Buying a Printer (Advice needed)

Scottyccfc

Scottyccfc

New Member
Hi all, just a quick one here,

To cut a long story short I design posters and sell them online. Until now I've been outsourcing the printing to a print company locally. It's quite difficult getting a good high quality company who will design 20 at a time (Thats all I really need at any print run). It's now getting to the stage where the printer company are getting slack and cutting the bleed wrong and the posters are not level etc or there may be a snag or an ink drop on the prints and I end up getting them done again.

What I'm asking is how much would it cost to buy a regular printer so I can do this myself. All my posters are A3 size, I usually design them between 200-300 pp resolution.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I really dont know if printers from local stores costing €200/$250 would suffice. Any tips? Any Do's and Dont's? etc
 
You could probably get a DocuColour252 online for about a grand. You wouldn't get a service contract or anything, and just pay for inks and paper. You'd need to get to know an engineer for if anything broke.

You'll need a guillotine also. And to purchase oversized A3 sheets. So make sure your guillotine can fit an a3.

I'd recommend a hand roller guillotine, you wouldn't need a press.


Don't go near local stores, the quality is not near good enough. What about any lamination?


Alternatively - get in touch with @Boss Hog and see if you can reach a deal.
 
Ok lads cheers for the headsup. I now see going it alone is way out of my league. I believe they are using Ricoh Aficio Colour I was just thinking if it was possible to sort this myself but Ill keep at what Im doing as cost price cant really be beaten. What Im selling doesnt earn too much. Id imagine the work ye are doing is far superior.
 
Scottyccfc said:
...Id imagine the work ye are doing is far superior.
Click to expand...

I do very little print and when I do I outsource to either a local digital printer or (for larger runs) to Boss Hogg.

The long and short of it is that the expense of buying a printer capable of commercial print work is beyond most designers wanting to just print their own work. You'd need to be considering setting up as a commercial printer, and that involves a lot more than just the lease on an expensive press.

The best advice I can give you is to shop around. If the company you're using isn't doing a very good job look for other local digital print firms (the key for short runs is digital rather than litho). Maybe even contact some of the bigger litho printers in your area as they will definately have a company they outsource short runs to and may be able to put you in touch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top