Considering A New Venture...HELP! lol

[MarketingGuy]

Hi Guys (and Gals)...

I am quite new here and have been reading through the threads here to try to understand the basics at least, of digital printing and the necessary equipment that is out there, costs, features & benefits, etc...LOTS of good stuff, and I appreciate everyone's vast knowledge here...

So, here is my project...It would be great if you could clear some things up for me and maybe even steer me in a good direction...

I have an in-house need for high-quality Variable Data Printing and will be producing (on 13X19 or so) sheets of either 4X6 Greeting Cards (4/4) with variable data on both sides (images, text, etc...) or 6X9 postcards (4/4).

In either case, we will print a volume for our in-house project of approximately 15,000 (4 up) sheets of 13X19 in the beginning, but within 6months, we know that we will be around 45,000-60,000 sheets per month.

I know that this isn't a crazy amount of volume by any stretch, but I need a digital press that can definitely do the following:

1.) Create a very slick, full-color, high quality piece
2.) Accept 12 pt. CS2 Stock without breaking down every other day
3.) Not take a rocket scientist to operate, but a good experienced $45-$50K operator with good skills + experience.

That being said, we intend to pay cash for the press, and prefer a strong, used machine.

We also would like to consider the fact that if we go the route of the greeting card piece, we will have the issue of a separate machine to address and barcode the envelopes with a TT Hand Written font, but with no window on the envelope, so we would need a way to make sure that we insert the correct VDP greeting card into the correct addressed envelope, etc...I have heard that there are inserters with cameras that can match a field of data from the greeting card to make sure that the addressing is accurate, but I don't know anything else about that...maybe someone can chime in with what this machine is (for the inserting & addressing) and what a cost could be on a secondary market?

Finally, I am starting to get a feeling that this new Xerox 700 may be the right fit, but of course, even at $60,000 new, it would be nice to be able to buy the press used....In fact, if the Indigo 3000 series is the way to go, it seems that they are in that range used...

Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give you all as much info as possible on my needs...

Thanks in advance and I look forward to seeing your replies!

JR

 

[UberTech]

It goes without saying that I would think a c6501 would be perfect forthis, especially if your looking for an ungreasy litho look. Seems strange that you would say that a 700 would be a good fit if you have infact been reading the posts about that product. Personally I am sitting ringside with glee waiting for the title fight between 700 owners and xerox toner supply.

However it would appear KM service is patchy so I would check with current owners in your area before commiting to anything.

 

[X33]

The Xerox 700 will be a good fit.

Are you in the US? If so, I would recommend 100% to do a lease instead of buying it cash. You really don't want to spend that amount of money on old digital technology.

 

[wawelk]

have not had any experience with the 700, but lots of experience with the smaller docucolor models, such as the 250-260 series, and they do break at least once a week, and xerox is filled with many useless people that will always take at least 24 hours to respond to your service call. i would look into some of the smaller hp indigo models, have heard good things about them. of all things, definitely lease your digital printer, don't buy, they become obsolute way too fast for that kind of money.

 

[wawelk]

also whatever you do, make sure you get a good RIP, recommend the Creo RIP vs the Firey RIP, much better for Variable data.