In a previous post . I wrote about selling photos online and about a few of the places that I had taken a swing at their free trial. So, now it’s been slightly more than 30 days since that last post, all free trials are finished, and there isn’t a clear winner … yet.

I must say that two of the services were very responsive, indeed
SmugMug:
The first was SmugMug. Not only do that have extensive online information, forums, and help, they are very quick to answer any question that you have via e-mail and they answer it quickly. The cost: $149/year + 15%. See the previous post for the write up.
ImageQuix:
The other, which was suggested by P.J., was ImageQuix. Here, you get your own personal account manager who will actually call you and talk to you on the phone. ImageQuix’s fee schedule is a bit different from the others. Here, you buy upload credits. You can upload about 3,000 images for $12. When I saw this I thought that was a fantastic deal. No monthly fees and only charges for uploads, which seemed very reasonable. If you wish to have ImageQuix collect money for you and you use their lab (full service), there are additional fees. You pay 12% commission + 3% credit card fee. Nothing unusual here. This is right in line with SmugMug, which charges $150/year + 15%, so you’re still coming out a bit ahead. The downside to this is that if you use their service, they don’t do refunds. This struck me as odd, so I checked in with my representative. Here is the actual excerpt from the email:

Regarding your no refund policy, does this just have to do with
credit card processing, or full service processing? I’d like to think
that if my customers don’t like the prints, due to the way the lab
printed them, that they could get a refund, or at a minimum, reprints so
that they are satisfied.

Ans. The refunding process is final for full service and credit card processing.

Well, I guess that I did read it right! There is the option of doing self-fulfillment. If you do so, by providing a link to PayPal, there are no commissions and the only fee that you pay is 3%, to PayPal, if someone is using a credit card; however, you will have to print, proof, and mail your own order.

Although I loved SmugMug, I’m not at the point where I can justify spending $150/year to sell a few pictures. Perhaps when I start selling more, that will be an option. I like the easy customization provided by SmugMug as well as their fantastically responsive customer service.

PhotoReflect:
Oh, speaking of customer service, before I said that I sent a request to PhotoReflect, but never got a response. Well, that’s not true any more, some 22 days after I sent the request, I got a response!!! Now, how’s that for customer service!!! Yeah!

So, as it is nearly basketball season AGAIN (does it ever end?) and I’ve got prints to sell, I think that I’ll go with ImageQuix and the self-fulfillment option. If the load gets too heavy, I’ll have to figure out something else.