Advice on Digital printer to purchase or Lease?

[jaywysper]

Hi,

I am graphic designer and print broker. Currently losing a lot of my print customer's who are looking for the quick turnaround on small quantity items. I am looking to purchase or lease a one or more printers that can handle the following stocks.

Card stocks - for small quantity business cards or postcards
100Lb and 80lb paper - For small quantity flyers or brochures


I would need some advise on which models to start my research on and slow weather to lease it or buy it.


Please and Thanks,
Jay

 

[arossetti]

Volume? Budget?

 

[jaywysper]

Volume? Budget?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. This the volume we anticipating. We would only be doing jobs with quantity of less than 500pcs in house.

Since we are outsourcing most of the printing we will only be handling the bare minimum quick turnaround volume in house. The only reason for expanding into in house printing is because my graphic design customers are walking way from me since I am not a one place stop for them. They rather go to place where they are able to do print and graphic design in one place.

500 - Business card per job - Maximum volume of about 20 - 30 jobs / week
500- flyers 8.5" X 11" per job - Maximum volume of 20 jobs per week
500 - Postcards - Maximum volume of 20 - 40 jobs per week

When replying please consider me as person with "0" knowledge in printing. I appreciate your reply.

Thanks,

Jay

 

[AP90]

If my math is correct, your going to be looking at 40,000 sheets a month, or 80,000 clicks. Depending on what your margins and profits are, with that volume you'd be looking at an entry level production machine. Something like the xerox versant 80 or Konica 1060 I believe. You could also look at a used c75 or j75.

Price wise, these are just slightly educated guesses, but I'm thinking that lease wise on a new machine you'd be somewhere in the $1200.00 range a month. Out right buying would be $50,000 or so. A used machine would be $15,000-30,000 but that presents a new set of issues and potential problems. But remember you'll also need at minimum a cutter. Which if you want a decent manual one, you can find a used one for around $400. I picked up a used challenge 20 cutter off Craigslist for $800 and it works great. But I wouldn't want anything smaller. You'll probably want a folder also. $400-4000 depending on what you want to get.

While these numbers might seem intimidating, with your volume I would guess there's plenty of profits in there to make it worth your while.

 

[Craig]

Don't forget all the finishing equipment once it's printed.

 

[scotrinaf]

If my math is correct, your going to be looking at 40,000 sheets a month, or 80,000 clicks. Depending on what your margins and profits are, with that volume you'd be looking at an entry level production machine. Something like the xerox versant 80 or Konica 1060 I believe. You could also look at a used c75 or j75.

Price wise, these are just slightly educated guesses, but I'm thinking that lease wise on a new machine you'd be somewhere in the $1200.00 range a month. Out right buying would be $50,000 or so. A used machine would be $15,000-30,000 but that presents a new set of issues and potential problems. But remember you'll also need at minimum a cutter. Which if you want a decent manual one, you can find a used one for around $400. I picked up a used challenge 20 cutter off Craigslist for $800 and it works great. But I wouldn't want anything smaller. You'll probably want a folder also. $400-4000 depending on what you want to get.

While these numbers might seem intimidating, with your volume I would guess there's plenty of profits in there to make it worth your while.

Don't forget everyone's market is different. For instance, I might be able to get away with $.59/click while someone else might have to go down to $.29/click to be competitive. But I've also seen people charging $1.29/click (for 12x18)... Just thought they may want to check around in their market for the "going rate"... And don't compare to FedEx Office or Office Depot, those are retail locations, not real print shops... They rely on convenience customers.

 

[jaywysper]

If my math is correct, your going to be looking at 40,000 sheets a month, or 80,000 clicks. Depending on what your margins and profits are, with that volume you'd be looking at an entry level production machine. Something like the xerox versant 80 or Konica 1060 I believe. You could also look at a used c75 or j75.

Price wise, these are just slightly educated guesses, but I'm thinking that lease wise on a new machine you'd be somewhere in the $1200.00 range a month. Out right buying would be $50,000 or so. A used machine would be $15,000-30,000 but that presents a new set of issues and potential problems. But remember you'll also need at minimum a cutter. Which if you want a decent manual one, you can find a used one for around $400. I picked up a used challenge 20 cutter off Craigslist for $800 and it works great. But I wouldn't want anything smaller. You'll probably want a folder also. $400-4000 depending on what you want to get.

While these numbers might seem intimidating, with your volume I would guess there's plenty of profits in there to make it worth your while.

Thanks for your reply. Yes these numbers do seem intimidating but I am also looking at other options like maybe partnering up with different print shop in the area who could offer that fast turnaround.

 

[Printastic]

Another thing to consider. If you previously outsourced to someone with nice equipment (offset or indigo) and get your self an entry level laser with entry level toy cutter... Your print quality may be nowhere near enough the quality you used to from you vendor. Also all that time you have designing, selling, and running your business - you'll be printing, cutting, and reprinting. Finding a single employee who could handle it all may be very tricky on a budget (I'm assuming low budgets since such a low volume). All in all - don't do it

 

[pacart]

Also those quick turnarounds may not be possible if you don't have the paper. You will need to start a relationship with a wholesale paper supplier and depending on your quantities they may not deliver everyday, so then you'll have to go out and will/call the paper or outsource it like you are now.

 

[wonderings]

There can be a lot of headaches if you do not know what you are doing. A few things with digital, depending on the machine, colour consistency can be an issue, as well as alignment/registration. If it is to far out, can be a real pain when cutting trying to make it look good.

When we started digital, we really had no clue about it. We started with a used machine from Xerox with a service plan. We gradually eased in, learning what we could and could not do with the machine. We have come a long way from the old Doc 12 which was already old when we bought it. I would suggest starting small, do not rely on moving all your jobs in-house till you have a better understanding of what you can and cannot do.

 

[Craig]

As far as what is financially a better option I would ask that to your accountant. They can give you the write off options if each. Myself I find it better to lease. The problem with owning is in 5 years it is either outdated or beat to death, or both. Remember these are not offset presses designed to run for 20 or 30 years with little maintenance. The ROI is nothing like offset or your finishing equipment.

 

[gazfocus]

As wonderings said, start small. We are in the early stages of doing in house printing and still making mistakes that we are learning from. It easy to get carried away with the 'I can print this, that, the other', but I would get your machine, still outsource until you're 100% confident, then start splitting your workload until you know you can go 100% in-house.

When looking at printers, I would definitely get a proper 'production printer' over a glorified office machine and make sure it has some sort of rip. The first printer we got was a Konica C220 which is basically an all in one office machine, and this was recommended to us by someone in the print industry. This was a huge mistake and we threw away more sheets of printed paper than we actually sent to customers, and even then, the quality wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

We decided to take the plunge and get a proper production printer and got a Xerox 560 with light production finisher and fiery rip and it only costs us about £140 a month, plus it's in a service contract that covers all Ink and repairs, and the quality is much, much more what you'd expect from a professional printers.

So, have a look at the second hand market, there are a lot of Xerox partners that sell refurbished printers on finance (we actually found ours on eBay and the company had Xerox out to refurbish it before delivering it).