We have all heard of the monster under the bed and some of you may still believe in that. I’m not here to judge you. However, I am here to talk about a monster that we may all know but refuse to acknowledge.
The Wide Format Printing Monster… No, I’m not talking about a physical monster.
I am talking about the monster of a decision:
Do we print in house or outsource?
Nope not a monster. Pitchforks away folks.
I get it, doing your printing in house may seem like a huge obstacle. Hence: Monster. But honestly this is something that is super easy to address.
Let me put things into perspective for you.
First off, most print-shops that are printing your posters are marking up the prints 350–500% . As a result, companies all over could have bought 3-4 wide format printers, ink, and media and still have been saving money.
Now, let’s assume that you are currently outsourcing 24″ x 36″ posters and are paying $5 a square foot. For that kind of money, you could install hardwood flooring in your house!
Sorry about that. I think I watch too much Home Renovation Shows in my free time. Thanks Chip and Joanna…
Back to what I was saying. $60 total for the poster to be printed and you need 50 posters. The total cost for this one print job is $3,000. Do you know the total cost for this job to be printed? $600
Obviously, this may be a drastic example. For instance, the type of material and ink coverage can change the cost and savings. But, this is a very real evaluation using honest print shop pricing.
We will continue this further. This exact print job being printed every month is $36,000 a year. Seriously!?! For the cost of one job being printed a month you can buy a car…
Now comes the dreaded part that most of you think is unreachable.
The cost of a wide format printer.
Depending on the size of prints, a wide-format printer can range from $3,500 – $25,995. The job mentioned above could be printed on a 24-inch printer costing: $3,495. Now you’re thinking, what about the media? Surely that is where the cost will be coming in.
The media in question? Do you want to even guess? $70. Yes, that’s it. That means the total cost for this job to be printed for 1 month would have been $3,565. And that is including buying the printer.
Let’s look at the total expenses for the year.
Media: $700
Printer: $3,495
Ink: $2630 <– this is assuming we would need 2 full sets of ink cartridges.
Total: $6,825
Do you remember that print job that was costing around $3,000 a month? That same print job is now costing you $569 a month with a monthly savings of $2,431.
For the cost you were paying per month for prints, you could have all your ink, media, and printer paid for in 3 months with a year end savings of $29,175.
I know that was a lot to take in. I mean, I wrote it… But wow. This makes me want to start a print shop. Anyone else?
This may be something that you have already been considering and I hope that this helps clear the water. For some companies buying a printer doesn’t make sense because they are only printing 4-5 posters a year, but when the year end total is 3 times the price of a wide format printer, why wouldn’t you?
This breakdown is a simple version of what we do here at Digital Media Warehouse. We specialize in cost evaluation to save you money. We have done it for over 20 years.
Why not reach out to us and let us help you save money?