Using your local print shop, right?

So, I’ve gone through this struggle for the past year trying to find a local print shop to do my magazine.

I would love to support my local print shop. It would be a lot more convenient for me.

I’m using Blurb. Love the quality. It’s a little bit pricey, right? There are cheaper alternatives for good quality too. But the thing I don’t like about Blurb is just the wait. You’ve got to wait. I’ve got to wait like two weeks to see what it looks like.

Which is fine. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.

But I started shopping around my local print shops in Santa Monica, and I got an email quote from one print shop.

100 pages. 8.5 × 11. Perfect bound. Black and white.

And I said, “Use a cheaper paper that’s good for black and white.”

They quoted me a 10-magazine minimum at $129 for each book.

Not for all 10.

For each book.

This is crazy.

I’m using high-quality Blurbs right now, and I’m paying $23 each for those. And those are very, very high quality.

So I just don’t know how the economics of that even makes sense.

Blurb, I think, is the priciest option I’ve used online. I’ve used Mixam, which is far cheaper. MagCloud, which is a couple dollars cheaper. And Lulu.

For anybody who wants to do a street photography magazine, do Lulu. Lulu is really, really cheap.

You can get a 100-page, 8.5 × 11 magazine for like six bucks.

It’s good quality.

My biggest problem with Lulu is it just smelled. It smelled like chemicals or something. I don’t know if they use different printers or something. I don’t know.

Maybe if I tried it again, it would be better. But when I smelled the paper, it just smelled like straight chemicals. I was like, “No, I just can’t do that. It’s not worth the savings.”

So, yeah.

I just don’t know. I want to be a good neighbor, and I want the convenience for myself, but $129 each with a 10-book minimum?

I would have to pay $1,300 just for 10 magazines.

Isn’t that ludicrous?

That’s absolutely insane.

And it’s not like some huge publication. It’s a 100-page magazine.

So yeah, just a quick thought on that.

I don’t know. Maybe one day I’ll find a good print shop in LA to use, but I’ve called them all and they’re all just so crazily overpriced.

It seems like the online magazine print shops have such a lockdown on the market.

And I’m curious to see publications like Hamburger Eyes. I bet he does it all himself. I bet he’s got a printer and stuff, I would imagine.

Because when I look at his magazines, I can’t find anybody else doing a magazine like he’s doing online for an affordable price.

And he sells his magazines for really affordable. I think $25 each. So he has to do them himself, right?

And all these local photo magazines that I see online, they’re all like $25–$30.

You go online, all the zines are around $30, and we’re talking 130–140 pages for some of them. They’re still selling them for $30.

I’m sure they’re doing offset and printing them in quantity, and maybe that’s how they’re able to offer them so cheap.

But yeah.

Anyways, just crazy.

$1,300 for 10?

That seems a little ludicrous.

That is definitely some California prices.

All right, thanks for watching.