How to Reduce Shipping Costs on a Projector Screen

Shipping or freight is a significant cost of a projector screen. Companies who sell projector screens will either charge the full amount of the shipping, add shipping cost to the screen price, or absorb all or part of the cost in order to reduce their margins and save the sale. It is also worth consideration that screens with a higher shipping cost also have a higher carbon footprint because of the higher quantities of fossil fuels and packaging materials required to deliver the screen.

Efficient Shipping Reduces a Projector Screen’s Carbon Footprint

Projector screen retailers are diverse and fiercely competitive in their methods of dealing with shipping costs. This diversity gives customers substantial leverage in finding the best bargain or making choices with a favorable impact on the environment. In this guide, you will learn how to reduce the cost of your screen with Free Shipping, identifying screens with naturally Low Shipping Costs, and fully informed Comparison Shopping.

Free Shipping

Companies like Big Screen Center and Projector Screen Center offer free shipping. According to Atlanta bargain guru Clark Howard, looking for a web site that offers free shipping is one of the most important ways to save money shopping online this holiday season.

Be aware that some companies may look like they offer free shipping at first because they add shipping charges toward the end of the transaction. It is common for online shopping carts to have shipping calculators where customers to fill in a state and zip code to calculate shipping. Be careful. Some sites may hide the true shipping costs until after customers have entered payment information.

Industry leaders like Big Screen Center and up and coming Projector Screen Center confirm free shipping or detail shipping costs on the first page of the shopping cart. This elegant feature allows you to comparison shop without entering confidential address or credit card information.

Projector Screen Center Offers Full Disclosure of Shipping Costs without Confidential Information

It pays to make sure you have a company’s offer of free shipping in writing before assuming it is true. Take a screen shot of the free shipping offer including the URL and date for reference in case they try to charge you later.

Be cautious with web sites that do not disclose shipping costs before a customer registers or enters confidential information like addresses and credit cards. It is perfectly acceptable to enter a fake address and credit card information with your same zip code to verify shipping costs before making the decision to share your protected information. Then you will be able to compare the free shipping claims of all your online shopping choices accurately.

Screens with Low Shipping Costs

Shipping costs do not disappear with the offer of free shipping. It is common practice for online retailers to add all or part of the shipping costs to the product before offering free shipping. Therefore customers have an advantage when they know that for their size, certain screen designs cost less to ship.

For many customers, Fixed Frame Projector Screens are an ideal combination of elegance and shipping efficiency. Fixed Frame Screens have a flat screen surface and a frame that collapses into a very small and efficient shipping carton. Electric Screens on the other hand have complicated and bulky packaging needs because of their large cases and delicate motors. The packaging requirements raise the shipping price. A Fixed Frame Screen can cost 50 to 80 percent less to ship than an Electric Projector Screen of equal size.

Fixed Frame Screens Offer Style and Value
Installation Instructions for the Da-Lite Cinema Contour Fixed Frame Screen

With Fixed Frame projector screens, simple assembly is required at installation. Assembly is like building a kite and then hanging it like a picture. Fixed Frame Screens are the style used in movie theaters.

Manual Projector Screens have some of the look and function of electric screens while costing less to ship. Manual Screens have fewer moving parts while still offering users the ability to hide the screen from view when it is not in use. It is important to remember that lower shipping costs is another way of saying the product requires less packaging and consumes a smaller quantity of fossil fuel for delivery. In this case, choosing the lower cost option is better for the environment as well.

Manual Screens Ship Efficiently and Hide Away Neatly
Installation Instructions for the Da-Lite Model B Manual Projector Screen

Certain customers at offices and schools choose a manual projector screen because they can install it over a whiteboard, blackboard, or map to increase the number of uses for the same wall space. For home use, it is tempting to install a manual screen over a window to enjoy the choice of a window view or a view of the screen. Typically, it is difficult to place a television on a wall with prominent windows.

A Manual Projector Screen Could Fix this Awkward TV Placement

A choice between window and screen can unite nature and high tech entertainment in an enjoyable way. It is worth remembering that light from the window might create a halo effect around the picture. Careful experimentation beforehand or thick blinds are important to pulling off this home decorator idea.

If an electric screen is the best choice for your installation, then check the total price of the screen size you need (perhaps 100″ diagonal 4:3 video format) with several electric screen models across competing brands. Da-Lite, Draper, and Classic are competing national brands. Better online retailers hire experts to do this research with you. The toll free number for Projector Screen Center is 1-800-314-8955.

As an example of the shipping cost savings between electric screen models, a Da-Lite Contour Electrol electric screen measuring 84″ diagonal (50″ x 67″) ships freight at a cost of $80 to $125. Even if an online retailer offers free shipping, it is likely that some portion of this high shipping cost is added to the price of the item.

The Da-Lite Designer Contour Electrol is another electric screen by the same manufacturer designed to ship in more efficient packaging. The exact same 84″ screen ships for $20 to 30. That is a savings of 75 percent.

Da-Lite Designer Contour Electrol at Projector Screen Center
Installation Instructions for the Da-Lite Designer Contour Electrol Electric Screen

Although both screens are electric screens, of the same size, by the same manufacturer, with free shipping, the Da-Lite Designer Contour sells for over $175 less.

This proves it is worth while to uncover hidden shipping costs when searching for the best deal.

Comparison Shopping Review

Paying the lowest possible shipping costs involves careful investigation to find these key factors.

• Competing vendors offering Free Shipping
• Shipping charges added at the end of transaction
• Hidden shipping costs within the price of items
• Alternate products that meet the same requirements at a lower total cost

Look for free shipping claims and read them carefully. Assume you know the true price of a product only after you see a line item for shipping in your shopping cart or order summary. With luck, that line item reads “Free Shipping!” Although, keep the competition in mind. Even if a vendor charges for shipping, the total price may be less than the price at competitors offering free shipping. Add up product price plus shipping and handling and compare that total to judge the business with the lowest price.

Low shipping costs are a close predictor of environmental responsibility as well. Reducing the cost of packaging materials and fossil fuels used in shipping a screen reduces your cost as well as reducing the impact on the environment.

When a Projector Screen Comes in Handy

I was looking into whether or not I needed a projector screen to get an acceptable image out of a projector. At work, we project onto a white board, and it looks fine. During meetings, we can view a draft on the projector and edit the draft by marking on the white board. It is the world’s cheapest electronic white board. I enjoy the arrangement very much. I have seen other people project onto a matte white wall. Matte acrylic paint on a flat surface looks alright for a projected image, so most homes can get by without a projector screen.

It is a little trickier to project onto walls made of cinder block, wood paneling or brick. Paint type and color is important too. An image projected onto glossy acrylic paint results in a glare. I remember a geography class where my teacher projected a topographic map of the Himalayas onto our cinder block wall with glossy gray paint. I had trouble distinguishing the valleys from the seams between bricks, and squinting into that glare gave me a headache. In that case, it was much easier to deal with an image on a projector screen, like this.

Schools seem to go on the cheap, and it only cost about $60 fix the issues with clarity and glare on the wall by adding a small projector screen to the classroom.

For the price, the Classic Regal manual screen is pretty good. The Da-Lite Model B is so popular and so cheap, that I am used to online screen companies burying it in the search results so customers have to look past 15 or 20 more expensive screens before they find it.

Home decorator wall finishing, like colorful paints and wallpaper, is another projected image killer. I sat through an epidemiology conference at this hotel where our PowerPoint presentations were projected over imperial Fleur de Lis wallpaper. Imagine trying to read disease incidence rates in small print through this.

That will teach me to go to a lecture that was scheduled at the last minute. In that case, the projection screen was an essential part of the setup, and I believe I missed a few important points because I could not see the presentation.

So what if a projector screen comes in handy?

I read this article on ProjectorCentral.com about making a projector screen out of wood, velveteen fabric, and photographer’s seamless roll paper for less than $100. I have not tried this myself, but it looks like the project would take about three hours. According to the people who tested this DIY projector screen, color accuracy is the most difficult feature to get right. The best projector screen manufacturers can adjust the surfaces to maintain the white color of white light without over-reflecting other colors like blue or yellow. But to an untrained eye like mine for a casual home theater application, I am not sure I could tell the difference. Look at the photograph paper screen compared to the Stewart Grayhawk screen for over $1,000 more. Paper screen is on the left. Grayhawk screen is on the right. The testers boosted the blue gain and bias on the projector to correct a weakness in the paper when they tested the paper projector screen.

For the price, that quality is good enough for me. The team that tested this projector pointed out that contrast and color saturation is better on the more expensive screen. It is hard to capture a deep, rich black on the paper projector screen, as seen here.

That do it yourself projector screen is interesting. Still, I am not sure when to use it. I might build it at home one day. I think if I were in middle school again, my classmates would tear it down easily. I wonder if schools buy instead of DIY for the durability.

The people I know who own projector screens have both an image to project and an image to project. I mean, people who are willing to spring for a projector screen wish to present a certain sense of wealth and intelligence in addition to the content of their presentations. It is easier to believe sales are up if the quarterly report is projected on an elegant ceiling recessed electric screen, like this Da-Lite Professional Electrol.

The screen manufacturers are ready to help people spend lavishly on their image. Would you believe the MSRP on these guys?

Da-Lite
Draper
Stewart

The consulting firm where I used to work would book presentations in hotel meeting and convention facilities because we got a powerful projector and a huge, flawless projector screen for less than if we had purchased them and brought them with us to simpler meeting spaces. Most of the time, we would try to get our clients to pick up the tab, so we did not pay either way.

Another way to manage the cost of using a projector screen to improve presentation quality is to look into less expensive brands. Quite a few brands are rushing to market with less expensive screens. Brands like Classic Screens, Mustang, Elite, and Grandview are gaining some buzz.

I am waiting for the dust to settle to see who wins in quality and price.