Oriental Trading Company

This company is by far the cheapest to do pens however they no longer do customizations or logos. They do however do personalization which would just consist of a couple words and a date if desired. This also comes with a stipulation though, they only personalize selected items. I am not sure if the pens which we would want are a personalizable item but I will find out tomorrow by calling them and getting the just, straight from the horses mouth so to say. If this is possible, and we wouldn't mind whatever the maximum writing we could put on the pens, then we doubtlessly would want to go with this company.

So if The Oriental Trading company does not work out then one of the previous places which was found will have to be the direction in which to go.

Product Production: Pens

Product Production: action item for 3-24-09

Custom Pens- price quotes

Most places have a logo charge which is something that has to be made up and sent to the manufacture. Nick might have some insight on this logo but discussion on the wording should be finalized before submission.

Pens Xpress- http://www.pensxpress.com/

• This company offers a wide array of pen types but one of the most feasible of which are their Xpress Pen TC PX 303TC. This is a plain cylindrical pen with cap and printed logo.

· The company is based out of New Jersey so the shipping process would conceivably not take long.

· Print area is ¾” x 2 ½” so the length of the wording can go up to 2 ½ inches.

· The color ink is either back or blue and have translucent barrels in green, pink, blue, yellow, purple, and orange.

· Logo charge of $20.00

· Ideally we would only need from 100-200 pens and that cost would be $.44 per pen for 100-249 pens in following the price drops to $.27 per pen for 250-499 pens

· For shipping purposes the weight would be 2 lbs. per 100 pens.

· The price for 200 pens would be $88.00 and the shipping for this package is estimated at $9.34 altogether it would be $117.34 which includes the logo charge. If we went with just with lettering there would be no logo charge.

The same company offers a style pen that is much like the one above but would be $10 cheaper for 200 but not as high quality. The PX 300

• All same shipping costs

• Same Logo fees

• Same size imprint area

• However this style has a wider variety of colors

Considering we would want the largest and most available room for the impring these would be the best to consider. Some of the other ones do not have as big an area to print our event statement or logo.

Other custom pens manufacturers either have higher prices or a much higher reserve as to the minimum of pens that must be ordered. However if we did order from a place called Marco Promotional Products we would be able to get 500 of their cheapest pens for $100 which includes set up fees however not shipping and handling.

PensRus is another option which has the 500 pen minimum but their prices are slightly lower at .$24 per pen and they also offer better and more in depth options to customization.

All of this can be discussed in class but i will need to know more on

A. if we even want to do this
B. how many pens we actually want
C. what would our budget be
D. our logo/ imprint to promote the event or the facilities or the neighborhood etc...

Product Production

Product Production

Not knowing exactly what Product Production is, I am going to have to say that we could go along with maybe the shirt idea which could have the initial date of this event in hopes of making it an annual occurrence. Some souvenirs would also be appropriate for the visitors to be able to take home and show their family and friends such as pencils, pens, party favors, posters, as well as other memorabilia.

In order to bring out the broader picture in what we are really trying to accomplish in this neighborhood, I think that something such as flyers with our mission statement is a must. In order to disclose this to the public, a premier figure in the community or a figure associated with Baltimore could aid in the efforts to gain more recognition for the cause.

I believe that having the signings and if there was to be the auction, that would be included in our group planning to an extent as well.