Date   : Sun, 08 May 1983 22:56:00 EDT
From   : Richard P. Wilkes <RICK@mit-mc.arpa>
Subject: ZCPR available on 8" disks

I don't know what Workman's personal busniess situation is,
but I do believe that your estimate of how much it costs to
buy, duplicate, and mail a disk is rather unrealistic.

Let's take a look:  first the disks; yes, you can buy them
cheaply. Yet, you still have to buy them, store them, and
restock. The disk duplication is seldom done by someone being
paid $4.00/hr and does not take a mere two minutes.  The
actual duplication may take only that long, but workers are
slow (unfortunately) and usually take twice as long to do
simple procedures as they should.

Mialing:  do you have any idea how much it costs to do
mailings? I mean, the carton alone may cost $.50! Postage for
14 disks is not going to be $1.00 either.  I spend that much
on one 5.25".  There is addressing, packaging, weighing, and
the actual process of mailing (going to UPS, paying for their
pickup, whatever).

Now, what about overhead.  The mail must be picked up,
processed.  There is accounting on your check or charge. You
get a receipt.  Plus, general business overhead, taxes (arg!),
insurance, ad nauseum.  This *costs*!  The idea that you are
going to get some non-volunteer to do this correctly for $4 is
absurd. The people I have working for me wouldn't even talk
for less than $7.

I think people have a very warped sense of costs in this
industry. I know that realistically, $10 is the minimum price
for single diskette where I don't want to run the risk of
subsidizing the exchange.  Non-profit groups can do it for
less, and it would be nice if those groups did handle ALL
public domain software.  However, volunteers are hard to come
by. I think that we should be quite happy that anything is
available at duplication cost.

Besides, you can always download stuff from your local RCPM.
Of course, if its LDx, you'll be paying a lot more for a
single 8" disk full of software than $14.

I am not trying to defend any specific practices.  It seems to
me that $140 is a bit steep for 14 disks in the same package
with no paper documentation.  Since it is public domain, you
can always split the cost with a friend or two and cut the
costs to you all. -r