CompuServe Messages

In addition to M-O's, there's always the one-off route…. I work for a microfilm company that began delivering images on one-offs (aka "glass masters") last fall. We bought a Sony cutter, and wrote our own windows-based software. After analyzing the process for several weeks, we finally set $100 as the price to cut the one-off, and anywhere from $0.09 to $0.12 per image to scan the work. We do *not* charge our customers a per-disc license fee. Oddly enough, our first clients were people who just wanted to archive mainframe data "offline". Turns out in our innocence, we were charging only 1/4th the usual freight for cutting one-offs. So we analyized our competitor's prices. Except for the per-disc license fees, we can't see any real reason for charging more than $100 to $200 for cutting a one-off. Incidentially, we are *not* interested in doing subcontract one-offs. We got our hands full taking care of our (former) microfilm clients. The JVC cutter and the *new* rival Sony cutter will be available this march in the $10-to-12K range. If you're willing to fork over $3,000 for a mere 1-gigabyte magnetic or $4,500 for a comprable M-O, why not bite the bullet and get something that does 600 MB at a clip? ..<Bob>