Suppliers

Aargh! It does get hard to find suppliers over here! In the UK it wasn't a big stretch to get things from another country, if need be - postage costs weren't high because the relative distances are small. Here it's as far to get paper from Melbourne as it is to get paper from, I don't know, Germany, but the postage costs are huge because the transport network isn't as developed and I guess demand isn't as high.

A big challenge is actually finding suppliers, and the temptation when you can't find what you want is to look for it in Europe and think about getting it shipped over, but then you are stung for the postage costs! I've been trying hard to find greyboard. You know, that grey cardboard, about 1.5mm thick and I guess around 900gsm that is used to make book covers. Well I've found suppliers who can let me have industrial quantities of the stuff for $1,000 or so... but I haven't found anyone yet who can sell me 20 or so sheets at a reasonable price. It's possible that The Paperboys might be able to help, and I am awaiting a reply to my latest question, so I'll let you know how I get on. Meanwhile I managed to find some greyboard at J Hewit & Sons in Edinburgh and thought that I'd get a quote, out of interest, from their on-line shop. The quote for cardboard was fine: GBP 9, but the quote for postage was ridiculous: over GBP53! For a few pieces of cardboard! Since the postage rate didn't change if I amended the order quantity I assume it was a flat rate charge that would cover up to a certain weight of posted goods, but even so it is pretty steep... I won't be buying from them, anyway, which is a shame as they had lots of things I'd find really useful.

Oh well. Hopefully The Paperboys will come good for me. If not I'll be scavanging cardboard from the back covers of a lot of sketch pads in order to make my slip cases!