PUBLICATION CENTER

With your wide-format inkjet printers, expertise in short-run printing, and access to LexJet’s wide range of printable materials, you are well-prepared to cater to the growing class of “instapreneurs” who want to develop and market all sorts of specialty products for niches you might never have imagined.  

Wired Magazine proclaimed “The Age of the Instaprenuer” as one of the top international business trends of 2008, noting that in today’s digital, interconnected economy, “Amateurs can instantly design and manufacture jewelry, robots, T-shirts, furniture—anything. No warehouses. No minimum orders. And no money down.”

You can either promote your on-demand printing services to instapreneurs and/or launch a new sideline business of your own.

For example, screen printer Joe Harris has launched a new website, D&J Toys, through which he sells a display backgrounds to collectors of action figures. Once a collector has acquired a rare or vintage action figure, he wants a meaningful way to display it.  Background scenery that suggests where the action is occurring is the perfect solution. 

D&J Toys backgrounds in two sizes.  The smaller version features an 8 x 10-in. photo print as the backdrop with a 5 x 10 in. floor, imaged with a complementary texture (e.g. desert sand, grass, water, snow). The larger display (which can hold multiple action figures) is 10 x 25 in. with an 8 x 25 in. floor. Customers can also submit their own designs for larger, more elaborate displays that include walls, roofs, or other features.

Joe Harris understands the collector’s desire for complementary background displays, because he is an action-figure collector himself. He has been collecting G.I. Joe action figures since 1982. The first display he produced was an affordable reproduction Cobra Base for G.I. Joe.

“These were originally offered as a Sears exclusive in 1982 on cardboard. But the cardboard didn’t hold up very well over the years, so the price of an original can be well over $1,000.” explains Harris. Because not many people are willing to pay that much, Harris came up with a way to remake the Cobra Base with more durable plastic.  The reproduction Cobra Base was a hit, so he branched out and started selling other types of display backgrounds. 

As a screen printer, Harris is accustomed to figuring out how to print images in small quantities on materials other than paper. Shortly after he bought an HP Designjet wide-format printer for his screen-printing business, he recognized that it might also be useful in helping him fabricate the reproduction Cobra Base.

Harris found LexJet online while looking for companies that could supply materials for the HP Designjet.

He has since discovered that LexJet TOUGHcoat™ Water-Resistant Self-Adhesive Polypropylene is ideal for making custom displays: “It’s a great product that produces a really nice, vivid image that holds up very well!”  The printed polypropylene adheres well to the lightweight, rigid plastic he uses to fabricate the displays. 

Harris notes that, “I am always looking for new ways to make use of my large-format printer.” He has many other print-related ideas he would pursue if he had the time. For now, he is happy filling orders for the display backgrounds.

Other than making a few posts on forums read by collectors, he hasn’t really done any advertising. To check out the full line of display backgrounds offered by D&J Toys, visit: www.djtoys.muchtobuy.com/

If you have any idea for using inkjet-printed images to create new type of products that you could sell online, give your account specialist at LexJet a call. We can help you select the material that may be perfect for the job!