Need some advice on making copies.

[chaska]

I know nothing about print quality and that stuff.

Recently to keep eating I've been selling my very old and large collection of musical instrument catalogs. The other day someone approached me about making him a copy of a rare catalog that he didn't win. He paid me quite well. Rubbing two brain cells together, I thought I might approach losing bidders with the same idea after future auctions.

The thing is the (color) copies I had made at Staples were like $9 for 10 pages. I'd like to get that a bit cheaper, so I need advice on how to do that. I wouldn't be doing high volumes of this stuff, fyi.

But about print quality, I'd like good quality that won't fade like normal computer printouts do. What should I ask for there?

Thanks, ya'll.

[name not needed]

1. Chaska... makin copies...

the chaskanator is makin copies...

:P

[Blue-Jay]

7. Chaska laska ding dong!

Chaskaaaaaa!

[MercutioATC]

2. What size copies are we talking?

...and what price range?

[chaska]

3. 8.5x11

[MercutioATC]

8. Two options that I see...

1) Go to your local drugstore and make $.05 copies

2) Get them printed professionally and bound and charge more

It all depends how much you can charge for them.

[democracyindanger]

4. How about...

Scan the old catalogs and sell those files, that way you don't have to deal with print quality, etc.

As far as print quality, that depends on the ink and paper. You can get archival quality photo paper, but it's spendy, and if you're buying that you're already beyond going to Staples.

[Maddy McCall]

5. Does ebay allow you to contact losing bidders for such purposes?

No offense, but I have had winning bidders contact me in the past and offer me an item I had bid on for more than my highest bid. And I have had other sellers contact me offering similar items to me. I didn't like it.

Another thing...what about copyright?

Just some things to consider. :-)

[pbg]

6. Archival paper and inks

If you're going to do many pages but few copies per page, get yourself a decent inkjet and a decent scanner and you'll save a lot of money in the long run. It's amazing what you can get for under $300 total.

And as for print life, Epson makes a decent Lightfast brand of inks and paper. A decent amount of bang for the buck.

At a higher level, I've had great results with Entrada paper from www.moabpaper.com. Ilford inks from Germany are excellent--but they're best used when someone else is paying for them.