm curious about this in two ways: first, out of general econ-wonk interest. The airline industry seem too competitive for the simple paranoid explanation -- that they randomize prices in order to extract more surplus from consumers -- to work, because randomized prices are basically the same as increased prices and shouldn't be sustainable under heavy competition.

Second, to make buying airline tickets feel less like a gamble! If I wanted to gamble with my money, I'd go to Vegas (preferably not by plane). I don't.

This question may be beyond even mefi... I kind of wonder if anyone has ever just put a crapload of airline pricing data into a stats program with things like calendar date, fuel price, weather, destination, etc., and just thrown regressions at it until it says "ow." If not, perhaps I will one day. But first, I turn to you.

Tracking ye olde price of artifacts like [Wool Cloth]

swrittenb — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:05:33 -0800

Where can I find data sets about in-game economies? Specifically, I'd love to know what the historical cost of virtual goods were by day. There are lots of sites out there that track the current cost of goods (a web interface to WoW's auction house, for example), but the historical data just doesn't seem to be available. I'm doing some data mining research, and although I run a game myself, it isn't liquid enough to perform interesting experiments. Isn't there some place I can get WoW's linen cloth pricing for the past few years? Any and all games and virtual economies will do, as long as there are multiple days to parse. I'd love to know that on date D, the average price of ARTIFACT_X was N MONETARY_UNITS, for more than one D.

Thankee-sai!

At what point is a merchant required to complete a sale?

fogster — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:09:57 -0800

At what point, if any, is an online merchant required to complete the sale? I know that ads are "invitations to bargain" and whatnot, so that a merchant is not obligated to honor an advertised price.

But as the transaction progresses from me seeing the advertisement to me putting the item in my cart, to me tendering payment, to my order being processed, does the merchant lose their right to back out of a sale?

Specifically, I found a very good deal on a major retailer's "Outlet" website. Specifically, a nice monitor for $50, when $150-200 was the norm. But because it was the outlet site of a company known for cheap products, and because it didn't appear to be a decimal error (e.g., $19.99 when $199.99 was meant), I believed the price was correct and placed my order. If it matters, the product was listed as out of stock but still for sale.

Several days after placing the order, I received an e-mail explaining that there had been a pricing error, and that they were canceling the order and returning my money, as well as giving me a $10 online coupon.

Does the fact that I already paid for the product negate their ability to cancel the sale? It seems that they should lose their right to change their mind after I've already paid.

I'm not an unhinged lunatic planning to sue because they didn't sell me a computer monitor at a really low price. I'm mostly just curious about the law: can they take my money and then decide not to sell it to me?

How can I find out more about vinyl?

bibliophibianj — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:40:04 -0800

After finding out that I'm interested in music, the manager at the charity bookshop I volunteer at has decided to let me price vinyl. Help me do it well and learn more about vinyl along the way! It's easy just to look up records that look interesting in the pricing guide or on the websites he recommended (and that's what I've been doing so far), but I feel like a bit of a fake doing that. Can anyone recommend any good, and preferably interesting, books/websites/resources for learning about vinyl? Its history, production, role in the music industry...anything's fair ground, as long as it's interesting.

The cheapest distance between two points

Pater Aletheias — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:21:02 -0800

Let's say that traveler X would like to fly from city A to city B on American Airlines. The cost to fly from A to B is $500. X notices that a flight from A to C costs $300, and includes a layover in B. What, if any, are the negative consequences to X if he purchases the A to C itinerary, carries his bags on the flight, and leaves the airport after arriving at B, never to complete the B - C leg? For purposes of this question, please set aside abstract moral consequences, such as "eternity in hell" or "a permanent dark spot in the soul" and focus on more tangible, earthly problems.

Old Prices for John Hancock Income Security Trust

i love cheese — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:04:11 -0800

OldFinancialInformationFilter: Figuring out cost basis for John Hancock Income Securities Trust (JHS) under its previous CUSIP. I'm trying to track down the closing price for John Hancock Income Securities Trust (JHS) for the following dates:

March 17, 1973
Sept 6, 1973
Sept 7, 1973

According to this page, the fund was created Feb 14, 1973, and changed its CUSIP on Dec 31, 1984. The former CUSIP number was #410122105, and apparently the symbol JHS was assigned in 2000.

I can find prices for the fund as far back as 1991, but no earlier.

[you guys did a great job last time I had a question like this.]

What qualifies one for an "iPod customer" upgrade price with AT&T Wireless?

mef613 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:37:46 -0800

For AT&T, what counts as being a 'previous iPhone user' as far as upgrades to 3G iPhone go? I am a fairly new AT&T customer, who got a Blackberry through them in May. Because of that, I'm not eligible for a $199/$299 3G iPhone through them -- I'd have to pay $399 or $499. However, they are giving current iPhone customers the lower price. If I were to acquire an old iPhone from a 3rd party, and activate it under my current AT&T account, would that make me an iPhone customer for purposes of the upgrade? Or did I have to buy an iPhone directly through AT&T to qualify for this price?

Playoff Tickets Options Pricing

charlesv — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:13:13 -0800

SportsMathFilter: How do I correctly price playoff ticket options? I buy 1/4 of a the season tickets from a season ticket holder for a NBA team in Los Angeles. That team is not the Lakers (don't laugh). For the 2008-2009 season, I want to buy an option on playoff tickets. How would I correctly determine a fair price for these options?

I imagine I would take into account the likelihood of them going to the playoffs but have no idea what other variables I would consider or the formula would look like.

I do know the formula will be different depending on how many games and which rounds of the playoffs, so feel free to assume either (1) all home games for the first round or (2) all home games through to the finals.

I am lousy at math, so if you provide a very complex formula, I would greatly appreciate an English explanation alongside explaining the logic.

Is Continental going to punish me for evading their clutches?

de void — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:13:14 -0800

Is Continental airlines going to penalize me for evading their attempt to double my ticket price? Originally booked a round trip ticket from EWR (Newark) to LAS (Las Vegas) on Continental.

Between originally booking the flight and today, I purchased a used car located near JAN (Jackson-Evers, Mississippi).

After looking into car shipper pricing, I decided it would be more economical to fly to JAN and drive the car home.

I went to continental.com, pulled up my original itinerary, queried a change in the return leg to JAN and saw my ticket price more than double from $350 to $750. Screw that.

I canceled the change and instead went to kayak.com. Through kayak, a one way ticket from LAS to JAN is $155. Continental is the carrier and it's the same exact flights (LAS to IAH, IAH to JAN) as they wanted to charge me $400 extra on top of my original round trip ticket price on the Continental site.

I booked the $155 one way flight.

Was discussing this with a co-worker and they indicated that the airline can fine you for "throw-away ticketing", i.e. not using the return leg of a round trip ticket.

Is this true?

cash at the gas station

moonlet — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:14:22 -0800

How does offering discounts for cash payments benefit gas stations? I started with the theory that a customer has to go in to the store to pay cash, and is therefore likely to make impulse purchases that will make up the difference. You buy ten gallons of gas at a 20-cent-per-gallon discount, you save $2, you go in and buy a $2 soda.

My boyfriend pointed out that a $2 soda doesn't actually net the gas station $2. Duh, moonlet.

So our theories are a) people make substantially larger impulse purchases than $2, b) the lower price draws in a higher volume, c) the giant signs advertising the cash price suck in people who end up paying with credit, or d) something nefarious involving the processing of credit card payments.

I suspect it's some combination of all the above, but I feel like we're missing something.

How much should I charge for my freelance design services?

othersomethings — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:51:35 -0800

How much should I charge for my freelance design services? Have to give a quote by tomorrow, and I don't know how to determine what my time/my skills/the job/etc. is worth in order to quote them fairly. I've been approached by a lot of people who have seen my work in the organization I work for, offering me freelance jobs. I'm entertaining an exclusive yacht club right now for some advertising jobs, starting with a newspaper ad they want me to design, and moving on to more projects. Here's the thing, I've always done this for family, friends etc. for free or a meal or whatever, and now that I'm getting approached a lot I'd like to know what I should be charging. I want to be competitive and fair, and I don't want to cheat myself or my client. I've researched Google and my local area for other companies, designers, etc. but haven't found much information on standard rates or on how to come up with pricing, or how to determine what my time and skills are worth.

Any insight would be helpful. Thanks.

Art per square inch

artdrectr — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:50:51 -0800

How to scale prices for my paintings My first MeFi question, so please be be nice!
I'm an artist, I price my paintings by the square inch, furthermore, prices are scaled by cost per unit.
Example: the smallest size work is 5"x5" and retails for $xxx, cost per unit = 10. The largest 60x60, retails $xx,xxx, cpu = 3.
All the rest of the sizes inbetween are priced accordingly.
What is the term for this price scale? (yeah "Price Gouger" "Swindler's List" ha ha! I need the real term, folks)
For the big points & prizes, how do I use the scale to increase next year's prices by a (small) percentage?
Many thanks.

Dance Studio Birthday Party - How Much to Charge

GregX3 — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:31:11 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how much a local dance studio should charge for hosting a 1-2 hour birthday party with dance instruction by one of our teachers. Any advice and the reasoning behind it is greatly appriciated. I'm wondering if pricing should be cost based (what it costs us) (which I'm actually not sure to figure out), or if it should be demand based (what customers are willing to pay). Or should it be based on something else?

I'm also worried about people getting mad at me for charging too much.

Thanks again!

How much should I charge for the use of one of my photographs in a tv documentary?

Fricka — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:52:18 -0800

How much should I charge for the use of one of my photographs in a tv documentary? The picture in question features a specific person who I photographed in a public setting. I'm told the TV show will have a segment about the subject. I've searched for similar questions on Ask MetaFilter but the ones I found seem to be for print and dealing with photographs that seem to have broad themes.

In my situation there are relatively few photographs of the subject. On the other hand the picture they have chosen is not the best lit picture so it could possibly be replaced by a standard, but boring, head shot picture furnished by someone else if I price myself out of the bargaining.

The company asking has produced shows I, and most likely many other MeFis, are familiar with. They are asking for All Media (excluding US Standard TV and Theatrical Media), Worldwide, and 10 years. They are looking for a license fee, not to buy.

Any help is appreciated!

Why are Apple laptop prices the same at all stores?

kamelhoecker — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:17:41 -0800

The price of Apple computers doesn't vary by retailer. How does Apple dictate pricing to their resellers — and how do they do this without breaking price-fixing laws? I've been shopping for a new Apple laptop - and find it strange how no matter which store I try the prices are identical. (The only exception is the educational discount when buying at a university computer store.)

Here's an example: MacBook 13.3" TFT 1.83GHz, Intel Core Duo 512MB, 60GB, Combo Drive - White is $1,249 (CAD) at all of these stores [1, 2, 3, 4]

I'm intrigued since most manufacturers have a "suggested retail price" which is usually inflated and the actual retail price will be lower and vary greatly. Apple seems to have an "enforced retail price" which is moving in the realm of price-collusion. (i.e. "let's all agree to not sell for less than x.") Does anyone know how Apple gets such consistent pricing from independent stores? And how they do this legally?

What's with this inverse correlation?

jammer — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:29:38 -0800

I recently increased my dosage of lamictal from 100mg/day to 200mg/day. I was prescribed 100mg pills, whereas before I had 25mg pills. For a month's supply of 100mg/daily in 25mg units, the bill sent to my insurance was over $500. For 200mg in 100mg units, it was just under $300. Why would more of the active ingredient cost less? I know the difference in pill count can't account for that much of a differential. What's the creative economics here?

How do I price photography work?

baylink — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:38:14 -0800

ProFilter: Like some other people, I've started getting solicited to do some photography for actual money, and I need to locate some current pricing resources. Yes, yes, there's The gent in the earlier thread noted in the last posting that he hadn't really had much luck nailing down actual numbers, and while I'm digging though the linked resources, I'm not having too much luck with it either.

Any professional photogs in teh hive? Florida would be a plus.

ADSL pricing soars in Kenya

davehat — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 06:07:54 -0800

Dear MeFites, please can you help me to challenge recent ADSL broadband price increases in Kenya. Having slashed ADSL costs significantly in February 2006, Telkom Kenya has hiked their entry level ADSL pricing by 64% after only 5 months.

The service in question is the 32/128kbps pre-paid unlimited ADSL bundle. This was revolutionary when it came out and uptake was good. New users parted with the KSh3800 ($51) connection fee, the KSh8500 ($115) modem fee and then committed themselves to a KSh5604 ($76) monthly fee with a belief that, as per broadband pricing across the rest of the known world, the price would either remain constant and the speeds increase, or the prices would come down over the course of the next 12 months or so. The really nice bit was the fact that access was via scratch cards that could be purchased as needed (no monthly bills). Though a bit fiddly for the first time user to set up each month, it provided flexibility to the consumer. It also gave users a neat way to sidestep Telkom’s notoriously erratic billing.

Seeing as I was on this tariff, I was mightily pissed off to pick up a letter in my post box today informing me of this (back dated a week, mind you). Not many people who parted with their KSh17904 ($242) first bill saw a 64% increase coming in as little as 5 months. The same service now costs an astonishing KSh9188 ($125) a month. That’s $25 more than the average monthly wage here.

At the same time, Telkom have introduced a new tariff for “home users”. The speed is 32/128kbps. The cost is KSh5604 ($76). The difference is the introduction of a 90hr monthly access limit. So that’s three hours access a day (or 6 hours if you’re a night owl and use the service between 8pm and 8am at half price). This means that KSh5604 ($76) now buys you 87.5% less time than it used to. This hourly limit means that access on the tariff is now a fraction over the cost of using an Internet café (average price of browsing in an urban Internet café is Ksh60 ($0.83) an hour).

I called Telkom and eventually a very helpful lady in the marketing department agreed to answer some questions about why the prices had gone up so sharply.

It turns out just about every Internet café owner within spitting distance of a digital exchange in Kenya has switched to 32/128kbps PAYG tariff since its launch. Businesses are supposed to use the 64/256kbps service which costs KSh16008 ($218) per month. By moving to the 32/128kbps tariff, they could slash their monthly overheads by as much as a half, what with competitor’s prices being either just as expensive as Telkom's 64/256kbps service or requiring higher initial capital outlay and additional licensing for VSAT or radio equipment. The lady in marketing revealed that the original 32/128kbps service was not for business use and that the changes in tariff were introduced to address this mass switch over.

I can see why Telkom wanted to take action against businesses using an inappropriate tariff, what I don’t see is why home users on the same tariff, who have invested a large amount of money to access a service, are being penalised so harshly; surely there must be ways or ensuring that businesses (for which read multiple users/Internet cafes in particular) are not able to use this tariff, but home users are?

Wherein lies my question:

How can Telkom offer this 32/128kbps service to home users on a pre-paid basis, whilst preventing businesses from taking advantage of a tariff they are not offered.

Any ideas are appreciated as I have been asked to forward my thoughts on the matter to Telkom. Unfortunately, I'm not very technically minded and I'm a bit jaundiced in view right now, what with being directly affected by the increase.

How much to charge an ex-employer?

dogsbody — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 10:45:36 -0800

How much should I charge as a consultancy rate to my ex-employer? I've recently resigned (amicably) from a full-time job to become self employed. My old boss has raised the possibility of my coming in from time to time to help out, whilst I get my own business up and running and the extra cash will certainly be helpful. My quesetion: should I just charge my old salary divided by 365? What sort of mark-up could/should I add on in consideration of my changed circumstances?

Oh, I'm in the UK.

How soon in advance to purchase airline tickets to get cheapest flights?

matildaben — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:50:55 -0800

How far in advance, or how close to the time, is the most advantageous time to purchase airline tickets in order to get the cheapest fares? For instance, if I were planning to travel in early August, and it's late April now, should I buy my ticket now, or should I wait until closer to the time (and how close is the "sweet spot")? Are there risks of the price going up substantially (more than $100)? This refers to U.S. travel (SEA-ATL in this case), traveling mid-week, with a weekend stay.

Best Web Sites for Real Estate Stats?

de void — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 09:08:22 -0800

What are the best low cost or free web sites for researching real estate information and statistics? I'm primarily interested in current appraisals, past sales history and property taxes for a single address, and also current and historical inventory of homes for sale (# of MLS listings) in a single town or zip code. I'm aware of Domania.com. Any others? I had access to realquest.com for a short period of time, but they are rather expensive for individual use.

How do I price my software?

dhacker — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:23:04 -0800

How do commercial software companies stop dealers and others from selling their products on eBay? And how do they control pricing in general? I need some education. I work for a software company that has a network of authorized dealers. We have a suggested retail price and dealers are free to sell the software for what they want. We are considering added a "Minimum Advertised Price" to make sure the little guys who sell one and two copies aren't out advertised by our bigger dealers. Is anyone familiar with the contractual language to enforce this?

As a side note almost, when I go to eBay I see very few copies of, say, DreamWeaver for sale. Why not? Don't DreamWeaver resellers see eBay as a viable channel or is MacroMedia preventing this somehow?

The intrinsic worth of IKEA

Big Fat Tycoon — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 12:56:30 -0800

How much is my used IKEA stuff worth? I'm about to move and I'm trying to sell my furniture on Craigslist. I bought most of it this March, and it's in practically new condition, all purchased from the giant furniture overmind IKEA. Now, I'm getting a ton of replies, but the prices I'm being offered (since I mentioned I'd accept "reasonable offers") are 50%+ off the original price. I realize this is IKEA stuff, but it's in great condition and some of it is quite decent. Should I be taking these offers? Or am I getting lowballed? Are there better places, besides eBay, to sell stuff and not get people trying to chizzle me?