Printing and hardcover-binding a limited number of books

As mentioned in a previous blog, I have been looking for someone to print and bind a book– with hard covers – in a very limited edition – 8 to be precise.
Thanks to the Mikronet network I was given several leads and contacted most of them (based on their homepages). Two,  www.scandinavianbook.dk  and www.publizon.dk   were able to offer a good and cost-competitive price, but only for paper-back binding. My client particularly wanted hard covers.
 Publizon’s Marianne went to great lengths to find someone who could do this and came up with a very good price. The service I experienced was proactive, high quality and I will definitely use this company for any printing jobs I may have in the future.

Meanwhile my client had found that the university of Birmingham was able to do the job – printing 174 pages of which 45 are in colour and binding in hard covers (buckram cloth on board), with gold spine letters for the equivalent of dkk 2280.00. And the whole order ready for dispatch in 5 days.  Almost half the best price I could find here in Denmark.
Reasons why they are so cost effective?
• the British pound sterling is weak
• the University routinely binds all doctoral theses in hard covers
• there is no V.A.T. (Moms) on books or book binding in the UK.
I think it is unfair competition and that it is one of inequalities that will need to be considered if we are to get a common trade platform across the borders. But the client naturally opted for the better priced solution.