Printing...

[Navian]

I have an assignment to find bid prices for a printing project.

Yes I know bid prices are not supposed to be posted here. I don’t want them to be (See below*).

The Printing and Bindery Criteria:

*edit added* Standard 8-page signature booklet */edit*
•Booklet Size: 5.5” x 8.5”, Full Bleed
•Colors: Full or 4/4 (2 sided 4 colors)
•Stock: 100 lb. Text (Topcoat Dull Coated)
•Bindery: Saddle Stitched and Trimmed (3 cuts)
•Printing: Standard 4 color offset press or digital (DTP)
•Quantities: 2,500 counts and 5,000 counts

I need this info for the data; my instructor might contact you for proof of contact.

Name of print company:
Contact name:
Phone number:
State or Country:
City:

Qty:
2,500:

And

5,000:

*If you could email (nfjohnson96@hotmail.com) the data to me, but post if you sent something so I can check/track it to collect the data. Much appriciated (in advanced).

Please use the info in the quotes as a form. The amounts can be just an estimate off the top of your head, nothing really accurate.** If you’re in another country other than the US, please send it too (please use your own currency, it would be great for the data work I have to compile).

Any help will be greatly appreciated; I have to collect data, build a presentation based on the data, and give a presentation it in class.

Thanks.

**You might want to keep the info for about a week, just in case my instructor calls you.

PS. This post has been preapproved.

[Navian]

Any help would be greatly appriciated. :cool:

[morea]

is the 8.5 x 5.5" size the finished (folded) size? And is it just the 2 sides folded down to 4 "pages"?

[D-Frag]

can't you just call a printer in your area and have them fax you a quote?

[Navian]

Mo, not sure, thats the size he gave us in the handout.

oops my bad I thought I put that in there. its a standard 8-page signature booklet.(added it to the criteria)



D-Frag,

Yeah I could, but what fun is having to call the same 5 printers that everyone else in the class has called? There isnt many press shops here in SLC Utah. I wanted to expand my information base and to collect some better data samples.

[Satchel]

Yeah I could, but what fun is having to call the same 5 printers that everyone else in the class has called? There isnt many press shops here in SLC Utah.

You dont have to call local shops do you? I'm sure you could find some shops somewhere relatively close by...

[morea]

I can't help you out with this one Navian, as I don't have a commercial printer around here any more. The one where I used to work went out of business.

That's your best bet though, a commercial printer.

[PrintDriver]

That's a very odd assignment. I'm not sure how I'd feel if someone called asking if a student had called asking for pricing for an assignment...not that I do that kind of printing.

You don't have to call someone local for that kind of order though. You could order from any number of vendors from Boston to San Fransisco... we get our 4-color collateral stuff from NYC sometimes, Chicago sometimes, and Boston sometimes.

[prepress_goddess]

we could provide quote, but my estimator would feel it a waste of time if it weren't an actual job to be printed - call your local printers and get estimates.

dexonline.com - enter your area of the country

[PrintDriver]

^That's exactly what I meant. It's one thing to call for a quote. It's quite another to find out later it was a school assignment. Time spent on writing quotes is supposed to be offset by incoming business. Not that we get everything we bid but that's the idea.

If your professor wants to make an excersize out of this perhaps s/he should contact a couple of obliging printers and set something up where students can set up a sham work assignment.

Getting quotes for some type of 'cost study' rubs my bristles the wrong way. In the real world you ask for bids. And you don't necessarily go with the lowest bidder. You find out if the printer can do the job you want at the quality you want to see in the price budget you have. If you develop a good business relationship with your printer, it's amazing what you can get for your price point sometimes.

[defjoe]

you will be hard pressed to find a printer that will give you a quote if they know it is a school thing. Best thing to do (and I hate saying this) is to lie to them. but you have to sound convincing.

[Drorain]

submit requests by email, say you are gathering a couple quotes for project set up to this spec. I did this a couple weeks ago for someone that contacted me on craigslist...the printers replied with no problems or questions. But the person went with someone else :/

[PrintDriver]

yeah, dro but you don't have a professor calling up to check.
You are legit...

Course in the time I've spent arguing about it someone could float a quote. Not me. Not my line of business.

[Navian]

Nevermind. I was hopeing to get something yesterday. Forget I even asked. I didnt realize it was going to be such a big deal. Sorry. :(

I settled with a B instead of an A (there is no A+).

I said he may or may not check up to see if I actually called. I told my instructor my reasons for not calling the other 5. I told him it would be rediculous for 15 people to call for the same project to the same 5 presses (not mini-print shops). I told him that if by the 6 or 7th person calling, there would have been a negative reaction and guess what the 15th person would have to deal with, not me. Thats why I asked here.

But only way to improve the grade is to hand something in late and get a grade change, plus get docked 10-30% on the project, it was worth about 20% of my grade. I just hope the Midterm (I got a 100% on) and Final Exam (unknown grade), plus the other assignments (B - A+) are enough to get me a decent grade (and keep my GPA above 3.9). The class was called: Business and Marketing for Graphic Design.

Its okay. I'll just cross my fingers hoping my final exam grade will be enough to keep a decent GPA.

Thanks anyways.

[PrintDriver]

Maybe you could have written a little about what we said here. I find it odd a professor of Business and Marketing wouldn't understand this...?

And not to be intentionally mean spirited but how long before yesterday did you know you needed the info for such an important part of your grade? :confused:

[Navian]

how long before yesterday did you know you needed the info for such an important part of your grade?

Tuesday night at the end of class (10pm) I had a day to call/collect the information.

My instructors are all Graphic Designers (with 10+yrs xp), this class was the instructors first time at teaching it, he usualy teaches a "production methods" class and some software classes.

[Bob_Katz]

For price quotes I usually go to findprinter.com. I've had some good luck with that site. You'll get all the quotes you need.

Thanks,

Bob