How can I control print quantities from the main browser?

So here's the workflow question

I want to select photos to print but I want to print a different quantity depending on criteria. The photos may be in different albums, etc..

Selecting them all and trying to set the quantity in the Print Order window is painfully awkward.

What I really need to be able to do is browse my photos and assign a value to them where the value represents the number of prints that should be created for that photo.

For example, I can assign those colored lables quite easily by just pressing CMD-1, CMD-2, CMD3, and so forth.

So lets suppose I navigate around my photo collection and I assign a color to particular photos where the number of the color represents the desired quantity.

It's very easy then to create a smart album that just shows the photos that have been tagged this way.

However, there is no way then to order prints in one go with the appropriate quantities (other than the manual mechanism in Print Order window) and if I order them as separate groups, I have to pay shipping costs multiple times.

I'm wondering if someone has created an automation script that can use the color (or some other textual tag) that can then be used to submit a print order with the quantities of each photo derived from that color or textual tag?

I hope this question makes sense, it feels awkward to describe.