Costco Photo Restoration: What Costco Can and Can't Do

Costco was once a handy place to order prints, but a lot has changed. In early 2021, Costco permanently closed the photo departments inside its warehouse stores across the country. The in-store counters where you dropped off pictures and negatives are gone for good.

Today, Costco's photo products are handled online through a printing partner rather than by Costco itself. Members can still order prints, enlargements, photo books, greeting cards, canvas, and photo gifts on the web, often at a member discount. What you will not find, then or now, is hand photo restoration. Costco copies and prints photos. It does not repair the damage on them.

We want to be straight with you. If your photo is already in good shape and you just need more copies, a larger size, or a nice canvas for the wall, ordering from Costco is a reasonable and affordable choice. Reprinting a clear, undamaged picture is quick and cheap, and there is no reason to pay for restoration you do not need.

The same is true for a plain scan or a straight copy of a photo with no tears, no fading, and no water marks. A print service can reproduce what is already there, and it can do it well. For a photo that is whole and clean, that is often all you need, and we would rather tell you so than sell you something extra.

Here is the part that trips people up. A print, even a large and sharp one, only copies what is on the photo. If the original is torn, creased, water-stained, faded, yellowed, moldy, or missing a corner, a print hands you the same damage at a bigger size. The scratches stay. The faded faces do not come back. Blowing a damaged photo up often makes the problems easier to see, not harder.

Restoration is a different job. It means rebuilding the missing and damaged parts of the picture so the image looks whole again. Torn edges are pieced back together. Water stains and mold marks are cleaned away. Faded areas are brought back, and cracks are filled in. That is careful work done by a trained person, not by a machine at a print counter, and it is not something Costco or its printing partner offers.

We are a family-owned US company, and real American artists do every restoration by hand. We never use AI or an automatic filter. You upload a photo of your picture from home, anywhere in the country, or you mail the original to us, tracked and insured. An artist then repairs the tears, fills in the missing pieces, evens out the fading, and brings back the color and detail you remember.

Most restorations are finished in about 1 to 3 days. You get free revisions until it looks right, and you only pay when you are happy with it. Every order is backed by a 100 percent money-back guarantee, so there is no risk in sending us the photo you thought was beyond saving. Prices start at $38 for the first photo. We are rated 4.96 out of 5 and have been trusted by more than 400,000 families. We also colorize black-and-white photos and make museum-quality prints once your photo is restored.

Many people expect a badly damaged photo to cost more to restore. With us, it does not. The price is set by the artist tier you choose, never by how torn, faded, or stained the photo is. A heavily water-damaged picture and a lightly faded one at the same tier cost the same.

That means you can send us your worst photo, the one that looks past hope, without worrying that the damage will run up the bill. You pick the tier, you see the price before any work begins, and the artist does the hard part for that set price. It is a simple, honest way to price real restoration.

Here is the simple difference, so you can decide what your photo really calls for:

• Costco, through its online partner: prints, enlargements, canvas, cards, and photo gifts at member prices, for photos that are already in good condition.
• MemoryCherish: hand restoration of torn, faded, water-damaged, and discolored photos by real American artists, plus black-and-white colorizing and museum-quality prints, from $38.

If your photo just needs copying or a bigger print, Costco can take care of that. If it needs saving, that is the work we do every day. You are always welcome to start with one photo and see the result before you decide on the rest.

If you are used to walking a photo into a store, doing it from home may feel unfamiliar. It is simpler than it sounds. Here is the whole thing, start to finish.

• Take a picture of your photo. Lay the original flat on a table near a window. Turn off your flash. Hold your phone straight above it and take a clear photo. No scanner needed. If you would rather scan it, that works too.
• Upload it to us. On our website, you pick your photo the same way you would attach a picture to an email or a text. That is the whole upload. Your original photo never leaves your hands.
• Tell us what you would like. You can add a short note, like fix the crack down the middle or bring back the color. If you are not sure, that is fine. Our artists know what to do.
• A real artist restores it by hand. A trained American artist does the work themselves, never a machine. This usually takes 1 to 3 days.
• Review it and ask for changes. We send the finished photo back for you to look at. If something is not quite right, tell us. Revisions are free, and we keep going until you are happy.
• Receive your photo. You only pay once you love it. Prices start at $38.

Would you rather mail the original in? You can do that too, tracked and insured both ways. But most families never have to leave the house.