The company I work for is interested in mass producing an initial batch of about 700 CDs. The time frame is a few months so there is plenty of time to make the CDs. What we do want is for them to look professional (i.e the print job) and do everything in-house. They plan to use more batches down the road.

I thought about going with the Primera Bravo 2 production/autoprinter. It burns to a disc, then prints it. I have a read a few reviews and they seem positive.



We also considered a tower and autoprinter but the price was about the same if not more. I also looked into thermal printing with the glossy CDs but that is even more expensive.

Anyone out there have more experience in this and different devices? im not stuck on the bravo but i think for our scale, it'll be ok.

[Edited on December 24, 2008 at 11:58 PM. Reason : dd]

12/24/2008 11:57:51 PM

Would it not be cheaper/more professional looking to outsource this?

12/24/2008 11:59:18 PM

if it was once in a every few years thing, then yeah. But they produce manuals in PDF that are huge that they hand out to dealers. They are often updated and other stuff is included in the CD as well. I'm sure they'll be wanting to produce a few batches each year, not 700 but probably around 100 or so. They also said they wanted to keep in-house for other projects that might come up.

12/25/2008 12:15:12 AM

http://duplication.discmakers.com/mcm/discmakers/index.jsp

don't do it in house, you will regret that decision, i promise

12/25/2008 12:43:13 AM

^ using that service, by the time i order 700 discs, im already out $1,000. Why not just buy the machine, replace the ink and Cds myself.

12/25/2008 11:51:31 AM

...why don't they distro on USB keys?

12/25/2008 12:23:53 PM

^really

Progress Energy distributes some 'sales' pitch information on a crappy little flash drive (it also has a light-bulb shaped casing with PE's logo, etc). I think it's like a 512mb drive. has to be cheap as hell

12/25/2008 12:26:41 PM

The market they are in is the Ag field. Selling farm equipment to dealers. A few customers are amish as well.

Banking on someone knowing how to put a CD in a CD drive > USB drive.

12/25/2008 12:32:27 PM

except the amish

12/25/2008 12:37:46 PM

you're better off not doing this in house, i'm telling you you're going to regret doing it this way.

and you'll have a much more professional product letting someone else do it.

Quote :

"Total Price : $798.00 700 Units at $1.140 each. Excludes shipping and tax."

..that's with full color on the front and just paper sleeves instead of cases. have you factored in the cost of cases as well when doing these comparisons?

[Edited on December 25, 2008 at 12:40 PM. Reason : asdf]

12/25/2008 12:38:37 PM

bare minimum variable cost for this lot size seems to be around 30 cents per CD, 20cents/CD, 5 cents per sleeve, plus probably 5 cents of ink

knock that out of the 1.14 for it to be professionally done, and you're looking at a cost of 84 cents per disc to do it. only 588 dollars saved by doing it yourself on this initial order.

not to mention someone has to learn the system, plus what happens when it screws up or you mess up a whole batch.

don't do this yourself, its just not worth it

[Edited on December 25, 2008 at 2:42 PM. Reason : ]

12/25/2008 2:40:54 PM

Quote :

"don't do this yourself, its just not worth it"

seriously, listen to us

i've done it both ways.

12/25/2008 2:48:05 PM

Quote :

" i've done it both ways."

I thought you only went one way?

12/25/2008 7:49:05 PM

i walked right into that one

12/26/2008 12:43:29 AM