Plastic Card printing using a PC

Doublespresso

I thought I would ask the experts here.

Is there a (relatively) cheap way to print Membership Cards on CC size plastic cards? I would estimate having to print 4-5 cards a week.

Ideally it allow colour printing including an image that is generated from the PC

I Googled around but there is a huge choice and I would rather get recommendations from other MSE users

Thanks!

Blacksheep1979

If you want a card printer they are seriously expensive ~ £900 you could however print the image on an ohp sheet and then stick it onto the card.

mikewebs

Or you could invest in laminator and print on normal paper then laminate the cards. do a few at a time to save on costs!

Little_John

They are expensive to buy and run, the cost of the cards and the film. so you need to work out the costs of buying the printer cards etc and the cost of getting them printed externally especially with the low numbers you are looking to print.

The only ones I have seen are used to print the staff passes and season tickets for a local football club about 25000 a year and they have 3 printers to do them in the ticket office that also program the chip and another office that does them with magnetic strip programing for door entry etc. They did cost a far whack I believe.

Doublespresso

thanks for the replies, we've considered laminating but we decided that we need something of higher quality and durable like Credit Card type plastic.

As for cost, we're thinking of charging £2.50 for the card to mitigate our costs and hope to recover the initial outlay in about 12-18months.

Any suggestions?

superscaper

It may be worth finding a local printer to do it, that way you can establish a relationship to do a conitnuous run of cards.
http://www.premierplasticcards.co.uk have a personalisation service so although you purchase cards in blocks of 100 they can personalise them separately over time.

neilwoods

As said costly to buy and run. Looking at around £1000 set up cost. Then you have the cards to buy and the ink.

http://www.primemark.com/epos/card-printers.php?gclid=CMz8g-ui5YwCFQvolAodpQmGGQ

Decent lamination will last just as long as a credit card membership card. And at these costs, and your projection of 5 cards a week, it will take you 36 months to pay it off. Thats not including extra cost of additional cards and ink.

What sort of membership is it for.

£$&*"($£&(

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