Reprographers, how do your prices stack up against prices offered by Internet-based plan-printing providers? (Such as plans4less.com and blueprintsprinting.com)

It is not common for reprographers to publish pricing on their web-sites.

That said, there are a couple of “Internet-based” reprographers (plans4less.com and blueprintsprinting.com) that do.  And LDIReproprinting, a chain of franchised reprographics shops in the southeastern U.S., has always published its pricing on its web-site.

Pricing for printing A/E plans may not be transparent industry-wide, but, even if it was (even if most reprographers published their prices on their web-sites), I seriously doubt that there would be any consistency in pricing.

And, as to the prices shown in the tables, I have three comments:

--These prices are quite a bit less than Staples charges. But, who cares about Staples; Staples is really a non-factor in the A/E/C reprographics marketplace.

--Based on pricing I observed in government-sector bids the past few years, the prices these reprographers are offering aren’t inexpensive prices.  I’ve seen prices that are a LOT less.  For example, the City of Boston still pays less than $.24 per print for large-format b/w prints.

--Now that HP PageWide XL units are out in the market, I’ve been expecting to find reprographers who are charging no premium or a small-premium for printing plans in color (vs. in b/w.)  If that hasn’t yet happened in your market, do expect it to show up at some point down the road.  I think that’s inevitable.

Prices “per print” per pricing posted on their respective web-sites

Notes for tables:

--LDI’s pricing web-page does not show pricing for 15x21 prints, so I’ve estimated that pricing

--LDI’s pricing for b/w prints based on orders for 300 or more prints per order (b/w)

--LDI’s pricing for color prints based on orders for 30 or more prints per order (color)

--Plans4less pricing web-page does not show pricing for 12x18 prints (b/w or color)

Black & White	Plans4less.com	Blueprintsprinting.com	Ldireproprinting.com
12x18	.50	.11	.44
15x21	.50	.33	(estimated)       .55
18x24	.50	.41	.67
24x36	1.00	.66	.90
30x42	1.00	.99	1.35
36x48	1.00	1.32	2.05

Color	Plans4less.com	Blueprintsprinting.com	Ldireproprinting.com
12x18	6.85	.40	.90
15x21	6.85	1.65	(estimated)     1.35
18x24	6.85	2.06	1.80
24x36	14.00	3.30	3.60
30x42	20.00	4.95	5.40
36x48	28.00	6.60	7.20