Where to Get Calendars Printed that Are Cheap Enough to Resell

There are tons of places these days where you can go and get a wall calendar printed. The trouble is, they usually cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $15.00 to $20.00. If you're looking to print a calendar and sell it at a profit, there's really no room there for a mark-up.

If you'd like to make a profit by selling photography-based products like calendars, then you're going to have to find a printer who will give you a bulk discount but still not require an extremely large order. Here's a rundown on four different printers you can use, and a comparison of the costs involved. Although each printer may offer different features, I'm going to make comparisons based on a basic, 12-month, 11 x 17" wall calendar.

Vista Print. Vista Print is a fairly well-known name in short-run digital printing. A lot of people use them for business cards and other items, because they constantly send out promotions for free or cheap orders. But, if you're looking to make a bulk order to sell, Vista Print may not be the best option. After looking at their calendar options, they appear to be towards the top of the price range.

There's no significant difference in price for quantities from 10 to 100. If you place a bulk order of 100 calendars, the current printing cost is $1,284. The "priority" processing and shipping option (one week turnaround) costs another $36.54. With a grand total of $1,320.54 and 100 calendars printed, that's a unit price of about $13.21. You could potentially sell them yourself for $15 to $20 and make a slight profit, but that's not a great discount.

Costco. I love getting photo prints at Costco, because I can pick them up (avoiding a shipping/handling fee), they're cheap, and I can adjust my color management to their printer profiles. But, are their calendar options as good as their photo print options?

The base price for a calendar is $9.99. The bulk discounts kick in at an order of 100, and the price drops slightly to $8.99. This isn't terrible, but there's also a $1.50 shipping and handling charge per calendar. Seems kind of steep to me, and this kicks the price back up to $10.49 per calendar. Cheaper than Vista Print, and this might be good for smaller orders (a few dozen), but there are cheaper options for orders of 100+ calendars.

Lulu. Lulu is fairly popular as a print-on demand book printer, but they also offer some specialty photo products like calendars. From the get-go, Lulu is a much better choice than Vista Print. You can print a single calendar at $12.49, and you can even set up an account at Lulu to sell the calendars on a print-on-demand basis. This would let you sell the calendars at a price point similar to Vista Print (~$12-13/calendar) without laying out any cash upfront for a bulk printing job.

But, it gets much better than that. If you place a moderate sized bulk order of 100 calendars, the unit price is $7.49/calendar. This allows for a decent mark-up, and you potentially even wholesale the calendars to a retailer at $10.00/calendar. When I placed 100 calendars in my shopping cart, the shipping estimate was $87.49, bringing the unit price for 100 calendars up to about $8.37. If you place a larger order with at least 500 calendars, then you get a real price break and the unit price drops to $3.99 and the shipping estimate is $287.49 ($0.57 per calendar). This is a big order, but at this point you're entering the realm of cheap-enough-to-resale.

Digital Room. Digital Room is another short-run printer, but they offer much better prices than Vista Print. On the other hand, there are also higher minimum orders. For calendars, you have to order at least 250 units. With that base order, the unit price is $7.05 per calendar plus a total shipping/handling charge of $48.78. With shipping, that's about $7.25 per unit.

If you increase the order to 500 units, you're looking at a unit cost (shipping included) of $3.88 - the cheapest alternative yet. And, if you're willing to increase your order, there are substantial discounts. A moderate jump up to 1,000 units will bring your unit cost down to $2.81, and larger orders will eventually dip below the $1.00 per calendar price. Of course, it's a pretty big commitment to buy thousands of calendars...

Where to Order From?

Although this review doesn't take into account quality, the costs involved suggest that Costco, Lulu, and Digital Room are each a potential supplier in a different situation.

If you want to print a very small quantity, less than 100 calendars, than Costco is the cheapest option (~$11.49 per calendar). Once you reach the 100 unit order, though, both Lulu and Digital room become cheaper options. You'll need to place a fairly large order (250 units) to use Digital Room, but it's definitely the cheapest option. And, if you're serious about selling your photographic art through a calendar, you're going to need to place a bulk order like this to keep costs down and increase your profit margin.