ribbon printer

[india]

HI I am thinking of adding this to my collection of machines, does anyone know the best place to get one from and the pros and cons.

thanks

[purpledragon]

keep away from CPL best advice i can give

[india]

oh ok, thanks
can u suggest anywhere? and how much can i expect to pay for a starter machine?? thanks

[purpledragon]

about 500 quid if memory serves me right

[Jimbo]

Try here

http://www.ribbonprint.co.uk/

Jimbo

[logobear]

WE jumped in a couple of years ago, it is hard work!
While the margins might be as good or better than T's, nearly all the jobs are small, so you work HARD for any proper money, - we have yet to see any return.
Most people only want a m or 2, and the doner material comes in 110mm wide rolls. the doner is much more expensive than the ribbon, and if the client only wants a few m to go round a wreath or for a few wedding favours you waste more media getting everything set up properly than you can actually sell. and you waste most of the doner if you don't use the full width.
eg typical tshirts jobs.
1 basic tshirt costs £2 sell £15
10 basic tshirts costs £20 sell £100 (this is our bread and butter)
from our humble experience, a £15 ribbon job is totally the exception, and we never have £100 + jobs

A ribbon printer is a neat gadget, but will not earn you much profit. You can buy mine if you like !
pm me!
Phil

[Limara]

Hi I agree with logobears comments and I do own a ribbon printer from ribbon print I also find they are " hit and miss" and every colour ribbon and every foil works different they all need to be printed at different settings and even a new roll of ribbon bought at the same time and same colour can act totally different to the one you just used up! which is a lot of waste of time and materials initially, the vast majority are one offs and larger runs are mostly popular for weddings so no repeat business. I would say a £1.00 to £1.50 cake band would be the most requested job!
Just to warn you beware if you get a second hand one they require a registration number that you have to contact the company for I am not sure if they are charging for that now so make sure before you get one.
If you could strike up with a local funeral parlour I think they would have great selling opportunity ( untill the local florist buys one and undercuts you! )
Also just another point before you buy check what OS they will run on I remeber having terrible troubles getting mine working on vista which I eventually managed but the company couldnt help, now I have upgraded to win 7 and at present have nothing at all working on it its so bad I am going to have to keep a seperate pc for old softwares.

[logobear]

Cakes and funeraly - YES, - tiny runs. no repeat business.
Agree media can be fickle. Not had any issues with serial numbers or what.
Mine came with VERY primative software, - doesn't even support cut and paste if I am doing 4 identical ribbons from the same doner, each has to be manually entered.
I got my setup from http://www.charmersuk.com/
They are very helpful if you show interest in buying, - but not quite as helpful if you have a problem, - BUT - to their credit, they do always answer the phone, and do try to help.
I don't know what alternatives there might be, but I am frustrated by the control software, it works, but it is S**t! - then again, a florist could probably work it !

[logobear]

Re comment, £1 to £1.50 for a cake band, - sorry, but I won't get out of bed for less than £5!

[socialgiraffe]

I did look at a ribbon printer a few months back. I put it on the back burner due to my robbing low life scum ex business partner. So glad I did now as I thought it would be money for old rope. Wedding cake band £15.00 3 mins work job done!!!!

This forum is great. £10.00 memership has just saved me £600.00 in machinery that would collect dust. Thanks for the info logobear and Limara.

[purpledragon]

I did look at a ribbon printer a few months back. I put it on the back burner due to my robbing low life scum ex business partner. So glad I did now as I thought it would be money for old rope. Wedding cake band £15.00 3 mins work job done!!!!

This forum is great. £10.00 memership has just saved me £600.00 in machinery that would collect dust. Thanks for the info logobear and Limara.
£15.00 quid for a wedding cake band am i missing something here surly you mean £1.50.

logobear re charmers ....he's a miserable git isnt he lol definatly not someone who takes after his name

[socialgiraffe]

Not missing anything, it was just what I thought would have been a fair price.

Must admit I am really shocked that people are expecting to pay £1.50 for a 1 off bespoke item. But you guys know best as you have the machine and are doing the work. Printed ribbon is off my list pretty much forever!!!!!

[purpledragon]

fair play if you can get customers to pay 15 quid for a metre of 45mm polester ribbon i need you on my sales team

[AdamB]

This forum is great. £10.00 membership has just saved me £600.00 in machinery that would collect dust.

That has got to be one of the quotes of the year right there and is a true reflection of the members of this little corner of the interweb and their interaction with others on here - well done guys, well done all of you :)

[logobear]

we do the first m for £5 or more, but it ia a pita

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Purpledragon

I am not saying that is what I charge, I just figured that £15.00 to make their wedding cake a little bit more special would have been a fair price. The fact that you can only charge £1.50-£5.00 shocked me. However, if the market dictates those prices then I am so glad I never went down this route.

For your info a company approached me about ribbon printing sometime ago. The below is the prices they were paying for a 15mm roll, note the set up charge!!!

160 M £32.00
320 M £44.80
500 M £50.00
1000 M £70.00

Each additional meter 6.5p

Set up charge is £40.00

[purpledragon]

Hi Purpledragon

I am not saying that is what I charge, I just figured that £15.00 to make their wedding cake a little bit more special would have been a fair price. The fact that you can only charge £1.50-£5.00 shocked me. However, if the market dictates those prices then I am so glad I never went down this route.

For your info a company approached me about ribbon printing sometime ago. The below is the prices they were paying for a 15mm roll, note the set up charge!!!

160 M £32.00
320 M £44.80
500 M £50.00
1000 M £70.00

Each additional meter 6.5p

Set up charge is £40.00
send them my way i'll charge less than that with no set up fee !

[Renniwano]

I just paid £15 for 25 meters with my website address on it.. glad I didn't get a set up fee on that !! lol

[Mattie]

I wouldn't mind getting in to ribbon printing would be nice little addon for gifts

[Limara]

but I am frustrated by the control software, it works, but it is S**t! - then again, a florist could probably work it !
this about sums up the software for mine as well, can you import pics in yours ? I have got round the crappy software by importing artwork for what I want to do
prepared in psp the machine still doesnt always print what I would like it to.( issues with fine lines) but far better than its own software could acheive.


Re comment, £1 to £1.50 for a cake band, - sorry, but I won't get out of bed for less than £5!
lol hope you have a nice comfy bed if you lived round this way and wouldnt get out of bed unless you got a fiver to print one you would be staying in bed for a long time!


I wouldn't mind getting in to ribbon printing would be nice little addon for gifts
research your costs and what people are prepared to pay before you spend out on one, I was doing nappy cakes ( for those that dont know they are baby gifts made from nappies and baby goodies
made to look like a cake) I was Offering to do personalised ribbon bands for an extra £1.00 for them which probably cost me more than that to produce them not one person wanted to pay extra for them!

[WorthDoingRight]

I am sorry to say that as retailers we are often our own worst enemies. We are often so keen to get business from our competitors that we set unrealistic prices and then we find that we cannot then increase them back up to realistic levels.

As has been said before how can you compete with eBay sellers that offer personalised mugs for just a few pounds each and carriage at below cost.

The trouble with this thread is it has set an idea into our minds that 1m of ribbon will probably only sell for a couple of pounds and that we will remember for the future.

So does anyone want to buy ribbon off me at £15 per metre (and who wants to sell it me for £1.50 per metre? lol)

and does anyone want a nice personalised mug at £10 (and I can buy them off eBay for £2.99)

Surely our skills and the quality of our merchandise deserves realistic prices.

[Charlie_]

I am sorry to say that as retailers we are often our own worst enemies. We are often so keen to get business from our competitors that we set unrealistic prices and then we find that we cannot then increase them back up to realistic levels.

As has been said before how can you compete with eBay sellers that offer personalised mugs for just a few pounds each and carriage at below cost.

The trouble with this thread is it has set an idea into our minds that 1m of ribbon will probably only sell for a couple of pounds and that we will remember for the future.

So does anyone want to buy ribbon off me at £15 per metre (and who wants to sell it me for £1.50 per metre? lol)

and does anyone want a nice personalised mug at £10 (and I can buy them off eBay for £2.99)

Surely our skills and the quality of our merchandise deserves realistic prices.

In over 40 years of being in retail, I have never worried about competitors prices. On ebay i have countless compition but i know my products are not A cheap chinese imports are B used by world champions and C quality. I sell 1 to the cheapie sellers ebays 50 and probably over the course of a month show far more profit for the fewer sales I make. I also have my own websites selling at same prices.

Worry about your marketing not your prices. Good marketing of quality product in the end will make you a far better income less work less hasstle and far less worries.

My twopeneth worth

[logobear]

This is an interesting thread for many reasons, not least those about price from Charlie.
At one level, we are suppliers of a product that comes from a 'magic' print technology that SOHO users don't have, and in this respect, a ribbon printer seems to fit the bill.
The important (but missing) detail is our chosen route to market.
While having a complain about bank service to my local bank manager, and while he was chewing fat waiting for the computer to say 'yes' I happened to do a bit of 'ad-lib'
I suggested that my 1 hour t-shirt shop had more in common with a sandwich shop than an online t-shirt printers!
The comment has given me lots to think about, but I maintain it is true. Our remit is all about just in time, customer response, on-demand, how you like it.
We only work face 2 face, and we can only work with the stock and resources we have or our client supplies - just like a sandwich bar!
Does printing ribbon fit your product mix?
If you have an online shop, collect a weeks worth of orders, and do the lot as a batch, snip em up and stuff envelopes, then a quid or two a m is probably ok.
If the hurse is parked outside, and the flies are hovering, then maybe you can charge £10 or £20 for a few m while they wait.

What other product/services are like this?

[Charlie_]

This is an interesting thread for many reasons, not least those about price from Charlie.
At one level, we are suppliers of a product that comes from a 'magic' print technology that SOHO users don't have, and in this respect, a ribbon printer seems to fit the bill.
The important (but missing) detail is our chosen route to market.
While having a complain about bank service to my local bank manager, and while he was chewing fat waiting for the computer to say 'yes' I happened to do a bit of 'ad-lib'
I suggested that my 1 hour t-shirt shop had more in common with a sandwich shop than an online t-shirt printers!
The comment has given me lots to think about, but I maintain it is true. Our remit is all about just in time, customer response, on-demand, how you like it.
We only work face 2 face, and we can only work with the stock and resources we have or our client supplies - just like a sandwich bar!
Does printing ribbon fit your product mix?
If you have an online shop, collect a weeks worth of orders, and do the lot as a batch, snip em up and stuff envelopes, then a quid or two a m is probably ok.
If the hurse is parked outside, and the flies are hovering, then maybe you can charge £10 or £20 for a few m while they wait.

What other product/services are like this?


Likes the comparison with a sandwich bar.