.... and 40 years' experience.

 The story goes, Pablo Picasso was dining at a restaurant and doodled on a napkin.  Another patron walked up and said "I'll give you $50 for that."  Picasso says, "The price is $4,000, ma'am."  "But it only took you 5 minutes!"  "Yes," he replies.  "5 minutes and 40 years of experience."

It doesn't matter if this is a true story or not.  It perfectly aligns with what I have told many of my favorite (and incredibly proficient) subcontracting abstractors.  Don't undersell your work, especially on these horrendous commercial searches.  It may take you only 4 hours.  You may have work on it already that you did years ago.  That doesn't matter.  You throw some inexperienced and/or lazy person in there, it could take them weeks -- and STILL not be complete and thorough.  You should be paid for your experience, not your time. 

And blowing my own horn, a good vendor manager will charge correctly AND pay correctly.  There is nothing ethical about charging a client $1,000 for a search and paying the abstractor $250.  Just my 2 cents.   Vendor Managers need to be fair and balanced with BOTH sides of the fence.  Integrity pays off in the end.