What to charge for extra DVDs
 

What would be a reasonable price to charge for the purchase of extra DVDs of an event. A client came to me and wanted 60 extra DVDs of an event that I taped and edited. This would be per DVD I'm guessing.
Thanks in advance.
Harry

I charge $20 and clients seam happy. I have a friend who also does video production down the street from me and he charges $45 a dvd copy and he gets it.

$20 to $45 per DVD may be fine if you're talking about one or two extra copies of a wedding video (and they better not be in cheap thin jewel cases...) but when you're talking about 60 copies of a non-wedding event that's highway robbery.

We have automated duplication equipment and DVD duplication is a service we offer. DVDs with color labels in paper sleeves would run about $2.25 each in that quantity.

On paper, we charge $50 per copy. But the clients inquire, it will be just $20 a copy and $50 for 3 copies.

I would charge $12-15 for that quantity. I know people that charge $25-30 and get it, but I also hear people gripe about it afterwards and it does not make these other guys look real good. It also opens the door for me to get work.

I did a wedding a few years ago for a group of people who had a reputation for being, well,...good with their money. Anyway, a relative approached me a few months after the wedding and asked about more copies. I replied that they would be $15 each and with a completely straight face said "Oh, we have to pay EXTRA for those?"

LOL!!!!!!

that must've been an awfully awkward situation!

Santo

The more pieces needed, the less you charge. Weddings are special occasions and usually only up to 4 pieces, so it's easy to get $20 - $50 per piece. For other events, it just depends on delivery (paper, jewel cases, etc). 60 pieces should run between $2 and $7 each. Ofcourse this is my practice.

JS

Are you guys just burning the footage to DVD from your own DVD burner or a are they stamped like the Pro DVD titles?

I do extra dvds for $25. But depends where you getting your printing done. We do labels in our production house but covers we send out

What to charge for extra event DVDs.
 

First off.. Thanks to everyone for their replies and ideas. To answer Simons post, I would be using all my equipment, one DVD burner, which I've using to burn alot of DVDs already, printing off my Printer, etc. All your posts have given me something to think about.
Again thanks to everyone.
Harry

Harry, I can't imagine that 60 copies on a single DVD burner would be worth your time.

I'd outsource the job to a professional small-run DVD dupe place (for example, in Austin, we have ProTape) who will charge you $3 or less per job - with color labels and everything. Add $60 ($1 per disc) to whatever the local DVD dupe place charges, and that'd be fair.

-- Brian.

If you're outsourcing, call me. $2.25 per disk, full color direct printed ($2.65 for TY Watershield.) famousdavispro.com

Burned DVD-Rs. I don't know of any place that would replicate ("stamp") fewer than 1,000 copies.

Harry, if you're using your own inkjet printer to print an image on a white-top disc, and you're burning an ISO image.. I'd look at the costs of ink and your time. Each disc will take a good 7 or so mins to burn start to finish, eject and all, and to burn 60 you're basically going to be surfing the net or doing some other work while you sit there and wait to put a new disc in. Then sticking it in a printer, printing and such.. you'll probably go thru 1/2 the ink for 60 discs, maybe less or more depending on printer, color quality, etc.

I'd say at least $15 per disk when you factor in ink costs, your time to swap the discs, etc. Depending on the event, you'll probably be printing a nice dvd cover as well, and the cost of the case.. which are usually what .10 each?

Here's another thought.. you can get yourself a color printer/duplication setup for less than $1K or a really good one for a few grand that does 50 to 100 discs at a time, burns, prints, etc. If you charge $20 per disc x 60 you're up to 1200 bucks.. of course the costs of blank dvds and cases will chew into that a little bit.. but if you do this a few times you've paid for it yourself and made money to boot..and saved yourself a lot of time.

I'd at the very least, go buy 2 or 3 more dvd burners and burn 2 to 4 discs at a time in your computer if you got room, or get external drives. At about $30 a pop for 20x dvd burners, it would be well worth your time to burn them faster. Maybe even pick up a 2nd printer as well.

I've burned with 2 laptops and 1 desktop. it works well. quiet fast! my printer was having hard time keeping up with the labelling!

I don't think anyone is going to pay $1200 for 60 event DVD's unless it's some sort of training, etc...What also needs to be considered is how much the client is selling the DVD's for. I'm sure that they will be selling them for $20 or less, though I can't assume. But what I can assume is that the client needs to profit off their sales.

JS

Agreed.. I forgot to add in the "Doubtful anyone is going to pay that much for 60 at a time..the bulk rule applies". I'd say charging $500 for 60 or so DVDs isn't asking too much tho, given the coloring dvd labels, the cases, etc.. .if it's done that nicely.

I wouldn't pay it. I'd just pay you for one and go to the bulk duplication place myself if you charge too much.

Lol...our clients aren't supposed to know that! Truthfully, the only thing that matters is who owns the copyright. Charge standard rate, or charge extra for full rights to the footage. I own the rights to everything I have shot...but if they want to pay the premium, that's cool. My job is to provide a good product. If the client is happy I'm happy. But no cheapskates allowed!!! Did someone say written contract?

JS

Which is virtually unenforceable in wedding/event video due to the unclean hands doctrine.

The OP also needs to keep in mind the original cost of the production. It would be very difficult to expect a client to pay $1200 for DVDs if the original project was only $250. If you shot the event "on the cheap", the client will expect the same for the duplication.