After over 40 years of putting tape on stuff, I've never really gave it much thought other than grumbling that it's a tedious but necessary evil in this business
The other day I actually kept track-- but this order made it easy... A customer ordered 300 identical labels, 2-1/2" x 1-1/2". Then, as per the 'Jumping Thru Hoops' thread, they needed them sooner than expected, so the rush was on--
Each label needed a strip of tape across the top & bottom. For less amounts of tags we'll usually just use the dispenser. But for bunches of tags, to save our fingertips I'll let the laser cut the tape... easy to use and all pieces are identical.
For these I used 3/8" wide yellow tape. BTW I save all my used postage label 'slickbacks' just for this purpose. 2.2" is perfect for 2-1/2" plates, which yields 5 strips across exactly 11". I was also able to fit exactly 20 strips down the 8-1/2" width. 5 x 20 = 100 strips.
Then it dawned on me-- I need 600 strips! That's six 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper completely covered with 3/8" wide tape, 561 sq. inches worth...
I started with a full roll of tape and had to break out a second roll... That's about $15 worth of tape at Johnson's Plastics prices...
I never really knew I was using that much tape, just been one of those things you do without really thinking about it!
So 561 sq. inches of tape at $15 comes to around 2.7 cents per sq. inch... Not too bad I guess, and price-wise, since this job paid $1100, that's not a bad return
And this (again) leads me to the cost of Cermark (sorry! ) --
Many people hate using it because it's expensive. In reality, it IS expensive, to BUY, but it's actually very cheap to use.
I ran a cost per use test not long ago, and found that, as mixed, Cermark was costing me $4 to cover 670 sq. inches of stainless--
And I now find that tape is costing me $15 to cover 561 sq. inches of plastic... quite a difference...!
Fact is, it's all just good old CODB, and we're stuck with it! But it IS nice to actually figure out what your supplies are actually costing