What do you do when a buyer bought an image and asks you for a variant of that image?

you make it and upload it? (the buyer has to wait the review-time)
you just make it and send it to him/her? (free)
you make it and you make him/her pay? (how?)

Cheers
Thijs

no, he is asking for an illustration a little modified from the original.
something like: i made an illustration of a tree full of apples and he needs also an image with only the tree.

I had someone need the color tweaked on something recently. First of all, I had them email me the file that they downloaded (yes, I've had people say they downloaded stuff and "had problems" and ask me to send them x, y, z--when in fact the file had not been purchased by them at all.)

If it is something that is fairly simple, I will just do it and send it back. If it is going to take longer than 10 minutes or so, it depends on when they need it and how picky/demanding they seem to be. I've had ridiculous requests come through that I frankly just ignored. It's amazing what some people expect for the price of their microstock download. 

A bit a late reply, sorry. But anyway thanks for the tips.

I made the change, uploaded it and PM'ed a reviewer to review it quickly. Then i emailed the buyer... and ... he bought it as subscribtion.... sight....
well. at least i made one buyer happy.

i hope so. for now i sold it already 3 times (sub sub xs)... so who knows.. i might become my bestseller.

i doubt it though, since it became a bit a boring image with the change..

http://stockxpert.com/browse.phtml?f=view&id=14546671

A bit a late reply, sorry. But anyway thanks for the tips.

I made the change, uploaded it and PM'ed a reviewer to review it quickly. Then i emailed the buyer... and ... he bought it as subscribtion.... sight....
well. at least i made one buyer happy.

Let me get this straight - even though you had the client's email address you still sold the custom image through StockXpert? Why didn't you give the client an off-site price?

This sort of thing happens to me on a fairly regular basis. Most times it's an "I need it bigger than what's on the site" request, for which I typically charge $100.

LOL @ pixart.  or i'll try to make one with a gold fish jumping from seat to seat.

@ sharply. Yes. you are right. i should have.. well to be precise i did not email the buyer, but sent a PM. anyway i should have done like you said.

But how to define the price? for something like i did now 100 $ would be a bit excessive, wouldn't it? could i asked for 50$ ? 25? 10 ? 30 cts?

I guess you can chalk it up to a "live and learn" experience.

Is $100 excessive? Nope. It's even a bit on the cheap side. You have to remember that they are buying a one-off custom image from you, which is totally different than buying one of the images you have for sale in the stock marketplace. Furthermore, the buyer would not have contacted you if there was an image available that was "good enough" - he/she expects to pay more.

I've never had anyone balk at the price, and a few people have paid more without me asking for it. Still, $100 figures about the right amount for me to charge. It's a nice round number, anyway. If this seems too much, charge whatever you're comfortable with. It doesn't take much to beat the typical microstock sale, or even EL sale, that's for sure.