Hi everyone,
we’re looking to upgrade printers as it will cut many of our costs down and we’d prefer to maintain control over the small business we’re starting but I’m not well-versed in printer tech so it’s been difficult for me to research for all our needs.
We’re looking for an inkjet printer that can print on card (for art prints, zines, flyers/cards, etc), sticker paper, 0.3mm shrink plastic with the ability to print on transfer paper too for in the future! Wireless and easy to use with an easy-to-access ink compartment would all be extra wonderful too!
I know it’s a tall order but if we could find a budget-friendly printer that could accomplish all of that we would be over the moon! Recommendations and first-hand experiences, please!
If your revenue supports it, go with a local printing company. They can lease you a printer with a $1 buyout at the end. They provide service. They know what type of printer you need. Anything “card” related you’re probably going to have a hard time finding an off the shelf amazon printer that is reliable. Edit: If you go this route, I suggest having your main interactions with the service manager. That’s the group who has to keep it running. The sales guys tend to upsell and not be super smart about not over-buying.
We plan to attend local markets in December so no actual revenue yet but a little money that we are happy to invest as we have already had to do in order to buy our other supplies. I don’t live in the US so I doubt anywhere here (especially a local business) would be willing to part with their equipment. There are local businesses for printing but we’re a small coastal/holiday village so they are very basic paper and signage printing mostly.
We have the shrink plastic, and sticker paper already as it was cheap so finding a printer of our own is just our best option.