[caption id="attachment_16947" align="alignright" width="300"] Musée - object of desire, or waste of money?[/caption] It's hard to shake off a reputation for being expensive. It's hard to shake off a reputation for being cheap too. The question is, which reputation do you prefer? Our people get frustrated when they hear, "Oh you guys are so expensive…" In fact this week they ran an email saying, "That's not right!" Their point is we have six different product ranges, six very different price points, and most people are genuinely surprised by what we can offer. My point is that cheap doesn't mean desirable. Almost all of us spend more than we need to, because we want to. Yes, people can buy a Queensberry press book for less than they're expecting, but more often than not they'll add an embossed leather cover and art pages, and pretty much double the price. Gee, we're expensive. Yes, they could buy an overlay matted album, but they'll go for Duo because pagemount is beautiful, or for Musée because it's without parallel.

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So it goes. I love single malts, but you can keep your bubbles. I'll pay extra for my extravagances, but you think they're a waste of money. We know all that … until it's our own stuff we're selling.

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The question is, do we want to be the company people go to for the object of their desire, or for a cheap deal? Most of us love a deal, and they're easy to grab on air travel or consumer electronics. It's different when we're talking your photography and our handmade albums. Cheap does not mean desirable. Nor does expensive, which is why we offer a choice of products and a choice of price points. It's hard to shake off the wrong reputation. Cheers, Ian