What's New

Thanks to all of our customers, 2009 was a great year for us. We managed to post a 15% increase in sales during less than ideal economic conditions, so we wanted to thank all our loyal customers for helping make it such a successful year.

Because of our continued growth over the past year, we've found it necessary to move our operations to larger facility, and during the month of January, we will be completing the move. We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new type of inkjet printer that has tremendous potential for virtually every aspect of our business, if it only lives up to the hype.

This new printer uses water based latex inks to produce high resolution output that is fade resistance and durable outdoors, like solvent inks, but with the added benefit of being eco-friendly. If the marketing materials are to be believed, this new device will offer better print quality, greater scratch resistance, the same or better fade resistance, as well as provide some productivity benefits for us that will make it easier to handle rush jobs. The reality never seems to live up to the claims, but if this printer even comes close, it could offer some real advantages. What we are hoping for is to have our unlaminated prints have greater scratch and abrasion resistance. We have tested some printed samples and this seems to be the case so we are very hopeful that this will be true so that banners, short term outdoor signs, and our textured wall coverings can survive more abuse without showing the effects.

We are also hoping to see shrinkage reduced or eliminated since water based inks should not cause shrinkage to vinyl like solvent inks do. This causes curling in banners and edge lift on wall and window graphics, especially on less expensive materials, so if this works out, even our inexpensive options may perform like their high-end counterparts, which could save our customers money without sacrificing performance. This one is just a theory at this point, but it's a sound theory we are anxious to test.

We've heard reports that this new technology is particularly well suited for backlit graphics. We have a great many backlit printing materials that we have tested and not been satisfied with, either due to poor color, poor print quality, poor durability, or combinations of all three. If this new printer performs as advertised, we could have some terrific new options for both indoor and outdoor backlit graphics, as well as some new window graphics materials, that would be very exiting.

Prints will solvent based inks cannot be laminated for 24 hours because it takes time for the solvents to evaporate. With latex inks, the prints come off the printer ready to go so they can be laminated or finished immediately, which will make it easier for us to meet your really tight deadlines.

Solvent printers are also notoriously temperamental when it comes to image quality, and since we're such fanatics about image quality, we spend a great deal of time fighting to produce the quality of prints that we, and our customers, have come to expect. We are very hopeful that this new latex printing technology will provide the quality we want more consistently without the battles.

Because of the arrival of this new technology, along with our move, we haven't been testing too many new materials, since we wanted to wait and see how they performed on the new printer before making any decisions on them. As a result, we have a backlog of new products for testing that we will report on in the next update. Among these are some new fabrics, some new window graphics materials, new wallcovering products, a new art canvas from Fredrix, a reflective view through window material, and some new eco friendly products that include a banner material made from bamboo and one that includes a recycling program.

In the meantime, feel free to contact us with any questions you have related to any of these new products.

We are always looking at new materials, so check back here frequently for the latest news on printing materials.

We have several exciting new products and upgrades in Retractable Banner Stands.

Starting January 4th, 2010, we introduced the upgrade QuickSilver stands, now called QuickSilver Pro due to the significant changes. This has been a very popular line of retractable banner stands, but we felt it had room for improvement, so we worked with the manufacturer directly to produce this new version, and we are very excited about it. We kept the most popular features, which are the range of sizes, from 24" to 60" wide models, the telescopic height up to 92" tall, the easy graphic changes, the excellent travel bag that is one of the best available for any stand, and the great pricing. What we changed are the look of the stand, making it sleeker and more professional, and the addition of adjustable tension on the roller. This one feature has the potential to save so much time, money, and aggravation for our customers, that it became the critical difference between the old and new versions. With this feature, it's simple for the customer to add tension to a stand that is not retracting the banner all the way, or that has lost tension completely due rough handling during shipping or a mistake during a banner change. In the past, when this happened, the stand would usually have to be sent in for repair which is an inconvenience and an additional expensive that can now be eliminated in most cases. While this stand was always an excellent value, it's even better now having features comparable with stands costing twice as much.

Another new development is the addition of banner stands from Space Industries. These are top quality products that rival the finest stands on the market for both quality and features, yet they are priced in the middle of the pack making them the best value we offer in retractable banner stands. These models feature excellent attention to detail from the design and features of the stands, to the materials and construction, all the way down to the packaging. Since this is a new item, we are offering them in a somewhat limited supply initially while we judge the popularity of the various models and sizes, but to start with, we are offering the Supreme, Infinity and Dual models. The Supreme is the flagship style of the Space displays, and this particular model has been copied by many other manufacturers. It comes in 4 sizes from 33.4" wide to 59" wide, and while the standard carry bag is nice, we are only selling them with the deluxe carry case for even greater value. These stands feature a push button opening on the lid, removable rollers with both snap rail and panel strip banner attachment and a fixed height of 84.7". There is an optional telescopic pole as well. These stands are very similar to the Expolinc Roll Up Professional model but are over 33% less expensive and come in more sizes with more options and a better case. The Expolinc stands do have a lifetime warranty, but since this stand is so solidly built and can easily be repaired, that difference doesn't seem significant.

The Dual is a double sided version of the Supreme and is one of the nicest double sided stands we offer. It is very similar to the Expolinc Roll Up Professional Double stand, but at nearly 40% less cost making it less expensive than some of our mid range double sided stands.

The Infinity is a terrific stand that doesn't really have an equal, but it's comparable to stands costing twice as much. It's advanced design includes a tension control knob, a switch to lock the roller mechanism without the use of any metal pin, which is a first, and snap rail attachment on the roller, as well as the panel strip option like the Supreme. It also has an optional telescopic pole for those who want to vary the height of their banner, as well as a taller pole option that allows the Infinity to display a 94.5" tall banner. This also comes with a deluxe carry case as standard equipment. We are offering this stand in the 33.4" width only at this time, although depending on the popularity, we may offer additional sizes down the road.

There is a new double sided outdoor retractable banner stand called the Clipper that we are offering. Up until now, the Expand MediaScreen 2 Outdoor was the only outdoor retractable banner stand on the market. It's an outstanding product, but it's too expensive for many customers so we have found a new product that fills the needs of those who want the convenience of a retractable banner stand for outdoor use, but don't have the budget for the Expand product. The Clipper is double sided with two center support poles that have heavy duty springs at the base to allow the banners to flex in the wind. The base can be filled with water for stability, and it has built in wheels and a handle to make it easier to transport. The unit even comes with a unique travel bag design that allows the wheels and handle to remain exposed so the unit can be wheeled around even when packed. Check out the Clipper page to learn more about this new outdoor banner stand.

Since we have been busy evaluating many new banner stand models, we have quite a few sample stands from a wide range of manufacturers that will soon be available on our Closeout page. These are all quality products that we decided not to carry for one reason or another, so if you are looking for a great deal on some one of a kind closeout models, be sure to visit this page often to pick up some excellent bargains.

 

We have other new display products coming so check back here in the coming weeks to learn more about our latest products including a new pop up trade show display from Space that will set a new standard for quality and pricing, and some new banner stands including Banner Bug models that come in whopping 8' and 10' widths.

There have been quite a few price changes since our last update. Several of our portable and retail banner stands had a slight drop in price and there are several products currently on sale.

Price changes from different manufacturers have resulted in price changes on several products. Some went up, while others went down. The most significant price change in printing materials was the drop in price of our Super Mesh product. This new version is a big improvement, yet the price is down about 20% over the previous version making it our least expensive mesh ever.

The Lightning portable banner stand, which has always been a favorite of ours, is now one of our least expensive at only $65 for the stand. Be sure to check out this product if you are in the market for a non retractable banner stand, as this a great unit for the price.

The prices went down on some of our retractable banner stands as well. The Panda Stand, Alligator, and Banner Bug 72 all had price drops, as did the Revolution motorized scrolling banner stand.

Our Molded Banner Stand case actually went up in price, as did our HopUp tension fabric trade show displays, but none of the price increases were dramatic.

We also have been working to get better pricing from the manufacturer on several popular indoor and outdoor displays like the Teardrop and Feather outdoor banner stands which saw some dramatic price drops recently. We're working, as always to offer the best prices possible, so keep checking back for the latest news.

As always, we will be sure to let you know when there are special prices available on any of the products we sell, and alert you to any price changes as they occur.

We are continuing to refine the website and the order process with the improvements being ongoing. The biggest addition to both the Price Calculator and Order form has the been the addition of live shipping quotes. We worked very had to make these quotes as accurate as possible, and for most orders, they are excellent thanks to the hard work of both our staff and the excellent programmers at SummerGrand Software. There are a few items that won't be quoted at this time, and they are mainly printing projects that are mounted on rigid substrates such as foam board, or canvas prints that are stretched. Since these items ship flat, and we have not yet built in the necessary programming to accurately quote these, we will continue to calculate the cost of these items when they actually ship so we can give you the best possible shipping rates.

Most everything else is being quoted, but we are continuing to refine the quotes for special quantities and combinations of products that can still return incorrect shipping amounts. We are also looking to make our system work for shipment outside the US and especially to Canada since we have so many Canadian customers. We are watching the system to identify areas that need improvements, but we are thrilled to finally offer this since it's long been one of the most requested features for our order process.