Interesting point of view, Machine Claw :)

When doing portfolio building things, I tend to prefer to do things for people, for free. I'd rather have them thingk they've gotten something worth few thousand dollars for free, then train them into thinking that few hundred buscks is a fair price for it.
Also, it's easier to explain why you're doing a freebie, then why something is being discounted 90% or so. 
I was always told that a freebie makes someone feel lucky. Huge discount makes them wonder about the quality.

Then again, there could be as many opinions on this as there are people ;)

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
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