The Price of 25 sheets v 100 sheets

[Mike O'Pray]

It was looking at e-bay paper sales that has prompted this thread. A well known retailer is selling 25 sheets of 5x7 Fotospeed RC paper for 15.60 so £62.40 for a 100 sheets if you were crazy enough to buy 4 x 25

The same seller is selling a 100 sheet box for £26.87. O.K. there is extra packaging in 4 x25 but I'd imagine the 4x 25 packages don't cost Fotospeed much more, if any more, than a 100 sheet box.

I use the Fotospeed paper as an example but the same applies to Ilford and Kentmere paper in terms of 4x 25 v 100

Can anyone think of a good financial reason why 4x25 should be about two and a half times more expensive than 100 sheets

I have watched the ladies( it happened to be all ladies) packing sheets at Ilford and I'd be surprised if the extra time or paper packs used to pack 4 x25 compared to 100 can be justified in this price difference but I am willing to listen to any good logical reasons why it should be so that adds up to 2.5 times more expensive.

Yes I accept that Ilford or any other manufacturer might need to charge the retailer more for 4 x25 packs than for a 100 sheet box but 2.5 times as much!

It may not be this way and the retailers are simply adding on a disproportionate premium for the 25 sheet packs. If there is a justifiable finger to be pointed then I have no idea to whom to point it.

If you are attempting to find the paper that you like, you might not want to buy a 100 sheet box but different 25 sheet packs are an expensive way to test different papers.

You'd think there might be a case for each manufacturer selling say a pack of 2/3packs x 10 sheets of each surface to give the darkroom user a chance to decide at a reasonable price.

Open to your thoughts on this

Mike

[Miha]

Hi Mike, I don't believe anyone hare has the exact answer as to the price difference, but you can avoid the discrepancy by simply buying the 100 sheet pack

[Phil]

It's always annoyed me Mike. The worst I think are Adox where certain papers were/are only available over here in 25 sheet boxes - 100 sheets of super duper Variotone Premium 8x10? That'll be £131 please. It makes me want to spit feathers, and the paper might be great. but they can stick it where the sun doesn't shine.
You would think in this day and age they'd be wanting to shift as much as possible. Maybe we as a community (doesn't that sound cosy) aren't buying enough paper in the UK so they'll just keep on charging more and more.
Almost every single print these days is becoming a financial consideration, much like film.
Mr.Angry

[Richard L]

Sounds like typical eBay pricing weirdness, or the seller is simply chancing it.

[Richard Gould]

As far as Fotospeed paper goes I think it is just Ebay loading to make extra money, Certainly over here at AG, the only quick reference for Fotosped, it is around £8 for 25 sheets and £21 for 100 of 5x7 and Kentmere/Ilford are much the same price diference between the 25/100.
I have often seen Adox critisied for their box sizes, looking on USA sites the paper is packed the same as Europe,in the bigger sizes only available in 25 sheet packs, smaller sizes as far as I can tell, up to 91/2x12, arew available in bigger box sizes, I can't understand why the 12/16 and above are only in 25 sheet boxes,
Richard

[photomi7ch]

Gentlemen it is the way of the world now. You just have to go into any supermarket to see exactly the same tactic. smaller amounts are loaded to force you to buy an offer or a different product. It is all about max profit and forcing the cost of living up so the man in the street has to work twice as hard for less.

now its off my chest I can go back to sleep

[DaveP]

Is it not just simple economy of scale? 4 boxes of 25 compared to 1 box of 100 incurs probably quadruple the ammount of packaging/labelling, and quadruple any labour costs associated with that packaging, quadruple the wear and tear on the packing machinery, takes more money and time to distribute and store (as 4 25 boxes generally take up more space and weigh more then a single 100 box). And then there's similar storage/distribution costs to be borne by the retailer at the other end.

The other way of looking at it is that you're getting a great bargain on 100 boxes. Glass half full and all that. Consider some sheetfilm now like Velvia 5x4" which is only available in 20sheet boxes at going on for £4 a sheet with no option of greatly reducing the cost by buying a bigger box anymore.

[Mike O'Pray]

Thanks for the replies. Quite a range of reactions from annoyance to acceptance that it may be justified.

It isn't an e-bay issue as one contributor thought. The seller to whom I have referred is a business and also sells direct to the public via his own company website at exactly the same prices so e-bay is just another outlet for sales. So to be fair at least he isn't trying to use e-bay as a way of getting higher prices than he achieves by direct sales via his company. As anyone can check his direct prices then this would anyway be a crazy strategy

Maybe DaveP is right and it is justified but the reasons given just don't to quite add up to paying two and a half times as much for the same quantity to my way of thinking.

Mike

[Richard Gould]

Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray

Thanks for the replies. Quite a range of reactions from annoyance to acceptance that it may be justified.

It isn't an e-bay issue as one contributor thought. The seller to whom I have referred is a business and also sells direct to the public via his own company website at exactly the same prices so e-bay is just another outlet for sales. So to be fair at least he isn't trying to use e-bay as a way of getting higher prices than he achieves by direct sales via his company. As anyone can check his direct prices then this would anyway be a crazy strategy

Maybe DaveP is right and it is justified but the reasons given just don't to quite add up to paying two and a half times as much for the same quantity to my way of thinking.

Mike

I don't know how far you have looked but it could be just a dealer looking to make more profit, or maybe just doesn't shift much, but looking at dealers such as AG or Silverprint or looking at Fotospeed themselves for the same size paper (£8.75 for 25 sheets or £19.58 for 100) it certainly, to me, does not look justified, at least to my eyes
Richard

[Mike O'Pray]

Yes Richard, it does look as though the ratio of prices from 25 sheets to 100 sheets does vary quite a bit based on your research of Ag and Silverprint. At least there it drops from two and half times more expensive to about one and a half times

The annoying thing is that the seller in question's price for 100 sheets includes free postage so he gets close or certainly much closer to your quoted Fotospeed price and presumably close to Ag and Silverprint prices.

Pity about his 25 sheet packs

Mike