Costco Glossy Instant $9.00 Rebate

[tmaugham]

I just bought four boxes for 9.79 each at the Costco in Edison, New Jersey. They seem to have quite a bit of it left. Does anyone know why such a good deal?

Tom

 

[fotofreek]

In the past they've totally cleared the shelves of photo paper before stocking a new packaging of what appeared to be the same item. Early on they changed from selling Epson Glossy photo paper to the Kirkland brand. The next change was from the Kirkland brand made in Switzerland to the same item made in Mexico. The previous changes were not accompanied by a half price sale, however.

 

[tmaugham]

The change from Swiss (Ilford?) paper was to US made paper and then to Mexico. AFAIK there was no sale of any kind but from the Swiss to US made the quantity per package increased from 125 to 150 sheets.

On their web size they are also offering 11x17 and 13x19. I would really love for them to start stocking the 13x19 in their stores!!!

Tom

 

[Grandad35]

Can you open the package with the frog and compare it to the tulip version? An identical print on both and comparison of color response would be of tremendous knowledge to see if there is an improvement or otherwise and whether stocking up would be recommended.

I don't have any with a frog, but I have some with the sailor (made in Mexico) and some with the new Tulip design (also made in Mexico). The older paper was purchased during the last "Costco's not going to carry photo paper in the future" scare, and the newer paper was purchased as a good investment.

I overprinted 4 nozzle checks onto a sample of each paper (to get the ink dark enough to see decent color). This was done immediately after printing several 8x10s and then running a nozzle check to make sure that everything was OK. Sample A was printed, then B, then B then A, then A then B, then B then A to make absolutely sure that the ink lay down was randomized as much as possible. The carts and printer were not touched at any time during this test.

My i9900 prints 8 colors - C/M/Y/K/PM/PC, plus Red and Green. A spectrophotometer was used to measure the Lab color values of each nozzle check pattern, and were measured as follows:

Comments:
1. The Tulip paper was not nearly as "rich" as the old paper - the colors appeared to be slightly washed out.
2. The Delta-E values are large enough to indicate that the color shift will be noticeable between the two papers.
3. The paper itself has a higher "L" and appears to be a little brighter, but the downward shift in the "b" value indicates a shift away from yellow and toward blue. Note that this trend continues for all of the inks, with the average "b" value being 6 points lower on the new paper.
4. A similar (but smaller) trend was noted for the "a" values, with a shift away from green and toward red.

These changes are large enough that I will generate new printer profiles when I switch to the new paper.

 

[tmaugham]

Are you sure that you bought enough???? LOL

Tom

 

[filmguy]

Shopping at Costco again and they had more 8.5x11 Tulip boxed paper in stock at the original price of just under 19.00.

Really makes me wonder just what they are doing...