the Cost of Custom Printing Services

We are a small non profit and we send out one yearly appeal to our donors. It is always a custom printing job and has several different components. The price we referenced covers both creative design and custom printing. The largest cost incurred was the creative and copy design at $3,500 and project management at $1,800. For seven thousand pieces of each component of the mailing we paid $901 for the carrier envelopes, $599 for the reply envelope, $995 for the letter/reply slip, $2,341 for a trifold brochure, $1,266 for the letter/laser shop fee and $43 for shipping. The price we paid did not include postage for the mailing.

We we pleased for the most part with quality and timeliness of the order. However, we were not content with the tri fold brochure that was included in our order. We were told it was going to be a full color brochure on heavy stock with a glossy finish. When we received the brochure we found that the text was only two color and the images were printed in black, white and graytones. It was also on very cheap stock with a matte finish. The stock was so thin that ink bled through to the back side obscuring some of the text on the opposite side. However, the print house did offer us $800 off the price of the brochures (the discount is reflected in the overall price paid for the job). We should have bargained for more but we needed to get our appeal in the mail before the end of the year, so we kept the second rate brochures. We will not be using that particular print house again.

One of the most important words of advice I can give anyone doing a large custom prinitng job is have someone attend the first run of the printing at the print house. That way you are able to see the materials and ink before a large job is run on the press. If your print house is too far to have someone attend the printing, find a print house that is closer. If print house claims they don't allow anyone to attend the printing, find another print house. All reputable print houses will usually invite you to attend the printing.