Paper Buyers Catch "e-Wave"

"One common misperception is that PaperExchange.com is an auction site, which it is not," he says. "An auction carries an obligation for both parties. It is the simple minimization or maximization of one variable, and that's price."

Necessary Ingredients
"In an exchange, the buyer and seller can evaluate all of the tradeoffs common in business-to-business transactions and paper transactions: price, quality, delivery dates, service, warranty," Carroll says. "We feel the exchange is a much better model for replicating the manner in which printers buy paper."

Another misperception of PaperExchange is that it's only a venue for second-tier paper—job lot and off-quality grades. While second-tier paper is available through the site, Carroll stresses that high-quality paper is abundant at

PaperExchange.com. The site has become a melting pot for all grades.

Speaking of high quality, Carroll believes the site itself boasts the "most elegant and robust technology available." Navigation throughout the site is fast and user friendly.

Some printers are in the process of investigating PaperExchange, as well as other Internet options, for procuring paper consumables. Two major North American printers agreed to speak with Printing

Impressions on the condition they not be identified, as to not compromise the integrity of existing agreements with paper distributors.

"I think the principle advantage to using a site like this is anonymity—the potential to see where price points are," one purchaser said. "The paper industry has a characteristic that it sells the same product at the same time to different people for different prices. That's not economically rational. It only exists because of a lack of information. Services of this type could challenge that business model."