Q: “I’m trying to get a price breakdown on the printing job you quoted me, why can’t you do that?”
A: Mr. Futaba, thanks for asking this question, as we do hear it from time to time. It might seem like it would be a pretty straightforward question with an easy answer, but that is far from true! As a premier Baltimore printer in the fast turnaround custom manufacturing business, we are producing for you a specialized piece from the ground up, often with dozens of components that go into the price of your project. From design, proofs, special paper, grain direction, number of ink colors, number of sides, cutting, folding, stapling, binding, gluing, numbering, packaging, fulfilling, shipping and storing, it would be meaningless for you to have a breakdown on each step and process.
What we find is that when our clients ask about a “price breakdown,” they perhaps require some other information that we can assist with. For instance, rather than asking for a price breakdown for a brochure project, maybe they just want to consider saving some money by folding it themselves, rather than paying us to do that? If we know that, we can either let you know how much you can save by having us leave the project flat for you versus letting us take care of the whole thing for you. (We don’t recommend that, though, as hand folding takes much longer than you think it would, plus it doesn’t look nearly as nice as it would if we handled it for you!).
If you walked into a bakery, would it help to know how much the sugar, flour, butter, salt, chocolate chips, vanilla and eggs cost individually for the cookie you want to buy? Or how much the fabric, buttons, zipper, thread and labor cost for the jeans you want to buy from a clothing store?
It would be best to simply speak openly and candidly with us, so we can get to the heart of your true question, rather than ask for a “price breakdown,” which is practically meaningless anyway. We can help you work within your time, budget and design constraints for all of your custom printing projects!
