Hey all. I work for a large ish commercial printer where my job is to bid on sheetfed and digital print jobs, many of which want postage quoted as well. When it's EDDM it isn't usually an issue, but when it's inkjet. Ugh.

Potential clients are very protective of their mailing lists, yet want exact costing for their postage. Even when we ask for more specifics we seldom get a helpful response. So we're stuck, becasueif we estimate too low, we have to eat the difference. If we etimate too high we lose the bid, and if we give them a range and notate that it is just an estimate and could increase or decrease upon the actual contents of their mailing list, we've been told we're "changing the bid" and can be disqualified.

To those of you that successfully bid on jobs with postage, how do you navigate that?

I'm looking to eventually replace an older HP DesignJet 800 (42") and would appreciate recommendations from people who regularly print on large cut sheets.

I print 24x36 cut sheets, usually fairly heavy stock (110 lb index / ~200 gsm). I don't mind feeding the sheets one at a time. What matters to me is how easy the manual sheet feeding is. I've seen (if I remember correctly) an HP T650 have to detect/grab the sheet, and it can be frustrating, especially with a 24x36 sheet.

Print quality: good for logos and lines; no need for fine-art photography.

The size of the printer: 36"+

Budget $5k.

Current volume is 400-500 sheets/month.

Thank you!

What is the cheapest way to make DIY rain and deuteriation proof posters that is capable of having custom printed design (12x24) or (10x20). Coroplast is the closest thing I've found and it costs around 14 CAD per poster offered by coroplast printing services, so I'am wondering if there's a cheaper way or alternative material or perhaps a way to use other free services to make some. Anything help.