Strategy: Should You Purchase Your Own Paper?

In brief, consider buying your own paper if you:
• print at least three or four times per year;
• purchase a minimum of 80,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds of paper at once; or
• are certain you won’t be changing grades or the basis weight of the paper you’re using.

Potential Savings

Paper and freight are large profit centers for printers, and catalogers understand these charges the least. Reasonable savings from purchasing your own paper range from 4 percent to 6 percent. Informing your printer that you may buy paper from a merchant often will result in a cost savings without changing a thing. This can spark lower paper consumption requirements and a lower cost per hundred weight.