HudsonGray
I've been running around pricing the costs of getting 30 decks done up. Office Depot, Office Max & Kinkos all use photocopy techniques, and a deck can be done there between $3 and $4 each IF it's in black & white only. They charge per page, plus the card stock, plus a back design. The deck will fit on 13 pages total.
A color deck done at one of the Xerox places costs between $8.90 and $11 a deck. Rather expensive & not worth the trouble of coloring one in really--they don't have card stock heavier than a 60 lb weight and no thin lamination. All lamination is 3 millimeters, which is quite thick and would need one lamination on each side.
I stopped at two printers shops today. Both use 90 lb cardstock, which is pretty good. The size they can go up to is 11x17" so I can get 9 cards per page instead of 6. But the prices are sky high. With 10 originals (9 for cards & 1 for the back illustration) that's 600 pages for 30 decks. They quoted me $54 do to one deck in color OR black & white (same cost) via a laser process (as opposed to xerox?), and $956 for doing up 30 decks. !!! Jesus!!! She said that they can't do plasticizing, they only have 3milimeter in the lamination, but recommended I check with a Signs & Banners company west of here which can do 1 millimeter on a page.
The second store I stopped at said they can't do color for me very cost effectively, as they have to charge 89 cents a page (for 600 pages) but they CAN do 30 decks in black & white on the thick card stock for $100 total. That's basically the same price as Office Depot, but I get a heavier paper out of it. From the way she talked it looks like it's a xerox process, same as Kinkos uses.
Looks like I need to check at least 2 more places to get some mroe info on costs here.
Just thought I'd post prices here for anyone thinking of doing their own deck. Getting ballpark figures sure helps a person decide how elaborate they want to get with their project! Now I see why the Tarot of the Crone costs $125 retail! It probably cost them $30-$50 per deck to produce!
A color deck done at one of the Xerox places costs between $8.90 and $11 a deck. Rather expensive & not worth the trouble of coloring one in really--they don't have card stock heavier than a 60 lb weight and no thin lamination. All lamination is 3 millimeters, which is quite thick and would need one lamination on each side.
I stopped at two printers shops today. Both use 90 lb cardstock, which is pretty good. The size they can go up to is 11x17" so I can get 9 cards per page instead of 6. But the prices are sky high. With 10 originals (9 for cards & 1 for the back illustration) that's 600 pages for 30 decks. They quoted me $54 do to one deck in color OR black & white (same cost) via a laser process (as opposed to xerox?), and $956 for doing up 30 decks. !!! Jesus!!! She said that they can't do plasticizing, they only have 3milimeter in the lamination, but recommended I check with a Signs & Banners company west of here which can do 1 millimeter on a page.
The second store I stopped at said they can't do color for me very cost effectively, as they have to charge 89 cents a page (for 600 pages) but they CAN do 30 decks in black & white on the thick card stock for $100 total. That's basically the same price as Office Depot, but I get a heavier paper out of it. From the way she talked it looks like it's a xerox process, same as Kinkos uses.
Looks like I need to check at least 2 more places to get some mroe info on costs here.
Just thought I'd post prices here for anyone thinking of doing their own deck. Getting ballpark figures sure helps a person decide how elaborate they want to get with their project! Now I see why the Tarot of the Crone costs $125 retail! It probably cost them $30-$50 per deck to produce!