PRINTING POSTCARDS

20k to 25k is a big amount of printing so you are looking at more of a commercial use printer( digital printing press) which will be very expensive to buy. If you go the business style color laser printing machines, the cpp(cost per page) won't be that low, although black is good. You would wear out even a decent business machine type laser printer very quickly.

Or you could consider an offset printer. Which puts out higher quality but also expensive to buy the machine.

A commercial style printer(digital printing press) could cost 5k to $100k to buy, it might be cheaper in the short term to just have a high volume printing company do the printing for you. Xerox, HP and Cannon have good products for what you are looking to do. Is this simple printing or will it require photo printing?

Good luck but just your regular laser printer you see at the local store won't cut it.

In this case I have to give credit to a great company I found on the internet. Printershowcase.com. I found the reps to be extremely helpful. Previously we used an OKIDATA 6000N which has a very low cost per print to operate and has lasted a long time. The limitation was the ability to stack a larger volume of heavy stock. I finally choose the RICOH C430DN. Some of the features I really liked where: speed, the handling of heavy card stock (up to 306 g/m) and very and I mean very reasonable consumables. I thought Printer Showcase
providing very helpful and direct advice. (Better than I received from some of the manufacturer's themselves).
I've been in sales and have owned my own my own company for over 3 decades. I appreciate customer service when I see it. I hope this post is helpful to those that are in the same situation we were in: To big to use a low volume printer, to small to justify a commercial printer to imprint our postcards, and wanting a price that is reasonable for the small business owner. At this point I feel we hit a homerun!

I too found Printershowcase.com and was impressed with their site. Will be calling them soon to try the Color Laser Test Drive. We are looking at something that will print 110lb cover stock (298 g/m2) or slightly more. The specs I see for the C430DN show a max of 256 g/m2. Are you able to print on stock more than 256 g/m2? What has been your experience since purchasing your printer?

Hi,Did you find does it work with thicker than 256gsm?