New To Printing

I have a good sized customer based and I'm looking to start printing my own post cards for a direct mail campaign. Ideally I'd like to print about 100k to 250k postcards per year. I'd be printing 4X6 cards. With this type of volume would I save a considerable amount printing my own? Can someone go over what this will entail. I've always found printing interesting but know next to nothing.

Do I need a cutter for the stock?

What type of software do I need to address each specific post card and also check for non-existent addresses?

What type of printer could handle this and how much would it cost?

What would each card roughly cost to produce?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

without being rude, dont bother get a printer to do it and do it properly. you will need a guilotine / scoring machine and printer that can handle a decent weight of card. all of which isnt cheap. lots of people trying to do their own thing and sometime it really shows. again not trying to ound arrogant or rude but please if you want it done correctly, get a printhouse to do it.

 

Thanks for the input. I have a 75-100k budget for this project will I not have enough of a budget? I'm a computer programmer by trade so I'm pretty tech savvy.

 

ive been in the printing trade for over 20 years. yes you have enough money, but money cannot buy experience.
with the amounts your talking 100k - 250k per year in my opinion would be done litho printed or real digi print not dry based toner, as it would be verrry expensive. 60k(uk sterling) at least for this. as said also you wil need some sort of guilotine 5k and a scoring unit 4k for a decent one. but the experience is something you cannot buy, and unless your prepared to do plenty of research and maybe willing to lose your money, i honestly stick with my original opinion and say let someone ele do it... sorry for the downer
lets see what others have to say

 

I would try and gain a bit more experience in it and learn more before jumping into it. Otherwise you won’t be able to take off an you’ll only end up wasting money. But if you have some experience then go right ahead!

 

I would like to suggest you that firstly try to get all the relevant r knowledge regarding your business then you may proceed.