Pricing high on specific item....

[kdw75]

We have our pricing for plates, press, and folding set where we are making money and win enough bids. That being said, we lose a high percentage of brochure bids in the 10,000 range.

Comparing our our prices to places online, it seems that they are cheaper than you would expect on brochures, but not on similar items. If I didn’t know better, I would think they had put in their pricing model and then set it to discount brochures arbitrarily.

Something else i find odd, is that a slight deviation in size makes us competitive again, such as a brochure being 9x11 instead of 8.5”.

 

[OffsetStorefront]

I'd guess that online places can heavily discount stuff they can easily and automatically gang together with other online orders. Deviations from common sizes cause the price to go up because there is less work (or none at all) to gang with it. Maybe their prices will make more sense with that viewpoint in mind?

 

[Magnus59]

Yes, gang prices are always cheaper, trying to compete on price for these jobs is a race to the bottom. you need to sell on quality and turnaround which are both compromised when you gang jobs.

 

[kdw75]

There are two printers that are around here. One is dirt cheap on brochures and the other is dirt cheap on booklets. It makes me wonder how they setup their pricing software.

 

[pippip]

Are these places trade houses or general public?

 

[kdw75]

The one that's cheap on brochures is a trade printer, while the one cheap on booklets is retail. To give you an idea, they will do 2,500 8.5x11 finished size booklets with 48 pages on 100# Gloss Text for $3,500 with free file evaluation. If your close enough to avoid shipping, that seems ridiculously cheap. Our trade printer we have used is higher than that.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

The one that's cheap on brochures is a trade printer, while the one cheap on booklets is retail. To give you an idea, they will do 2,500 8.5x11 finished size booklets with 48 pages on 100# Gloss Text for $3,500 with free file evaluation. If your close enough to avoid shipping, that seems ridiculously cheap. Our trade printer we have used is higher than that.

They're probably counting on those types of jobs to keep the presses running while making higher margins on other jobs.

 

[pippip]

Trade printers can have crazy systems even before it gets to press.

Recently did a business card job x2500 of 4 different types (350gsm with matt lam). We were very busy so decided to farm it out, the trade printers online portal didn't have option for four different types or and only option of 2000/3000 so asked our account manager and they can back with a price BUT said if I ordered through their portal as 4 orders of 3000 I'd save myself 33% over their price for x2500 x4?????

Asked another rep about it and he said their online portal is completely automated from then I upload the artwork to when the courier delivers it.
I upload artwork, it scans it and makes sure bleed, trim, profiles, size etc are all correct.

 

[OffsetStorefront]

Trade printers can have crazy systems even before it gets to press.

Recently did a business card job x2500 of 4 different types (350gsm with matt lam). We were very busy so decided to farm it out, the trade printers online portal didn't have option for four different types or and only option of 2000/3000 so asked our account manager and they can back with a price BUT said if I ordered through their portal as 4 orders of 3000 I'd save myself 33% over their price for x2500 x4?????

Asked another rep about it and he said their online portal is completely automated from then I upload the artwork to when the courier delivers it.
I upload artwork, it scans it and makes sure bleed, trim, profiles, size etc are all correct.

The fruits of automation.