I've also tried different types of printers while troubleshooting this. I was testing by printing to CutePDF; I also tried having my default set to an actual printer. I was sure it shouldn't matter but I figured I would rule it out.

I also tried working backwards through the macro that makes the plot. I tried removing the original graph footer created in the make a plot macro, didn't help.

If I leave the graph on the tab it is created in and do print preview (with the spreadsheet data still visible behind the graph), the beforeprint footer DOES show up. If I just select the graph for print preview, the beforeprint footer DOES NOT show up. But neither do I get the runtime error in this case. Is it possible what I am seeing is just how Excel handles the beforeprint event for a graph?