Surprise, Printing Your Cards At Home Is Pricey

Call it the nature of my business, when I see a business card printed off a home/office printer I cringe.  For many reasons but my top two are quality and impression.  The first thought that crosses my mind with DIY cards is, “Ah, they must be testing out their business.  I hope they’ll be around a while.”  The stability and confidence in the company go out the window for me.  There enough barriers and obstacles to doing business why would you want to create another?

Second issue is quality.  Paper companies have made strides in “clean edge” perforations, yet you can still see them.  From a design perspective I’ve seen folks try a full color background but when printed, the ink doesn’t go edge to edge.  Or they print crooked and the ink is running low but that’s OK no one will notice.

Folks, printing your cards at home is pricey in supplies, quality and your time!

The numbers:

DIY Version:
1,000 double-sided business cards
Printed in full-color with ink edge to edge (we call that a bleed)

Using Generic Brand of Business card stock:
$33.99 – card stock (tax not included)
$.288* per page (side) x 100 sheets = $28.80 x 2 = $57.60
Plus time for paper jams, reprints, tearing apart the cards and power.
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Total DIY Cards: $91.59 for materials
*Per page rate found on HP’s website for the OfficeJet Pro 8000.

Professionally Printed Version:

For the purpose of this example we are using pricing from our online print site: www.boomerangprintshop.com
1,000 cards, single or double-sided, full, color, ink goes from edge to edge, heavier 16 PT stock. Optional UV coating for $.75

$30.00 – Cards
$10.00 – Shipping
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Total Professional Cards: $40 plus you save time!

One step further, get a price break for printing more cards.  5,000 cards for $67.50 plus shipping.  Think about that, printing 1,000 cards on your own is $91.59 and having 5,000 professionally printed cards is only $67.50.

Don’t have a business card designed already?  Many online sites (including ours) offer design galleries for free.  You can set up your card, add graphics, etc. Next time you need business cards think of us or turn to a printer you trust!

Are you surprised by the numbers?  What’s your first thought when looking at someone’s business card?