One of the many considerations you will have to make when shopping for an ID card printer is the printer’s overall cost-efficiency, and one of the factors that affect this is its overall cost per card.

There really is no hard and fast rule for calculating overall cost per ID card but we can arrive at a figure by factoring in the costs that are easy to quantify such as:

• ID Card Printer
• Printer Ribbons
• Blank PVC Cards
• Number of Cards / Year
• Expected Life of Printer

To calculate your overall cost per card, you need to factor your printer investment cost and the projected number of cards you will be printing for the entire life of the printer.

Next, compute your ongoing costs by dividing the ribbon and blank PVC card costs to their respective yields.

You then multiply the cost of printed cards ($0.38) to the total number of cards you will be printing for the entire life of the printer (30,000 cards) and add the printer investment cost ($2,500) before you divide the sum with the total number of cards printed by the printer (30,000) to arrive at your overall cost per card.

SAMPLE COMPUTATION FOR OVERALL COST PER CARD

Cost of printed cards ($0.38) x total number of ID cards printed (30,000 cards) + printer investment cost ($2,500) / total number of ID cards printed (30,000 cards) = $0.46 overall cost per card.

DISCLAIMER: The formula and figures used in this article are for illustration purposes only. Your overall cost per card will vary depending on the kind of printer and supplies you have. Printer life expectancy may also differ per model and by the overall care you give to your ID badge printer.