jayeff

Actually it is. I don't know if the guy who quoted you $10K was serious or not, but adult design is generally between 1/4 and 1/10 of mainstream prices.

That isn't because adult designers are a bunch of charitable guys and gals, eager to help other people make more money at their expense. Sometimes it is because they are less skilled, which may not be obvious to those who do not understand marketing and usability themselves. Sometimes they take shortcuts, such as having PhotoShop output the code: it works, but bears no relation to current standards and it's a pain to modify later.

The best you can hope for is a good designer who is careful with his customer mix, such that only very few ask for more than minor mods. He can handle those few without making a bad joke of his rates, but that is also the reason why, unless you can be very specific about what you want, you will likely end up with something which is basically fine, but fairly generic. Okay the picture is complicated a bit with some people being based in eastern Europe or Asia, but even for them at the rates they quote, there simply isn't enough leeway to spend much time on individual creativity.