Printing Fulfillment

[bigbob]

I'm looking to (eventually) outsource printing/mailing of my product to a fulfillment company. The product would consist of a single sheet of paper (a certificate) on thicker stock. Ideally I would provide the fulfillment company with order data, which they would use to print the custom certificate using a template I would also provide. I'm not talking about 4-color, glossy prints -- it would be something that you could print on a laser printer.

I've googled and found companies that do "print fulfillment", but mostly large batches of brochures and mass mailings. Does anyone know if such fulfillment companies exist, printing smaller orders (<100s not 1000s) on demand? It doesn't seem to me that it would be financially viable, but I'm not familiar with the printing industry.

[Drewkerr]

As far as printing less that 100 go to kinkos or a local printer. But the down side you will be just as much for a larger run. The problem big printing companies have is it takes a lot of time to setup a print run, and in a matter of seconds you already have 100 printed.

You need to go ahead and bite the bullet and go with a larger run, it will be much more cost effective.

Drew

[Marcie]

Does this certificate have the person's name on it? This would prevent you from doing any bulk printing...if so, I thought of cafepress.com, but the smallest thing they have is a "mini-poster" which is 11x17.

Not sure if that helps.

[bigbob]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, each one of these will have the person's name on it along with some other custom information, so bulk orders aren't possible. Although some parts of the certificate could be standardized in bigger batches, the customization requires one-off printing for the final product.

I figured the logistics of custom printing in smaller quantities would make outsourcing difficult, but if anyone else has suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks!

[Marcie]

Gosh, it almost seems like something you could put on elance, anyone could print & mail for you it seems, perhaps you could ask them to bid on a per piece price?

[Drewkerr]

Think big. Have the base certificate printed in bulk (minues any personalized info), print as many as you can to get the price per piece as low as possible. Then you can have the custom information re printed over top. This might be something you can do with a laser printer at home or at a local printer for a buck.

Drew