An honest answer starts with an inconvenient fact: a box has no “price per piece” on its own — there is a price of the run. The run passes through a chain of operations — board, printing, die-cutting, gluing, finishing — and a large share of the cost is fixed: printing plates, the cutting die, machine make-ready. The bigger the run, the more boxes those fixed costs are divided by, which is why the same box at 5,000 pieces can cost several times less than at 300.
So instead of the usual “it depends on the quantity”, below are “from” ranges built not on a price list but on our printing house’s real orders from 2025–2026. All prices are in Moldovan lei (MDL), VAT included. They are a guide, not an offer; an exact quote from your artwork takes a couple of hours.
Three ways to make a box — three different economics
1. Offset + die-cutting — the main route for production runs. Medium and large runs are printed on offset presses (ours are Heidelberg Speedmaster and Manroland), die-cut on Bobst presses and glued on an automatic folder-gluer. The fixed costs of plates and die dissolve in the volume — which is how you get the best price per piece and stable colour from run to run.
2. An existing cutting die — a production run without paying for tooling. A box is cut out with a die; a new structural design means designing and manufacturing one — money and days. Our archive holds more than 3,000 ready dies: if the structure matches, that cost disappears from the calculation entirely. Asking “do you have a die for my size?” is the cheapest way to lower the price.
3. Digital + plotter — a prototype or a small batch in 1–2 days. Digital printing with plotter cutting needs no plates and no die: a physical sample or a pilot batch is ready in 1–2 days. The usual client path: prototype → pilot batch printed digitally → production run on offset.
Price ranges by product type
All figures are MDL with VAT; “from” is the lower guide of real 2025–2026 runs.
Self-assembly folding boxes
| Quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| 100–300 pcs | from 18 lei/pc |
| 300–1000 pcs | from 8 lei/pc |
| 1000+ pcs | from 2.50 lei/pc |
The most popular category of cardboard packaging; size and board are chosen to fit the product.
Window boxes
| Quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| 300–1000 pcs | from 10 lei/pc |
| 1000+ pcs | from 3.50 lei/pc |
We deliberately do not publish a range for runs under 300 pieces: a window truly pays off from 1,000 pcs — gluing in the transparent film amortizes on volume.
Cake and bento boxes
| Quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| 300–1000 pcs | from 14 lei/pc |
| 1000+ pcs | from 6 lei/pc |
For confectioneries and HoReCa — made of board approved for food contact; details on the food and HoReCa packaging page.
Leaflets
| Quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| 100–300 pcs | from 7 lei/pc |
| 300–1000 pcs | from 4.50 lei/pc |
| 1000+ pcs | from 1.50 lei/pc |
A euro-fold leaflet is cheaper, A4 on heavy paper is more expensive; the range covers all formats.
Labels
| Total order quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| 100–300 pcs | from 3 lei/pc |
| 300–1000 pcs | from 0.90 lei/pc |
| 1000+ pcs | from 0.30 lei/pc |
An important note: the quantity counts across the whole order. Different label designs are printed in a single press run, so 4 designs of 250 pieces each cost like a run of 1,000, not like four runs of 250.
Rigid VIP boxes
| Quantity | Price |
|—|—|
| ~30 pcs | from 250 lei/pc |
| ~100 pcs | from 150 lei/pc |
| ~500 pcs | from 90 lei/pc |
| ~1000 pcs | from 30 lei/pc |
Rigid lid-and-base boxes — lamination over greyboard, magnets, inserts — are a separate economy with a large share of manual and line assembly, hence the separate grid. Details on the rigid boxes page.
What affects the price besides quantity
Within each category the spread is several-fold, and it comes from understandable things: size (how many boxes fit on the printing sheet), board (coated, micro-flute, greyboard), lamination, hot-foil stamping, a window, and the complexity of the structure and assembly. That is why an honest price is calculated from a specific artwork, not from a table.
Why “from” — and where to get the exact price
The ranges above are not a price list: they are the lower guide from real 2025–2026 orders, which contain different structures, materials and terms. Your price may differ — in either direction. The exact one is calculated operation by operation: board, printing, die-cutting, gluing, finishing — each operation with its own norm. We are the first printing house in Moldova to work openly on a production MIS, since 2014, so such a calculation takes not days but a couple of hours, and one reply contains 2–3 variants: a different quantity, a different board, with or without finishing. The whole path of an order is described on the Order process page.
Further reading: how to choose a printing house in Moldova — criteria you can verify before ordering; about us — history and numbers; box prototype — a sample before the run.
Frequently asked questions
Why don’t you have an online price calculator?
Because a calculator works from an averaged price grid, while the real price is built from the operations of a specific job: sheet layout, board, die, finishing. A grid either pads the price “to be safe” or promises what cannot be delivered. Our operation-based calculation is more precise: send the dimensions and quantity — within a couple of hours you get exact figures, with 2–3 variants at once.
Why are the prices “from”, and what will my price be?
“From” is the lower guide from real 2025–2026 orders, not an offer. Within a category prices differ several-fold because of size, board and finishing. An exact price from your artwork or dimensions is calculated within a couple of hours.
Why does a window box only pay off from 1,000 pieces?
Gluing in the transparent film is a separate operation with its own make-ready: on a small run it makes every box noticeably more expensive, while from 1,000 pieces it dissolves in the volume. For small runs a die-cut window without film is often the better choice.
Can I order 50–100 boxes?
Yes, but by a different route: small quantities are printed digitally with plotter cutting — in 1–2 days, without plates or a die. Rigid VIP boxes are ordered from ~30 pieces — from 250 lei/pc.
Do the prices include VAT?
Yes, all ranges are in Moldovan lei with VAT — based on real orders of our Chisinau production in 2025–2026.
What should I send to get an exact quote?
The product’s dimensions or a sample of the goods, the quantity (ideally 2–3 options) and the purpose — especially whether there will be food contact. Artwork is optional: the technologist will propose the structural design and layout. The exact price — within a couple of hours.