Printing calendars

I made up a calendar using MyPublisher and it looks great, something I'd like to do for 2012 but MyPublisher prices are a no go for something I'd want to sell. I'm looking for reasonable printing on a large 12 month calendar using quality matte paper. Does anyone here produce their own calendar? Where do you get it printed?

Jim, I use Shutterfly, but the only way to make calendars really affordable to customers is by ordering using their bulk plan. You can get 50 for $10 each, which gives you room for a few dollars in mark-up. It's a nice plan in that you're paying the money up front but can use the credits on as many different 12 month calendars as you want, not just a single calendar. Unfortunately, that's as low as they'll go. It's not ideal, but the quality is certainly better than flimsy Kinko's-style calendars.

I have yet to find a more affordable solution that doesn't require a pre-order of 500 or more calendars, so I'd be curious to hear what others use.

Max

I've used My Publisher and Shutterfly. My Publisher is by far the best quality but not cost effective for resale unless the buyer wants the quality that will allow them to frame the images. Shutterfly is OK but I've had to send my orders back because of poor printing and cutting that chopped off some of the text and even the image. Looked great on the preview but the finished piece did not look so great. They made good but what a hassle. I would like to know if anyone has found a quality calendar for a reasonable price as well.

Vistaprint, believe it or not is pretty darn good quality, can order as little or as many as you'd like. They usually run their 50% discount which means I get mine for about $8 each including everything (ALWAYS--I've never, ever paid any other price), 8 1/2 x 11, captionable, upgrades available (but the basic is fine IMO), outstanding customer service.

If you're looking for something big and fancy, probably not the place. If you're looking for a solid product, good quality and room for profit, I'd give them a whirl. Three years now for me.

Hi, Jim - this is a regular topic here, so use the "search" engine for "calendars" to pull up all the previous threads and good suggestions.

cheers -

Sandy

Watch your retail price points carefully. It's getting really late in the year to sell 2011 calendars, and prices are dropping in all outlets I've seen.

We offer "custom calendars" as a product option with our studio photos. Prices for singles and multiples from our regular photo lab are comparable to what you're seeing here. But after applying our standard markup we're getting over $50 each retail from our clients. They'll pay that for photos of themselves and loved ones, but I'm yet to see nature subject calendars sell for anywhere close to that.

Pelican Prints has good quality and cheap prices. They also offer occassional incentives. For one of my orders, they sent me 1000 business cards. That saved me a few bucks.

Thanks for the ideas. I am looking at next year. I know it's too late for this year. I had one photo in the paddling.net calendar this year and they sent me 45 copies as part of my 'prize' (it was a contest). Their quality is quite good. I think I'll also ask them where they get theirs printed.

Mine will be a regional calendar using my art photo images. I had thought I'd include a link to the 2011 calendar I made with MyPublisher so you all could look at it but they only let you share books. I thought I'd use my 2011 calendar as a sample to canvass some resellers to see what the market potential is before deciding on how large a print run I'd need.

You're on track Jim!

I have used Shutterfly, Vistaprint, and Lulu. Never again on Lulu. The printing was blotchy and blocky. I've use Shutterfly several times, but I am really frustrated with them. As was noted above, they re-crop your image, and mess up any text you might have near the edge of your image, and that's after it looks just fine on the preview. That really makes me mad. Also, they automatically add extra contrast and saturation to everything unless you find the small print somewhere on there that tells them NOT to do that. It's been a couple of years since I used Vista, and I didn't use them this year because they were higher priced, but I guess I'd have to find one of their discounts. For me, shipping is very costly, so I have to find a deal that includes a break on shipping.

The price I've paid at Vista, has ranged from a high of $7.99 (50% off retail) to a low (besides a free one here or there) to about $4 each. The printing is spot on for my tastes, and if there is any problem whatsoever, in shipping for example, they replace them with no questions asked, for free. Can't beat them for simple, 8 1/2 x 11 size with good quality.

Lulu, arghhhh.