Kodak/OFOTO Offering $.10 Prints To Members

I happened to take a look at the new Kodak EasyShare web site (they are now
offering version 5) and I noticed that Kodak is offering an annual
membership that gives a price of ten cents per 4x6 print, all the time. The
membership is $49 per year, and it has some other benefits, like photo
storage.

Anyone know how long this has been ongoing? For those that want lots of
prints, this route could well be much cheaper than printing their own
ink-jet stuff, and will likely be longer-lasting, too, as they are real
silver halide prints, using real color dyes, not inks.

Jeremy wrote:
> I happened to take a look at the new Kodak EasyShare web site (they are now
> offering version 5) and I noticed that Kodak is offering an annual
> membership that gives a price of ten cents per 4x6 print, all the time. The
> membership is $49 per year, and it has some other benefits, like photo
> storage.
>
> Anyone know how long this has been ongoing? For those that want lots of
> prints, this route could well be much cheaper than printing their own
> ink-jet stuff, and will likely be longer-lasting, too, as they are real
> silver halide prints, using real color dyes, not inks.

Hmmmm.... I did the math. I get decent wet-process prints at Walmart
and Costco (and just about everywhere else) for $0.19 per; at Ophoto I
need to pay $49.00 to get $0.10 per. So, that means I need to print 545
prints per year (49.00/0.09) to get the same price as everywhere else.
How many prints do you print per year? I think that last year, a
particularly good year, I printed about 200. Kodak may have slightly
better quality prints, but I can get high quality prints elsewhere
without paying any subscription fee.

If you check out the website a little bit more closely, you'll notice
that shipping is not included - it varies. Let's say we use a example
of 100 prints - $7.49 shipping. So, total price per print at 100
prints = (100*0.10+7.49)/100 = 17.5 cents per print. I have to print
49.00/(0.19-0.175) = 3267 prints to get the same price that my local
photo shop gives me - and that's without the 1 hour turnaround.

The Gallery may be a good thing, perhaps worth $25 a month - but they
don't give very many details on what the limits are - is there a
monthly bandwidth limit, a picture size limit? Can you link to your
photos? Unlimited storage is good, at least.

And finally, not to be too cynical, but does your post have anything to
do with the $100 credit you'll get for referring people to Ophoto?