I do a personal calendar for gifts every year and have been very happy with Bay Photo. The cost has been about $28 each.
I have an idea for a local-themed calendar and have a retailer interested. It's going to be difficult to make it work, though, if my cost is $28 per unit.
I'd be interested to hear of any suppliers I can consider that have acceptable quality at a better price. I'm thinking initial order would be a test @ 25 units.
Thank you. First post here though I've been a member for many years.
I've used Next Day Flyers for several projects with good results. While I've never done calendars I would expect the same level of quality and service. Pricing is of course dependent on the calendar size, paper choice and quantity printed.
I've used Vistaprint and have tried Costco. Vistaprint often has seasonal discounts, so for example, when I used to make calendars instead of Christmas cards, I'd wait for their Black Friday sale and get up to 50% off most of the time. Downside of Vistaprint might be that the calendar has their logo on it (on the back), though you may be able to eliminate this with a surcharge. I generally preferred their calendars with premium glossy stock, which of course costs more. Average price per unit was in the $10 range with discounts for a regular wall calendar.
Vista print and costco (now shutteryfly) don't offer any meaningful bulk pricing. They're targeting retail customers. To get wholesale pricing to presumably turn a profit, you need to buy larger quantities than 25. greenerprinter.com and calendarcompany.com will be <$10/piece once you order 100+ units. Saddle-stitched bindings will save several bucks per unit over the wire-bound.
Have you considered printing them yourself with something like an ET-8550? I think you should be able to do that for about $10 each with very nice paper, and the results will certainly be higher quality than having it done commercially.
It does cost you some time (but you save time by having immediate draft turnarounds compared to with a lab) and you need to lay out the expenses for the printer and the ink and the binding machine (under $600 all in? Less if you find something preowned).
