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Posts Tagged ‘printed’

What Are The Cheapest Printed USB Flash Drives You Can Buy

Monday, September 19th, 2011

If you’re looking to buy some USB flash drives printed with your company or school logo on then no doubt one of the criteria you’ll evaluate them against is cost. Getting a price of USB flash drives supplied in bulk and printed with your artwork on is not as straightforward as going to a web site and getting a price.

Twister USB Sticks

Twister USB Sticks

Why? Well, although some suppliers do put prices on their web sites those that do tend to have particularly high prices to cushion themselves against the daily fluctuations in the market. Buying USB drives in bulk is a bit like buying other commodities such as coffee, tea, gold or oil – they are all subject to the dynamics of the market and prices can be volatile, even within a single trading day.

Suppliers of promotional USB flash drives have to adjust their prices to take into account changes in the price if flash memory, seasonal supply and demand volatility and fluctuations in the exchange rate – all USB flash drives are purchased in USD ($) so when the Pound (£) weakens against the dollar prices increase.

The fluid nature of the market coupled with the fact that most companies looking to buy printed USB drives want them within a matter of days means that the best prices tend to be quoted on a “spot” basis and are only held for 2-3 days. So, to ensure you are getting the best price you need to shop around and get a couple of quotes from reputable suppliers.

When you get your quotes back do check to make sure that all of the costs are included and you’re not going to be landed with any nasty surprises – most good companies will include the print set-up, printing, data-loading and shipping costs. You also need to make sure that a low price does not equal a sub-standard product. Get reassurances about warranties, performance, read/write speeds and the grade of the flash memory being used in the USB stick.

There are some basic things you can do to reduce the likely cost of the flash drives you’re buying:

  • Only buy the memory you need – the most popular size for promotional or give-away USB sticks is 1GB. These are normally large enough to pre-load your own sales material onto and they have enough storage on them to be used by whoever you give them to (so your brand will get on-going exposure)
  • Buy the more popular models like the Twister Flash Drive – these get sold in the millions so they tend to be the cheapest option. Don’t be put off by this, they have remained popular over the years because they are an excellent drive, they’re a good size (physical size), they don’t have a cap to lose and they come in a wide range of colours.
  • Buy a sensible number of them in one go – you can order as little as 25 at a time but if you do this expect to pay a hefty premium. It’s simply because some fixed costs (print and carriage) have to be amortised across every order so on small orders every USB stick is picking up quite a high proportion of the fixed costs.
  • Allow at least 10 days for your order to be produced and delivered – you can get USB sticks in as little as 48hrs but typically these will be printed in the UK (rather than at the factories where they are made in China) so you’ll not only pay a premium for the UK print costs but you’re pay a premium for the “rush” service to get them to you.
Twister USB Flash Drives - The Cheapest Option

Twister USB Flash Drives - The Cheapest Option

If price is an issue then buy the twister, buy no bigger than a 1GB version and give yourself 10-days for the order to arrive.

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What Are The Cheapest Printed USB Flash Drives You Can Buy

Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Lets face it the vast majority of USB memory sticks that are handed out by companies these days are primarily given away to promote the brand that’s printed on the USB stick. Occasionally companies will load them with sales material (brochures, price lists, tech sheets, movie clips and links to web sites) but more often than not the USB sticks are just used as a “giveaway”.

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

As giveaways they work well because they have a high perceived value and the people they are given to will typically use them to store and carry their own data around with them – it’s this regular and repeated use that gets the company’s brand exposed over and over again and the fact that the brand is associated with something that has real personal value helps to build strong emotional ties to the brand.

If sensitive data is pre-loaded onto the USB memory sticks it’s a good idea to consider password protecting the data or even putting some form of encryption solution of the USB memory stick. You might also want to associate every USB stick you give out to a specific person or company and the easiest way to do this is get a unique serial number printed on every stick and record who you give each one to.

USB Serial Number

USB Serial Number

Some companies that distribute their sales brochures and distributor and reseller price lists on USB flash drives do this not so much to track them if they get lost but to create different “batches” of USB sticks (determined by a range of serial numbers) onto which they then pre-load different prices lists (with differing discount structures etc.). When your faced with 500 USB sticks they all look the same so a serial number is just a bit of a safety net to make sure the right person/company gets the right information – you also have an audit trail of who’s been sent what.

For companies that give flash drives out to their employees of schools and universities that hand them out to students, serial numbers are a handy way of recording who has been given which USB flash drive – this way if they get lost (and they will) they can be returned to the rightful owner.

Whilst the examples here show every USB drive uniquely marked with a serial numbers they could instead be engraved a persons or companies name if preferred – you just need to provide a spreadsheet with these details when you place any order

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Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Whether you’re buying USB flash drives to giveaway as a promotional item or buying them to handout to delegates at a seminar, conference or press event then you’ll need to consider whether you need them boxed or not.

Most USB flash drives are supplied in bulk, which typically means they are supplied in individual polythene bags or bubble bags and bundled into “fives” to make it easier to count them. Occasionally they are supplied in individual polythene bags and a plain white cardboard box – the “poly” bags protect the print on the flash drive and the outer cardboard box helps protect the flash drive itself.

Some companies charge for the plain (unprinted) gift boxes, others include them free of charge. A downside of any packaging around the USB flash drives is the time it takes to unpack them and re-pack them if you are planning on loading data onto them yourself before you hand them out!

So, if you are expecting your flash drives to come in boxes then it’s in your own interests to get any data loaded onto them before you take delivery of them – if not expect to spend a few tedious hours unpacking and packing and sitting in front of a PC and USB hub data-loading….not the best use of your time!

The standard plain white gift boxes most suppliers use can be printed which will lift the overall impact of the flash drives when they’re handed out. Typically this only adds a few pennies to the overall cost so it’s certainly worth considering. The examples shown here illustrate just how good branded USB flash drives look when supplied in printed gift boxes.

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Understandably some companies are anti-boxes and any unnecessary packaging because they want to push a strong environmental message but the boxes are primarily there to protect the flash drives in transit. Adding a print/logo to the boxes simply makes them look a little more professional. Yes, they’ll end up in a bin but they are made from recycled cardboard and they can be recycled when discarded so any environmental impact is tiny.

If you really want to push the boat out with your packaging then there is a huge range of packaging available including metal tin presentation boxes (with our without a window), plastic gift boxes with magnetic clasps and wooden (bamboo) gift boxes. Again these look fantastic but if you’re pushing an “eco” message its perhaps best to avoid the presentation tins and plastic boxes.

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Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Are you looking for a supplier for your branded USB memory sticks? With the range of “new” suppliers that keep popping up everyday it’s increasingly difficult to work out who to entrust with your order – after all, all USB flash drives are the same aren’t they?

The short answer is no – unfortunately there seems to be a lot of USB flash drives reaching the market that are not quite what they might appear at first glance so when you’re selecting a supplier you really do need to be on your mettle.

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Here’s just a few reasons why you should buy your promotional USB memory sticks from USB2U:

  1. We’ve been around for a while – USB2U has been supplying USB memory sticks and other USB related products via its sister company (USBNow.co.uk) since 2002. What we don’t know about the USB standard and products that use it probably isn’t worth knowing. In this time we’ve supplied millions of USB products to hundreds of thousands of customers.
  2. We’re trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world. As you might expect our customers’ range from small start-ups to some of the most powerful and respected companies in the world. The USB memory sticks we supply to these companies carry their brand so it’s their image and reputation that is on the line – no ifs, no buts, the USB sticks we supply not only have to look good but they have to work.
  3. We don’t and won’t supply cheap rubbish – we know a number of other companies are passing off masked or recycled Grade B as new Grade A flash drives – it’s normally pretty easy to tell:
    • The price is significantly cheaper than most other established and reputable suppliers can supply them at – often the price is that low that its cheaper than the core flash memory component is to buy in the flash commodity market.
    • The read/write speeds will be very, very slow – promotional flash drives are normally a little slower than flash drives you might buy in the high street but low quality drives can be significantly slower.
    • A masked drive that claims it’s a 1GB might in fact only be able to store say 600K of data – when you plug it into your PC it will say it’s a 1GB, it will even let you save nearly 1GB of data onto it but if you then try and read the data in another PC it mysteriously won’t be there!
  4. We offer a solid guarantee – our own reputation has been built over the last 9 years and we don’t let out customers down. If things go wrong and in reality it happens occasionally then we’re here to sort it out for you.
  5. Our prices might not be the cheapest but they reflect the best possible price we can offer without making any compromise on the quality of the core product – the USB flash drive. We offer immediate 30-day terms for all educational establishments and public sector organisations and we’re happy to consider requests for credit from all other companies.
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5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

Pantone Matching On USB Flash Drives – Not an Exact Science

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

If you want to make an impact with your printed promotional USB flash drives then one option available to you is to colour match, or pantone match as its commonly referred to, the body shell of the USB flash drive.

Most USB flash drives are manufactured in a range of standard colours with some of the more popular models like the Twister USB flash drive typically available in around 20 different colours. Obviously, the more standard colours there are available for a given model, the more likely it is that you are going to find a colour that works with, and compliments your company or school logo.

But, if you want a specific colour for your USB flash drive then the only option is to find a supplier not only willing to produce the flash drive in your preferred colour but to find one that is able to do it at a reasonable price. Pantone matching or colour matching the plastic that forms the shell of your chosen flash drive is a manual process, its adds time to the manufacturing schedule and it is not an exact science. These are all elements that build in cost and often the cost of pantone matching can be high, particularly if you only order a small number of USB flash drives – this is simply because some of the fixed costs involved in creating the specific colour of plastic to be used in the manufacture of your flash drive are amortised over a small number of USB sticks.

pantone colour book

The basic principle of pantone matching is that each final “mixed” colour is given a number (a pantone number) thus ensuring that this colour can be repeated over and over again by a printer to ensure consistency of print/colour. Pantone matching is the way in which companies manage consistency of brand and their brand logo. For example, every time you see the Coca Cola red it is the same red irrespective of where you are in the word, it’s the same with the Ford Motor Car Company blue or the Starbucks Coffee green. Consistency of colour and of brand representation is incredibly important to build consumer awareness, association and confidence.

However, a word of warning, even when you use pantone matching there is always going to be the possibility of minor colour variations because paint and dyes react different depending on the material they are applied to or mixed in with.  When pantone matching the plastic body shell of a USB flash drive there are three main issues to consider:

  1. The colour matched plastic used to form the shell of the flash drive body is mixed by hand so the end result is largely down to the experience of the individual undertaking the mixing.  Typical results are excellent but because it’s largely a manual process there is room for interpretation to creep into what many expect to be an exact science.
  2. Repeat orders of the same pantone matched USB flash drives may not be exactly the same. Because the process to create a pantone matched flash drive relies on a human to mix the colours with the core plastic material and it’ s therefore possible for there to be minor colour variations between each batch produced – this is no different from than when you buy rolls of wallpaper or some specialised paints -  batches will vary so be prepared for this. If you cannot accept any colour variations no matter how small from one batch to the next then consider buying blank “shells” from which future orders can be made.
  3. Pantone matched inks and dyes look different depending on the underlying material and colour they are applied to. So, if you are using a pantone matched ink and applying it to a white plastic it will look different compared to when the same ink or dye is applied to a silver metal clip (like the type used to form the out piece of the popular Twister USB flash drive)

Pantone matching promotional USB flash drives can create fantastic results and you’ll end up with a flash drive that is unique to your company but do be aware of the above “health warnings”. Although pantone colour coding was introduced to help reduce and ideally eradicate colour variations the reality is that minor colour variations will always occur when you are manufacturing a product that involves some degree of “manual” work and where the finished colour is applied to anything other than white paper.

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Pantone Matching On USB Flash Drives – Not an Exact Science

Spring has Definitely Sprung and USB Flash Drives Are Flourishing

Monday, March 28th, 2011

What a difference a few weeks make. It seems only yesterday that we were facing blizzard conditions with airports and roads closed and much of the UK’s infrastructure coming to a standstill. Look out of the window today and what a difference – the sun is up, temperatures are rising and despite all the doom and gloom about the economy, there’s a really positive feel in the air.

Spring is also a time when trade shows and trade fairs kick-off with a vengeance. Look at the schedule of forthcoming shows and you’re see a crammed diary with shows covering all manner of topics an subjects including flower shows, caravan fairs and birdwatching to name but a few. As we drag ourselves out of our “winter hibernation” many of the shows have a real Spring feel to them.

The exhibitors at these show and fairs invest huge sums of money to attract potential customers to their stands with the typical cost of attending a national show running into many thousands of pounds. For the larger companies a show budget running into six figures is not unusual.

Spring USB Flash Drives

Spring USB Flash Drives

The majority of the costs are taken up by fees to the shows organisers (space fees) and the costs of the booth or stand. Small “extras” at the show like power sockets, signage, carpets and build costs also add significantly to the typical spend.

Much of the job of driving customers to the shows tends to be left to the shows organisers but once the attendees are in the show halls its down to the exhibitors to get their stand to draw in the customers. Some companies will rely on the compelling nature of their products or offer to draw the customers in, others will be confident in the sales skills of their staff to lure customers to the stand but for many they’ll combine these with a “giveaway” that can be picked up on the stand.

Typical show giveaways include printed bags, promotional sweets (again, often branded with a logo), soft drinks, caps, pens and stress balls. Another technique is to run a business card draw for a larger gift like an iPad or iPhone – show attendees are simply encouraged to hand over a business card which in turn is included in the prize draw.

Another promotional product that is finding favour with exhibitors is the branded USB flash drive. These are customised versions of a standard flash drive that can be printed with the exhibitors company logo, phone number and web address and more importantly they can be pre-loaded with the exhibitors sales brochures, price lists, product images, video clips and audio files.

The beauty of the branded USB flash drive is that it has a high perceived value, it will, without doubt, be popular and attract customers and its costs can be offset by the saving made by not printing and transporting brochures etc. Unlike other “giveaways” that frequently end up in the bins outside of the exhibition halls USB flash drives will be kept and will, in most cases, be used again and again so any company using them will be assured on on-going brand exposure.

Whilst promotional products and giveaways typically account for less than 5% of a show budget it’s important that this spend works and is effective not only during the show but also ideally after the show. Branded USB flash drives deliver on this aspiration hence why more and more of them will be given away at trade show and fairs this year.

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Spring has Definitely Sprung and USB Flash Drives Are Flourishing

Portfolio of Branded USB Memory Sticks

Friday, March 25th, 2011

If you’re thinking of buying some branded USB memory sticks for your company, your school or your university and you’re in need of some inspiration then check out the USB2U Flickr pages.

On these pages you’ll find various different collections and sets of high quality images of branded memory sticks including the standard twister model, leather flash drives, USB credit card versions and some great examples of custom (fully bespoke) USB memory sticks.

USB2U Flickr Pages

USB2U Flickr Pages

The beauty of looking at these images is that they show you what real printed, engraved or embossed USB sticks look like when they produced. These are not “Photoshop” images created by some clever graphics guy but real photographs of jobs produced on behalf of customers.

There are hundreds of photographs in the collection including images of the range of presentation and gift boxes that the USB memory sticks can be supplied in. Some of the presentation boxes have been printed which again helps if this is an option you are considering.

The photographs help you to see just how good the print quality can be on these USB sticks but the quality of the finished product is dependent upon the quality of the original artwork supplied. To achieve this finish you need to be able to supply high-resolution images in either .ai (Adobe Illustrator) or .eps format and ideally the artwork needs to be vectorised. If you’re not sure what you have or what you need to supply just speak to your supplier’s graphic designer (assuming they have one)

The credit card USB flash drives shown on the Flickr pages also illustrate how much extra space you have to work with on these particular products. They’re ideal if you have a particularly large image or logo you want to print or an image that has lots of complex gradients and colours. As you’ll see from the examples combining a complex image with a phone number, a website URL and a strap line is easy. Credit Card USB’s are only marginally more expensive that standard USB flash drives and they work the same way so they’re strongly recommended for complex artwork jobs.

The USB2U Flickr pages are updated regularly so it’s worth bookmarking the page and checking back every now and then.

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Portfolio of Branded USB Memory Sticks

Branded USB Memory Sticks – 5 Reasons to Data Load

Friday, March 11th, 2011

If like thousands of companies and schools this year you are considering giving away (or in some cases selling) USB memory sticks with your logo or brand printed on them then there are some key points to consider. Some of the most basic things are to:

  • Ensure you have good quality artwork for your logo or brand. Don’t just “cut and paste” your logo from your web site and expect this to be suitable. You must have high resolution, print ready images otherwise the final print will appear “blotchy”.
  • Leave enough time – ideally allow at least 10 working days for the delivery of your order. The clock usually starts ticking on the 10 days from the point you sign-off your proof so you might want to factor in a couple of extra days to allow for this.
  • Branded USB memory sticks come in a wide range of styles, colours and materials. Choosing one that shows off your brand is not always easy so if your supplier offers a “free design and mock-up” service then make sure you take advantage of it to help you make the right decision.
  • Don’t pay for memory you are not going to use – a 1GB USB memory stick is the “norm” these days because these allow plenty of space to store data, they’re useful enough to encourage on-going usage but you won’t be paying a premium for storage you don’t need. Prices start to ramp up quite significantly when you get up to 4GB and beyond.
  • Make sure you buy from a reputable supplier. Unfortunately there are many unscrupulous suppliers of branded USB memory sticks around who tempt unwitting customers in with attractive prices only to deliver sticks made using recycled flash memory chips (prone to failure) or “masked” chips (low memory chips dressed up to look like larger chips).
Twister USB Memory Sticks

Twister USB Memory Sticks

When you’ve made your decision on what to buy and who to buy from don’t forget the option to pre-load the USB memory sticks with data before you take delivery of them. Here are 5 really good reasons why this makes senses:

  1. Print costs are expensive (even if you use your own printers) so it makes sense to pre-load onto your USB flash
    USB Data loading

    USB Data loading

    drives any sales brochures, technical documents, product guides, press releases and so on. By doing this not only will you save the cost of getting them printed but also you won’t have to pay transport costs to ship them around the country.

  2. Loaded data can include dynamic applications or links, which can start up as soon as the USB memory stick is inserted into a USB port on a PC or Mac. This is a great way to direct prospective customer to your web site or to get them engaged in an interactive brochure.
  3. Customers and clients prefer to take your brochures away on a USB stick rather than have to carry them around with them all day or evening – just check out the rubbish bins outside trade and retail shows and fairs, its shocking how many brochures are just dumped at the earliest opportunity. Put them on a flash drive that has a high-perceived value and it’s unlikely they suffer the same fate.
  4. Reduce your mailing costs – a number of large companies that historically have posted large catalogues or complex trade brochures are now pre-loading these onto USB sticks and mailing the sticks out. The cost savings on the postage can more than offset the cost of buying the USB memory sticks.
  5. By getting the data pre-loaded when your branded USB memory sticks are produced you save the heartache of having to load them yourself. Don’t underestimate how long this can take. Specialist suppliers use professional data-loading equipment that can load 20-30 sticks at a time and then check the data has loaded correctly and without any viruses.

Our advice is to use the memory space on a USB stick before you distribute them – its criminal not to particularly as most suppliers will load data free of charge these days!

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Branded USB Memory Sticks – 5 Reasons to Data Load

Black and Yellow – A Huge Hit (and with USB Flash Drives)

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Love it or hate it (and I guess it’s a song that has a resonance with a certain age group) the song Black and Yellow has been a massive hit around the world. The song was released by American black rapper Wiz Khalifia on September 14th 2010 and reached No 1 on the US Billboard Charts in February 2011. So far over 2.5 million digital copies of Black and Yellow have been sold.

Black and Yellow USB Flash Drives

Black and Yellow USB Flash Drives

The song’s title pays homage to the colours of the City of Pittsburg and its various sports teams who mostly play in “black and yellow” strips. The most notable being the Pittsburg Steelers, the City’s local football team.

In the branded USB Flash Drive market the colours Black and Yellow are also proving popular because they’re an incredibly striking and powerful combination. Printing black text on a strong yellow background lifts the text and really makes the USB flash drive stand out – they’re certainly hard to avoid!

Black and Yellow Flash Drives

Black and Yellow Flash Drives

Of course, it helps if your brand or company colours are black and yellow to start with but even if they’re not its worth thinking about whether this colour combination could work for you. If not you might want to think about using two other strong colours to use – sometimes the old adage “less is more” is a useful guide when printing flash drives.

By using fewer colours the finished USB drives will be cheaper because you typically pay a fee per colour and

Black and Yellow Twister

Black and Yellow Twister

potentially they’ll be stronger on the eye. The objective with promotional USB flash drives is primarily to get the recipients to build some affinity with your brand and to buy your products or services. So, starting with a flash drive that is striking and crystal clear in terms of the message you want to get out will help.

If you’re not sure what colours will work best for you then throw the challenge and your USB flash drive supplier. Most good and reputable suppliers will have in-house designers whose job is to help customers visualise the options and get the best from their budget.

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Black and Yellow – A Huge Hit (and with USB Flash Drives)

Different Ways to Brand a Twister USB Memory Stick

Monday, March 7th, 2011

One of the most popular styles of USB memory stick is the Twister model. It’s small, easy to use, has no cap to lose and it comes in a huge range of different colours and memory sizes.

The metal “clip” that forms part of the body shell swivels or “twists” (hence the name Twister) to protect the USB connector when not in use – these “clips” are typically manufactured from brushed aluminium and it’s the “clips” that carry the branding or logo.

Branded USB Memory Sticks - Twister

Branded USB Memory Sticks - Twister

Because of the sheer volume of Twister USB Memory Sticks that are produced they tend to be one of the cheapest models available but don’t let their relative cheapness put you off – they look stunning when done well and when the right colour body shell is chosen to compliment the logo printed on them.

Various USB Sticks Memory Sticks

Various USB Sticks Memory Sticks

Whilst most of them are printed using standard printing techniques there are various ways in which the Twister can be branded including:

  • Spot colour printing – each colour is printed one at a time and allowed to dry between each colour so the final image is built up over the print process. Spot printing is the most popular option and whilst the finished print looks great spot printing is not suitable for highly complex logo’s with lots of gradients or shading or for logo’s with more than four colours
  • Full colour print process – this is the slightly moiré expensive print option but it produced photo-realistic finishes and can handle complex images.
  • Engraving – the logo or design can be “etched” into the metal clip of the Twister and this etching can be coloured to improve its visibility.
  • Epoxy dome resin stickers – the word “sticker” has a tendency to conjure up the wrong impression of what Twisters branded using this technique look like. An epoxy dome resin sticker is a high quality, full colour print that is encased in a resin so you get the benefits of a high quality printed combined with a protective case over the print. They look fantastic and have been used by lots of leading branding including BT and Microsoft just to name two.

Irrespective of which printing method you choose don’t forget you can also pantone match the body shell of the Twister USB memory stick – so, instead of just going with one of the standard factory colours you can choose your own colour. Pantone matching is a great way to make your Twister sticks stand out and grab people’s attention.

Twister Memory Sticks - Full Colour Process

Twister Memory Sticks - Full Colour Process

With the comprehensive range of printing options available to the Twister coupled with free or inexpensive colour matching of the shell its easy to see why its such a popular choice.

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Different Ways to Brand a Twister USB Memory Stick
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