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Plastic business cards

JMDigital

JMDigital

New Member
Anyone into this type of printing. I recently acquired this
http://www.plasticprinters.com/primacy-card-printer/

Its a cool printer for what it can do, and I have interest in
people getting "plastic business cards" and other type of
cards for their business.. I have a Doctor office that
wants to use them as a follow up appointment card after surgery.

It is in no way made to compete with paper business card prices.
however the cards can be 10 to 30mil. 30mil is basically your credit
card thickness. Prints full color both sides, can encode RF-ID or Mag
strip, can print gold and silver leaf and I can make any part of the card
matte so it can be written on with either a sharpie or pen. Also there is a way for me to make part of the card SCRATCH OFF like a lotto ticket.

I did not plan on getting this printer but now that its here I would like to hear anyones advise on the possibility of someone wanting plastic business cards , or any of the other type of cards I can make

cost is based on how many colors , single or double sided and any other special printing on the cards, gold or silver leaf, scratch off , writable surface plus if they want a new design or just copy the card they have and
make it plastic.

any thoughts? thanks !!:thumb:
 
G

GB2

Old Member
Actually, I think that is very interesting, something I wasn't really aware of before. What is the price range of something like that?
 
JMDigital

JMDigital

New Member
GB2 said:
Actually, I think that is very interesting, something I wasn't really aware of before. What is the price range of something like that?
Click to expand...

Price is based a lot on how many colors, 1,2,3,4 4 color being like a photo.

example 30MIL Cards cost .10ea a 4color ribbon that will print 250cards cost $80.00 I know there are 30mil cards cheaper then that online however I have never bought them. That would be the most expencive card you create 4 color card. That is 250 single sided. You can print on
both sides so double the ribbon cost if that is the case.

There is also gold and silver leaf ribbons and a signature ribbon that basically lets you make part of the card writable. There is also a scratch off ribbon. I have never used it but it works like a scratch off lotto ticket.

These are not meant to compete with paper business cards. They do cost more. They are a high end replacement or complement to current cards.
 
SightLine

SightLine

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If anyone is curious these print similar to how a Gerber Edge does. We actually sell a good many id badges to several of our clients. We charge a one time setup cost to do the initial card design then as they add employees they just email us a picture and the persons name they want. You will also eventually want to get a slot punch to punch holes for lanyards. Also depending on yours or your clients needs you may want some sort of an encorder option. RFID is fashionable now and most machines can have different types of encoders added or you can get a standalone encoder. We have Eltron/Zebra badge printers. Main one we use is a 330i but we also have an older 420 which has the flipper built in for automatic 2 sided. The ones we have also have the mag stripe encoder option. We run ours with Card Five Classic from nFive but I'm not sure if that version is still sold.

There are options though. Most badge printers do have some sort of Windows drivers and you can print directly to them from apps like Illustrator but you are a bit limited depending on what capabilites are in the drivers. Dedicated software is sort of like a RIP for your wide format printer. It will give you a much greater range of control over the machine with things like full encoder support, variable data batch printing, etc. Also some of the software out there like Card Five also has built in drivers to directly control machines. A neat feature on this front is the ability to use an older machine on say Windows 7. Our older machine the P420 only has a parallel connection, no drivers are available for Windows 7 which simply does not like the machine. Card Five however addresses the port directly and prints to it just fine under Windows 7.

If you shop it around you can find print ribbons for most of the main stream brand machines from Fargo, Zebra, Eltron, etc for considerable discounts on places like eBay. Some brands and model machines do use RFID tags in the ribbons to tell the machine what specific ribbon is loaded so you do want to at least be sure the ribbons you get are either OEM or guaranteed compatable. On cards, I've tried them all and keep coming back to Zebra original cards. They just work better with less jams, print defects, etc.
 
royster13

royster13

New Member
JMDigital said:
Price is based a lot on how many colors, 1,2,3,4 4 color being like a photo.

example 30MIL Cards cost .10ea a 4color ribbon that will print 250cards cost $80.00 I know there are 30mil cards cheaper then that online however I have never bought them. That would be the most expencive card you create 4 color card. That is 250 single sided. You can print on
both sides so double the ribbon cost if that is the case.

There is also gold and silver leaf ribbons and a signature ribbon that basically lets you make part of the card writable. There is also a scratch off ribbon. I have never used it but it works like a scratch off lotto ticket.

These are not meant to compete with paper business cards. They do cost more. They are a high end replacement or complement to current cards.
Click to expand...

Sound great for real short runs, but you can buy 250 4/4 plastic cards with lamination for about 80.00....Hard for me to make a business case to do it myself....
 
choucove

choucove

New Member
This is actually something I've been trying to look into. I'd really like to get some new plastic business cards, as I won't need very many, but I haven't been able to find anyone who can do a really unique layout or produce for me any clear plastic business cards.
 
skdave

skdave

New Member
We print them with a index tab on the top on backlit plastic for .18 each. No min. as many color as you want.
 
D

DigitalSolutions

New Member
Sounds inexpensive in my market. I typically charge $.99 per 10 full color laser business cards on 80lb cover stock. Plus a $25 design and setup fee. From what i understand a 30mil plastic card is between .10 - .18 each? I get quite a bit of call for a weather proof card given our environment up here, thought this could be a good way but expected a higher margin per.
 
ucmj22

ucmj22

New Member
I can see the advantages of one of these printers in house, but not for business cards. you can get them delivered to your door finished for less than OPs cost on unprinted cards.
 
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