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Why are Passport photos so expensive?

Why are Passport photos so expensive?

Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:32 pm
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Why are Passport photos so expensive?

Title says it all - they average like $12-$15 for 2 photos at a typical drugstore. ...?
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:36 pm
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IIRC AAA is slightly cheaper, with additional discounts based on AAA memberships.

Some AAA members are entitled to one free set of passport photos every year.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:38 pm
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Originally Posted by sedubby
Title says it all - they average like $12-$15 for 2 photos at a typical drugstore. ...?
Low volume means higher price. If they sold 100's a day there would be more people doing it which would lower the cost. When maybe 1-5, if that, are done per day there is minimal price competition that the store would care about.

My guess is the store offers it as a service to get people in the store and hardly looks at it as a revenue generator.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:39 pm
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Originally Posted by sedubby
Title says it all - they average like $12-$15 for 2 photos at a typical drugstore. ...?
I take and print my own photos, using an entry-level canon inkjet printer.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:43 pm
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A 4x6 photo print is $0.39 or thereabouts. I take my own headshot and print six 2x2s on one sheet which I cut using grade school scissors.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:45 pm
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I'd rather have the experts do my passport photos so that I'm sure they comply with requirements for passports and visas. I'd rather pay $10 extra than risk having the application returned to me because the photos don't meet the standards.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 10:59 pm
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The standards are simple and the experts in question are drugstore employees with a pocket digital camera. US Department of State explicitly allows non-professionally taken photos.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 11:10 pm
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You get 4 for $6 at Costco. Ready in 15 mins.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 11:23 pm
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All you have to do is take your own headshot with a camera and arrange it in 3x2 matrix on a 4x6 sheet, and print online at Walmart or Walgreens, etc. $0.35.

There are even webpages online which will help you create the 3x2. Just search, people.
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Old Nov 2, 2015, 11:54 pm
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The last time I needed passport photos, the machine at the Walgreens next door was broken, so I went to epassportphoto.com and printed my own -- and I printed enough to last until my looks go to pot. No more $8 passport photos for me!
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Old Nov 3, 2015, 12:58 am
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They seem cheap to me because it *used* to be so much more difficult and expensive to get them done. Twenty years ago, you had to find a photographer who was set up to do it. Now, you can get them done almost anywhere.

wg
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Old Nov 3, 2015, 1:28 am
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
I'd rather have the experts do my passport photos so that I'm sure they comply with requirements for passports and visas. I'd rather pay $10 extra than risk having the application returned to me because the photos don't meet the standards.
high school dropouts working for min wage are experts to you?
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Old Nov 3, 2015, 1:54 am
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Originally Posted by TMM1982
high school dropouts working for min wage are experts to you?
Lol
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Old Nov 3, 2015, 2:01 am
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Originally Posted by sedubby
Title says it all - they average like $12-$15 for 2 photos at a typical drugstore. ...?
Pretty much the same reason that everything else is expensive or cheap. Market. You went in. They quoted you $15. You paid it. If no one pays that, the price goes down. As long as people are paying that price, no reason for them to charge less.
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Old Nov 3, 2015, 2:57 am
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Taking/printing selfies is expensive?
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