Everyday worldwide thousands of portable display stands, such as pop up stands and banner stands are bought by uneducated buyers. With an ever increasing number of exhibition and display companies competing for trade on the internet, it's easy to see why these novice shoppers are sucked into a purchase that they believe to be an unbelievable bargain; only to find out in a few short days, weeks or months that they have bought shoddy goods - and to make it worse there is little or nothing they can do about it.

If you're exhibiting at a trade-show or attending an event then it's almost certain that you'll be getting at least a few large display items printed (such as pop up display stands, banner stands etc) with your marketing messages, company logo's, products and services, however if there was ever an area where unscrupulous suppliers cut corners on the internet then this would be it.

In a recent survey conducted by us, we found that an incredible 78% of people bought a pop up stand with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about the product they where buying!

Rogue traders know this and are using a huge arsenal of shortcuts to ensure that they get their hands on your hard earned cash.

Here are just four of those tricks for you to look out for when preparing yourself for a purchase:

Shortcut 1 -- Far East Printing

This is a great trick, which a few suppliers adopt to advertise almost unbelievable prices for items such as pop-up stands and banner stands. The supplier gives the impression that they are doing all the work themselves but instead pass the entire job to an associate in the Far East. In principle this isn't a problem but remember that whilst the price looks good, the artwork is unlikely to be checked by a natural speaking English speaker, the delivery times are huge (approx 30 days!) and don't even think about what would happen if there was the need for a reprint. Take this route at your peril.

Quick tip -- Always ask where your stand will be printed.

Shortcut 2 -- Print Quality

Most people buy their pop up stand with no idea of the quality of print that will be used on their stand. Whilst most suppliers these days have good quality printing machines installed, it is worth mentioning that not all will print your graphics at the correct quality setting - this is more about them speeding the print up to get a greater throughput of work than anything else. For exhibition purposes where customers are often close to the graphics you need to ensure that you have a minimum of 720dpi for print quality. Many suppliers have printing machines that are more suitable for external signs, which are viewed at a greater distance so the quality doesn't need to be as good.

Quick tip -- If in doubt request a sample of their print to be sent to you.

Shortcut 3 -- The Material

This is the most widely used trick. It's incredibly simple and amazingly common. The supplier produces the graphics for your pop up display stand on a lesser grade material or thickness in order to keep the prices down and the reprints high! Many, many people find out the hard way when they get graphics that rip, tear or let the background light through (this completely bleaches the printed image!).

Quick tip -- Always check like for like on materials between different suppliers.

Shortcut 4 -- The Laminate

Unless your graphics are being printed on a solvent printer (which isn't that usual) or you don't need the graphics for more than a couple of days ensure that you get a laminate applied. Suppliers are quick to keep this as an extra to again keep prices down and reprints high, however if you leave your prints un-laminated then several things will happen. Firstly, the graphics will fade over time but probably more importantly they will mark and scratch almost the moment they are touched. For the very little extra cost of a laminate your graphics could last one hundred times longer!