2:07pm
Saint Paul
“Sounds like a fun project! I would love to work on this for you. $128.”
Whoa! I said to myself.
$128 to print 100 pages in black and white, and get them spiral bound?
“No thank you,” I replied via email.
We were making a gift for my father-in-law: a simple book of three-column pages, for scoring Canasta card games.
I had loose printed paper spiral bound at this print shop before. The service usually cost around $8 or $10.
But $128 seemed a bit excessive.
The print shop wrote back with a breakdown of the costs that added up to $128.
“What if I print them myself, what’s the price for just the spiral binding?” I asked.
“$68,” came the reply.
“No thank you,” I said again.
30 minutes later, a new email:
“We made a mistake. That binding would cost $18.”
Not as low as I paid in the past, but everything is more expensive today.
And while a nearby Kinkos quoted me $10, the first shop was a lot closer to other errands I had to run.
But had I not known better? Not had experience with this service in the past?
I might have paid that $68 to produce this one-of-a-kind gift.
Because the gift often isn’t the thing. The gift is the thought and time you put into an item for someone.
Merry Christmas eve-eve,
Jeffrey
PS. Unfortunately, we watched a cheesy Christmas movie last night instead of playing Canasta.
But I’m pretty sure the men would have won.