Looking for a printer for short run brochures on 80lb

[CYMKPrintGuy]

I'm in need of a printer that can do short run (300 - 500) 8.5x11 brochures in full color. I've had trouble finding a shop that could help me do same-day short runs, so I'd like the option to do it in-house. My clients needs these brochures either delivered in person in half a day or shipped the same day.

Most of the jobs I get require 80lb gloss but I do have the occasional need for cardstock 14pt printing.

I would estimate I print about 10k brochures a month.

Not looking for anything crazy expensive, my budget is around $1,500 to $4k. Less is better and I will invest in better equipment as my company grows but need something to get started. Any recommendations on printers that can suit my needs?

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

There is actually a market for this?

 

[pippip]

Need a bit more spec on the brochures. Are they single page or multipage? bound in any way? is there bleed on them?

Depending on these you may need more than a printer.....guillotine etc.
You also have to remember that if you are printing them yourself then thats less time to do your current work.

 

[CYMKPrintGuy]

Need a bit more spec on the brochures. Are they single page or multipage? bound in any way? is there bleed on them?

Depending on these you may need more than a printer.....guillotine etc.
You also have to remember that if you are printing them yourself then thats less time to do your current work.

They are double-sided single page brochures. I leave about a .25" bleed around them. I usually get them printed at Office Depot and they'll have a small white border around them that Office Depot will cut off. Still, I have trouble getting them or any other local printer to print them as fast as I need them because they have multiple projects they have to print.

I was looking at a Kyocera ECOSYS P6035cdn but wasn't sure if it would meet my needs.

 

[Manafaith]

When you say Brochure I am going to assume a Tr-fold? As stated above that will require at the least a small amount of bindery equipment, Cutter, folder and more than likely they will crack like a "son of a" so then you would need score or crease capabilities unless of course your customer doesn't give a rip. Probably a little more involved than just a table top laser printer though not to mention that I would assume that toners for any laser printer will cost you a small fortune.

 

[dabob]

From your profile I see that you are in the Austin Texas area. If you google "commercial printers" it will give you a list of printers that would, most likely, be happy to work with you as a broker and handle these jobs for you - you need to get a list and go talk to the printers and see if a relationship could be established - if your talking about 10,000 2 sided pieces a month, 20K clicks plus finishing I would think that someone would find it a good fit. I know that we would. Otherwise you will have an investment in machinery and building space to hold the new equipment you will need, i.e. scoring, folding, cutting to name a few.

Give them a call and see what you can work out.

 

[CYMKPrintGuy]

When you say Brochure I am going to assume a Tr-fold? As stated above that will require at the least a small amount of bindery equipment, Cutter, folder and more than likely they will crack like a "son of a" so then you would need score or crease capabilities unless of course your customer doesn't give a rip. Probably a little more involved than just a table top laser printer though not to mention that I would assume that toners for any laser printer will cost you a small fortune.

Most of the time these are half fold jobs, yet there are occasional tri-fold jobs.

 

[CYMKPrintGuy]

From your profile I see that you are in the Austin Texas area. If you google "commercial printers" it will give you a list of printers that would, most likely, be happy to work with you as a broker and handle these jobs for you - you need to get a list and go talk to the printers and see if a relationship could be established - if your talking about 10,000 2 sided pieces a month, 20K clicks plus finishing I would think that someone would find it a good fit. I know that we would. Otherwise you will have an investment in machinery and building space to hold the new equipment you will need, i.e. scoring, folding, cutting to name a few.

Give them a call and see what you can work out.

Thanks for your input

 

[kslight]

From your profile I see that you are in the Austin Texas area. If you google "commercial printers" it will give you a list of printers that would, most likely, be happy to work with you as a broker and handle these jobs for you - you need to get a list and go talk to the printers and see if a relationship could be established - if your talking about 10,000 2 sided pieces a month, 20K clicks plus finishing I would think that someone would find it a good fit. I know that we would. Otherwise you will have an investment in machinery and building space to hold the new equipment you will need, i.e. scoring, folding, cutting to name a few.

Give them a call and see what you can work out.

This is the best answer, IMHO, for this kind of volume. We have occasionally had customers decide they could do the same work themselves cheaper and suck themselves into a long lease on a real cheesy printer...only to realize that this is certainly not the only piece of the printing puzzle.... Service issues, alignment, color, finishing, prepress, etc...and they don't end up saving much if any money, produce an inferior product (potentially losing the client in the process, but being stuck on a lease!), but are now committing their valuable time to all this work when they don't have to. Even if you make less profit I am of the belief that it is worth it to let someone else assume all the risk and technical factors.

I have a hard time believing there isn't some commercial printer in the area (not Office Depot, UPS, etc) that would be more than happy to do this work for you...and would probably do it (no offense) better, faster, and more seamlessly than if you had to do it yourself. If you were local to us we would be more than happy to make it easy.

 

[Craig]

Lol, same day turnaround would be a premium price for me. Buy a used 700 and a cheap creasing unit and hand fold them until you can afford more.