Buying Custom Printed Stationery in Central New Jersey
Dave Aiello wrote, "I decided to bite the bullet today and get estimates for new CTDATA stationery from three commercial printers in the Trenton-Princeton area. My needs are simple:"
- 500 letterhead, one color printing, on white bond paper
- 500 second sheets, essentially blank bond paper matching the letterhead
- 500 #10 envelopes, matching letterhead
- 1,000 business cards
"I asked three printers for quotes. The printers are:"
- The Alphagraphics franchise in Dayton, NJ
- Printech Printing and Imaging in Princeton, NJ
- The Allegra Printing and Imaging franchise in Lawrenceville, NJ
"It was an interesting experience driving around and getting quotes. This is something I had never done before. Normally, I'd just walk into one printer, get a price, and give the go-ahead. I decided not to do that this time. Read on if you are interested in the outcome."
Dave Aiello continued:
Both Alphagraphics and Allegra came up with detailed quotes while I waited. Their substantial facilities were visible to me when I was standing at the reception desk. Both seem to do a large business. They also came up with quotes that were within 15 dollars of each other on a $250 job.PrinTek looked like a somewhat less substantial business, but that may be because they are located in a low rise office complex that is populated with more small non-industrial offices than businesses like commercial printers. I am not swinging them the business primarily because they did not give a detailed estimate. Too bad because their price was $40 to $50 less than the others bids I got.
I think I am going to order the printing from Allegra, in spite of the fact that they are 6 percent more expensive than Alphagraphics. I chose Allegra because of their reasonable price, proximity to East Windsor, and large client list (for instance, UMDNJ has placed Allegra on their vendor list through a competitive process).
I hope that this experience is of some value to other Princeton area businesspeople. I'm glad I took the time to go out and look at three commercial printers in our area. I feel fairly confident now that I am buying competitively priced printing services.