We do a lot of printing for our clients, and I'm responsible for the selection of our printers (since I create all the marketing materials). One of the vendors that we use on a recurrent basis is 48HourPrint.com.
48HourPrint.com has a number of benefits over your local printer. First, they have two large printing facilities; one of them is in the midwest, and the other is in Phoenix. These are LARGE printing facilities organized around volume printing. This is what keeps the cost down.
One of the things that they do that is innovative is they have their own PDF printer driver that you install on your PC. After you have ordered and paid for a print job, you go to your production tool (Publisher, Photoshop) where your layout is and you print to their PDF printer driver. It converts the layout to a PDF and uploads it all in one step! Very cool. The only issue that I ever found with it is that you might have to select an oversized paper size to upload an image that has a bleed to it; this was unclear, but that's what I have done, and the prints have always looked good.
Another thing that they do correctly is the slit on their door hangers. The slit goes down (about 8 o'clock on the clock face), not UP like other printers. This means that the door hanger won't blow off in the wind. Very good design.
Their postcards come out looking great, and I've ordered those as well.
If you live on the west coast like I do, they will print at the Phoenix facility which drives your ship time down a LOT. This is a great addition.
Finally, because they are out of state for me, I pay no sales tax on the orders, and if you are ordering $500 worth of printed product, the savings will pay for the shipping.
Any negatives? The only one that comes to mind is the lack of some other products like catalogs. You can get a one sheet 11x17 printed, but not a two sheet (8 page) catalog with a staple. But, if they have the product that you want, it is likely to be at a reasonable cost.
RECOMMENDATION: Good, solid printer. Recommended.
John Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate
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