enx magazine

Dealers, increase your customer base by offering copiers with a “Binder Minder”—a copier accessory that can help you get government, university, high school and library customer accounts.

“If we’re not in every Ivy League college, we’re definitely in most of them,” said Chris Peck, vice president of Binder Minder and son of its founder, Dean Peck. “We’re in public libraries in both the cities of New York and Chicago, and county libraries and courthouses.

“What will interest the dealers,” he adds, “is that often a placement of a Binder Minder will result in a sale of many machines that aren’t Binder Minder-equipped. In other words, there are a lot of places that will buy 100 machines, and only 12 of them will have Binder Minders. So, it can be very meaningful to a dealer.”

What is a Binder Minder?

A Binder Minder is an accessory that can be installed on a copier to make it easier to copy books without damaging the binding, or spine. The attachment creates a descending edge where the book is placed—also called an edge platen or an edge platen attachment.

Damage to the book is averted by preventing the volume from being opened to its fullest extent during copying. Since copying a book is very time-intensive and includes opening the book to every page, many libraries, schools and universities must find a way to keep their much-used books from being destroyed.

To keep damages to a minimum, it is customary for these institutions to use Binder Minders. Many universities require students and staff to use copiers suited to book copying if that is their intended task.

Increasing Market Share

If you are interested in breaking into servicing the library or university market, begin by asking if they are interested in a book copier, or book copier attachment. Suggest attaching one to a new copier that they have ordered or to an existing one. Providing this service may get you in the door to a complete service account.

Since Binder Minders are only sold through copier manufacturers or dealers, you won’t have the superstore competition you may have with other accessories or consumables. And the product may seem invaluable to your prospective market.

Binder Minders are made for many brands of copiers spanning the market, and more types are being made to keep up with new models coming out each year. Some brands include Canon, Gestetner, Imagistics, Konica, Kyocera Mita, Lanier, Minolta, NEC, OCE, Richo, Royal Copy Star, Savin, Sharp and Toshiba. To see a listing of copiers that utilize Binder Minders, go to www.binderminder.com.

There is no minimum order requirement to order a Binder Minder, but there are price breaks at quantities of 11 and 41. Orders are processed and are shipped to customers as soon as possible. Contact Binder Minder for shipping details to your facility.

How do I install it?

Binder Minder installation kits come with step-by-step instructions on how to install the device to each particular machine’s specifications. The installation is easy and can be completed in about an hour.

However, if you have problems with the installation, Binder Minder customer service technicians will be standing by to take your call and provide installation assistance. Once the accessory is installed there is no further upkeep. It is ready for use.

This simple installation on a few machines may mean more business and new markets. This is what Dean Peck, the founder of Binder Minder, discovered while in the copier coin/card vending business in the late 1980s.

Company History

The Binder Minder was developed in the late ’80s as a result of library requests for better copies from books and protection against damages caused by flatbed copiers.

At the time, Peck was (and still is) in the copy vending business, supplying libraries with coin-operated copiers. He recognized a need of his library customers.

“Librarians were requesting book copiers and the OEM’s weren’t supplying them, so we decided to make it ourselves,” said Chris Peck.

While the Peck family has been involved in the coin/card vending copier business for 50 years, in 1991 Peck launched the product Binder Minder for the dealer market. Binder Minder by Book Support Systems, Inc. is a family owned and operated business; Binder Minder is the primary product.

To help dealers, it has exhibited Binder Minder at library association meetings and conferences nationally and regionally for over 15 years. Execs encourage representatives to contact their local copier dealers for purchasing Binder Minder-equipped copiers.

Future

“We plan to make Binder Minders as long as people are still using books,” Peck says. “Hopefully that will be a very long time.”

Binder Minder is now recognized as a standard for library copiers appearing by name in many library RFP’s. This trend continues as Binder Minder becomes available to more and more copiers in the U.S. as well as the international market.

Visit Binder Minder at the ITEX show Feb 2-4 in Las Vegas, at booth number 748.

Contact: Binder Minder 1-800-647-5713

www.binderminder.com

By Jamie Hamilton— in addition to writing business profiles in ENX, Jamie writes and designs ads, brochures, catalogs, newsletters, and manuals for companies in the imaging industry. She can be contacted at: Tel/ Fax 502-896-1051 or e-mail her at: jamiewriter@hotmail.com.

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