Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

After several days of frustrations, I would appreciate your help.
I recently got a new consulting client, a mortgage broker. As part of the service, I offered to mail his leads.
I want to use a postcard with merged names and addresses.
Since my old inkjet printer is about done, I thought I'd grab a laser.
That's when my troubles began.
Printing on card stock, the laser rolls the paper through putting a curve in the paper that just doesn't want to come out. Then when I try to print the opposite side, it won't pick up the paper.
I have tried 2 different printers in the last 2 days and fought constant jams and other problems.
Since budget is a consideration, here is what I tried.
Samsung CLP 300 and HP Color Laser Jet 1600.
The Samsung was fast but created the worst curl.
The HP had trouble picking up the card stock even with the initial print before curl.
As I type this, I'm trying out a cheap Epson inkjet. Surprisingly, I think this will work for now.
But, I'd like to be able to expand my services to do more desktop publishing for my clients. Perhaps brochures, newsletters...
Even though this cheap inkjet may solve my immediate problem, I'm looking for a longer solution.
Thanks, as always.
Larry Foster

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Larry,

I had the same problem a few years ago and ended up buying a postcard printer. A dedicated machine made just for that purpose worked really slick. There are a few of them out there.

Today I find that the easiest and cheapest way is to not print them at all. It makes no sense to print them yourself when the USPS is willing to do all the work for you....

http://www.usps.com/netpost/sendregu...egularbusiness

Jim

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Hi, Larry,

I tried every machine available locally when my old Canon inkjet finally bit the dust after many years of hard use. Super machine would print on danged near anything. Customer service was excellent. A new Canon was not cost effective at that time.

My experience with HPs (several models) were a bad joke...constant jams no matter what and extremely difficult to unjam.

Epson worked okay but not good for high volume use as it has too many plastic critical parts.

Lexmarks were all over the place...some problematic and a couple really great ones. Lee uses a Lexmark X3350 and loves it. Lexmarks are not known for their longevity (by reputation but not our experience) but they're certainly consumer friendly price-wise for both machine and inks. If you go that route, do get the high capacity tanks as they last far longer than they claim and work great...for not much more than the standard tanks.

I finally got a Brother MFC and love it. No problems at all no matter what I try with it. Hardest problem with the machine was the setup with our phone system for the fax etc.

All the machines I tried were inkjets as the lasers are not good for asthmatics and, from recent reports, for anyone else either health-wise.

Hope this helps.

Sandi Bowman

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Larry,

Here's a Great resource that reads Consumer reports and other magazines for me without the membership... :)

And of course, there are all kinds of business ideas & possibilities in Reviews and Summaries... ;)

Good Quick reviews & summaries...
http://www.consumersearch.com/
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/index.html

Phil

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.
James, the reason I can't use USPS.com is the client wants the postcard livestamped. Not sure why.
Sandy, is the Brother you're using an inkjet? I always liked my Brother MFC which was 2 printers back.
What I ended up getting was an Epson R260 Photo printer. But it's an ink hog.
Staples gives a 14 day trial, so I may get an opportunity to try a few more.
Phil, I'll be checking the resources you gave.
Thanks again.
Larry

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

The Brother MFC is a model 420CN inkjet. Office Depot runs catalog specials on the ink rather frequently so you could save some money by subscribing to their free catalog and updates. Staples also runs specials occasionally on the inks.

Sandi Bowman

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Thanks Sandy.
I think my problem is specifically related to card stock because or rigidity.
I really enjoyed my Brother (as much as you can enjoy a printer).
I'll definitely check it out.
After posting, I did a little surfing and it seems that serious desktop publishers have several printers for differnt jobs.
I've had my eyes on a large format for some time because I've been kicking around a print weekly. Print on 11X17 stock and fold in half.
Larry

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Larry,

The card needs to stay flat when printing. If it bends when heated, it will stay that way.

You're going to run into that bending with whatever printer you try unless you get a postcard printer that is specifically designed for just that purpose.

I bought a postcard printer around 7 years ago that worked really slick but I haven't seen them advertised anywhere for quite awhile.

But why even bother with doing them yourself when it's so cheap to order high quality cards online.

http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/spla...9%3A06%3A25+PM

Jim

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Hi, James.
One reason to do them in house was the turn around time. I got this list on Wednesday and if I didn't have so many printer problems, should have mailed Friday.
They will mail tomorrow.
I only got final approval for the copy on Thursday
I did a search for "post card printer" on Staples and came up empty.
What brand do you have?

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Hey Larry,

I spend a LOT of time looking for a great color laser with great color and paper handling capabilities and picked up the Okidata c3200n at Staples for about $300 about a year ago. They don't make that model any longer, but you can get a rundown on everything they offer at http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/LED_color.html

It's a great printer with beautiful glossy prints and the quality is much better than the HP printers that were out at the time. I haven't done enough printing to have to change the cartridges yet, but I think the cost per page based on the MFG's numbers was about $0.20 a page. The funny (sad?) thing though is that it costs about as much for all new cartridges than it does to buy a new machine - but I found a source for toner on eBay and I'm going to refill these cartridges when I need to and see how their toner looks.

In regards to paper handling, I took some cardstock into Staples when I was shopping and tested it out on the different models on display to see which worked the best. Because the Oki's a single pass printer and paper can exit straight out the back it's excellent for post cards or anything you want to print with heavy stock.

Hope this helps, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them if I can.

Cheers,

Steve

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Larry:

Check out sendoutcards.com

* Can merge names and addresses on postcards.
* They have live stamps.
* You can schedule when the postcards go out.

Could get a bit expensive if you have to mail a lot of post cards out. But they do have bulk discounts. Well worth checking them out and outsourcing the mailing to someone else.

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Thanks, Steve and Ankesh.
Ankesh, I'm a little familiar with sendoutcards but never checked them out.
Steve, I looked at an Oki but didn't try it.
Cost of ink is a concern and a laser would help. Both for cost and speed.
I think I'll take some paper over and ask them to demo it.

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Larry,

I don't have mine anymore and I don't recall what brand it was.

I looked online and couldn't find any dedicated postcard printers so I'm assuming that some of the new printers out there are capable of doing this.

But I would still say that ordering and sending them through the USPS website would be your best option if this is something you want to do in the future.

What's the reason for the live stamp? Is that something your customer would reconsider?

Jim

Re: Help! What printer would you suggest?
 

Hi Larry,

I've been using Send Out Cards for a while now myself and think their service is incredible, but I have heard that since they're printed digitally and not finished with a protective coating like most postcards, theirs get beat up in the postal system a bit and don't look quite as good as their greeting cards that are protected by an envelope.

Another thing to consider there is the lead time too - as all cards are mailed from Salt Lake City and may take a few days to get where they're going. Cards I've received in PA typically take 3 - 4 days to arrive which isn't terrible, but something to consider if you need them delivered pronto.

All in all it's a great service, but as with anything you should test it out and see how it meets your needs.

Cheers,

Stev

Try this...
 

Larry,

Thanks for asking about Printers.

What is it you Actually want to achieve? What is the Final End Goal?

If it's just a Post Card with a name and address on it and a Live stamp, then have the cards done at a Print Shop and use Mailing Address Labels - hey, you're sticking on a Live Stamp so Stick on an Address Label at the same time.

Why won't that work as a Solution?

Michael Ross
www.hotsheets.info

Re: Try this...
 

Putting Postcard printers aside for a moment... :)

Read through this thread very Carefully...

And Think about all the different Postcard business ideas & Services that someone could Turn into an interesting business...

Here's a few Keywords I keep on Seeing! Post Cards... Live stamps... The Postcard Press Release...

And Google “says” there are even more ways of “twisting” this one into a Real business... ;)

Phil

Re: Try this...
 

Thanks everyone for all the good advice.
This is a good discussion.
I think USPS.com is the best service offered bythe post office. I would have used it. It would have been fast, simple and professionally done.
In this particular case, he wanted live stamp. Not sure why.
As far as labels, I don't like them and the client wanted them printed on the card. I think there's a big difference in impression for someone who receives something with a label.
About using a print shop, quantities come into play and none of the local printers could or would print my cards with the addresses.
This client just received his leads and wanted them mailed ASAP.
The bigger picture is that I want to expand this into a service for my consulting clients. Kind of a one stop shop. And it would be part of creating a regular additional stream.
Creating various marketing pieces and being able to deliver the whole process seems to increase my value to them.
Thanks, again and look forward to any other ideas on this.
Larry
PS. Phil, interesting way to spot this as an opportunity. You do a great job of having your "lookers" out all the time.

Re: Try this...
 

Thanks Larry.

>The bigger picture is that I want to expand this into a service for my consulting
> clients. Kind of a one stop shop. And it would be part of creating a regular
>additional stream.

One thing I've learnt from Harvey Brody (via GJA) is you don't have to be a one stop solution. Just a one stop gateway.

Re: Try this...
 

Good point Ankesh