So Ryan from Guild of Blades. He's been advertising here and there his capacity to do Print on Demand orders, especially since he's been buying/upgrading equipment over the last year or so.

I've had nothing but success with his service since I've been using it last year. been printing several dozen runs of an 8.5x11, 200+ page game. I've gotten from him the second or third best "rate" pricewise when I shopped around, but I settled with Ryan because:

1) The other printers didn't care if they were printing menus or porn. And RPG was just another Object To Print, without knowing what they're supposed to look like, feel, etc. Ryan's been in the gaming industry like a flea on a tick, so when he prints an RPG he knows what it's supposed to look like. If he sees problems with print quality, layout, or cover color, he'll tell you.

2) His price, while not THE cheapest, was Holy Friggin Cheap. He was less expensive than several other commonly used online PoD presses, and cheaper than all local PoD and trad print operations.

3) To date, he's been really reliable. There was a printing error on 1-2 books, he immediately either shipped out or credited me new ones with no problem (And that's like 1-2 out of a hundred or so).

Through the last year, I've been watching his biz grow: Better paper cutter here, streamlined print process there, multiple shipping options, and so on. I have no picture of the "big picture" of his operation, but from my customer view, it's been nothing less than stellar. I've printed...hmmm I wager close to 400 copies with him, and have had huge issues; and any small issues were immediately addressed and corrected.

So talk about your game ideas and all, and when you're ready to print, give Ryan with Guild of Blades a lookup. He's good people.

http://guildofblades.com/

-Andy

Thanks Andy. I know Ryan from way back and have been waiting for an opportunity to use his print on demand capabilities. It is helpful to get reports like this.

I never worked with Ryan, but I know him from long exposure on the net, and met him last year at GenCon. A very nice guy, and always helpful.

-clash

I found this info on Guild of Blades handy. Thanks for posting that.
I was looking at Gamer-Printshop, but their website doesn't work properly, and their contact page is FUBAR. I am looking at printing large maps and the odd 48-64 page book. At least Guild of Blades can help me out with the books

Craig J. Brain

I printed a card game through Guild of Blades, MMA Fight Night, and was extremely impressed with the results, not to mention the great customer service.

Pete

Pete,

I am looking at getting a card game published and was wondering how much did you paid and for what amount of work? I've never done this before.

It is good to hear about positive experiences with POD services

Thanks,

Craig J. Brain

Hi Craig,

The pricing is all on their site, however, the site is kind of a mess to navigate, and I just read (in black font that blends in with the rest of the text) that as of 4/23/09 they're not accepting new card game clients.

The info is on my home computer, so I don't have exact figures, but I ordered 100 decks of 63 cards each, had them placed in precut white boxes with custom wraps (instead of actual printed die-cut custom boxes) for a little more than $500 if I recall correctly which included setup fees, printing, box construction, and S&H. It would have been about $40 cheaper to put my own boxes together, but I wanted the first run to look as professional as possible. One of the good things about GoB is you can do limited print runs, but each deck becomes cheaper if you order more units. Also, GoB liked the game enough to list it as part of their retail group which means they handle online and in-store orders, printing, shipping, etc. and I get a cut of the profits at no cost to me.

http://www.guildofblades.com/pod.php

http://www.guildofblades.com/podcards-pricing.php

Hope that helps.

Also, for some shameless self-promotion, here is a link to one of the promos for MMA Fight Night:

http://home.att.net/~dreamwalkerrpg/MMA ... _PROMO.pdf

Pete

Pete,

Thanks very much for the info. Pity they aren't accepting new orders. At least this lets me know what sort of pricing to expect

Craig J. Brain