Wholesale Color Printing – Price Vs Value Discussion
Do you want to save money on business printing? It’s a dumb question, I know, but, many businesses don’t know they can buy wholesale color printing online, so they rely on the big store franchises, the local printer down the street or the guy that designed their job and are paying way too much for their printed advertising, sales and marketing color printing.
Buying wholesale high quality full color printing online is fast, easy and safe as long as you select a reputable printer, and most are. The web is the most competitive place for anybody buying any thing. Online color printing services are falling over each other to give their best deals in order to win new customers and keep the old. It’s a buyers market, but you have to be careful and do a bit of research to get the best value. Remember best value may cost a bit higher than the lowest price.
For example, let’s look at one of the most popular keyword searches for printing- “color printing” and let’s look for 1,000 8.5 X 11 tri-fold brochures. Let’s pick the first site under organic searches. Their price for 1,000 tri-fold brochures printed color on both sides on 100 Lb. gloss text is $ 202.13. Aqueous coating is not available and shipping to a local zip code is $ 12.15. Total price is $ 214.28.
The second online printing company (with low prices in their name) has a base price for the same product of $296 with a paper upgrade of $10. 40 and an additional up charge of $ 29.00 for aqueous coating. Their cost for shipping is an additional $20.50 making the total price $ 355.90 for the same product.
The third site listed (which is one of the largest online printers in the world) states the price for 1,000 8.5 X 11 tri-fold brochures on 100 Lb. gloss coated text with aqueous coating as $ 254.99. It includes free shipping but you have to wait 21 days for delivery to get that price. To be competitive with the other sites if you want 3 business days, it is an additional $ 20.00. Total price for this printer is $ 274.99.
The fourth site (also a very popular site) sells 1,000 8.5 X 11 tri-fold brochures on 100 Lb. gloss coated text with aqueous coating included has a price of $203.53. It has a turn-around time of 2 – 4 days and charges 14.53 for shipping to a local zip code. Their total price is $ 217.88.
Although Printer Number 1 has the lowest price for 1000 tri-fold brochures, it is not as good a deal because it does not offer aqueous coating. Printer number 4 has the best value since they include aqueous coating in their price and they are only $3.60 higher than Printer Number 1.
You may ask what’s the value of aqueous coating. Do I really need a printer who has it? Aqueous coating towers are available on newer and more expensive presses. Aqueous coating seals the ink making it more scratch and scuff resistant. It also adds a nice luster, which enhances color and makes the sheet brighter. This feature will definitely add value to your job. You may want to also see if any of the other online printers offer other options such as high gloss UV coating for your brochure. Additional offers giving you more choices of paper and finishes on most of their products will also show you that other value added services are available. Eye candy WOW Factor Effects can make a big difference in your ability to customize your sheets and cards to insure that you separate yourself from your competition and stand out.
The sites I choose were all from in a same day search. Sites, positions and prices are always changing. This article is for understanding how important value is to price. It is not to show you the pricing for trifold brochures. These prices will change. But knowing what to look for will stay the same.
It’s easy to a find wholesale color printing service online but you have to spend a little time to compare apples to apples. The differences in order to find the best value printing service are designed to be confusing so companies with higher prices can compete. If you choose the cheapest price, you may lose value in the end.