Outsourced Option: A Mail-in Service
If you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, you can always box up your memories and send them out to a photo-scanning service. This option can be efficient and even fairly inexpensive, but you have to be OK with handing over your most cherished memories to complete strangers for a few days.
I gave it a shot. I organized a group of 100 shots by year, labeled them with Post-its and sent them off via FedEx to ScanMyPhotos.com, based in Irvine, Calif. Within a few days, my prints had been uploaded and the originals were back safely in my possession. A nice woman named Shannon kept me updated on the process throughout the week.
With the $170 prepaid service, the company sends you an 11-by-8.5-by- 5.5-inch box and asks you to stuff it full—that’s around 1,800 snapshots, according to company Chief Executive Mitch Goldstone. The company makes [150]-dpi scans of the photos, at a price that comes out to about 8 cents each; for $250, or almost 14 cents each, you can double the resolution.
