A pricing trap to avoid:

Comparison shopping based on "Ballpark" prices...  

WE'RE NOT GOING TO SAY "BAIT AND SWITCH" HERE but the thought does come to mind...

Here's the deal: You do not have a firm, final price for the use of a rights managed image until the photo agency says you do and issues a "license", usually in the form of an invoice.

Just about every online price calculator we've seen, for example, says somewhere on the page (sometimes in pretty small print), words to exactly that effect.

And we can't tell you how many times we've had customers call us, usually in a state of pretty high annoyance, because they got a "ballpark" price quote from another agency, went ahead with the project, and then found out during the end stage, when it came time to "firm up" the transaction, that the actual price was going to bear very little resemblance to the original ballpark price they were "quoted".

Here's the pricing trap you want to avoid:

A project lands on your desk. The exact parameters of the job have not yet been determined, so there's no way you can establish a "final" price with a photo agency, since you don't yet know what the final specifications will be. But you know you have a tight budget. You're going to need some images, so you call around to a few agencies to get some "ballpark" quotes, or maybe go to their online calculators, intending to go with the agency that seems to give you the best price generally (but who also, of course, holds the likelihood of having the images you need.)

One agency seems to be coming in at the most attractive price, so you go ahead and search their collection for the images you need, place them in your layout, go through hoops to have them approved by your client, and then, voila, it's time to finalize the rights purchase with the agency.

Exactly the ones we've talked about in this document.

Does this happen a lot? Not with the better agencies, but it does happen, more often than it should, so you need to be careful.

Our advice?

Number one: Whenever you are contacting a photo agency for a price estimate, make sure you establish with them whether this is a "final" or a "ballpark" price, and don't confuse the one with the other. If your project is in its early stages and you cannot give the photo agency very specific information as to how the photo will be used, they won't be able to give you a firm, final price, so it will definitely be a "ballpark" price that they are not necessarily making any real commitment to.

When in doubt, ask. And if you are getting what seems to be a real commitment on price, ask your sales representative what steps are being taken to "memorialize" that at the agency. In other words, when you call back three months later to have the license issued, and the salesperson is no longer with the agency, what record-keeping mechanisms are in place at the agency that ensure the price you are being given now will be known by them then?

Number two: Don't eliminate an agency from your search simply because their "ballpark" budgeting quote might be higher than some others. In fact, quite the contrary, for an odd but, when you think about it, quite sensible reason: The better agencies do NOT want you to get "sandbagged" when it comes to firming up a final price. The better agencies will make sure that the "ballpark" figure they give you for budgeting purposes is the most you can expect to pay. When it comes time to "finalize" they will work hard-- if they are good-- to make sure that the final price is, if anything, less than the ballpark price they quoted.

But that means that their original "ballpark" figure will be higher than agencies who do not take that approach. If you eliminate from the equation agencies whose ballpark quotes are somewhat higher, you might very well be eliminating the very best agencies from the mix, the ones whose final price will take into account the factors in your favor and will, therefore, ultimately be more attractive than the price from the agency whose ballpark figure was initially attractive...

Number three: Keep the lines of communication open with a photo agency you are comfortable with. Rights managed transactions require, as we say, "custom fitting".

And that's why ...