On selling Greeting/Note cards

[E.B. West]

I'm toying with the idea of having some cards printed up for sale. They will be for a limited audience so I'm not sure where it will go. Does anybody out there print or have printed cards for sale? If so, who does the printing? I have several other questions but I wait to see if anyone does this.

Thanks.

[Osprey Whisperer]

I do greeting cards. I've printed my own before...and have also tried a few of the online printers. Truth is ...that I've not found anyone that I really like, yet. Just can't seem to find the feeland quality of the card I'm looking for. I think I'll have to go to a real print house and get thousands made to get the "professional" look I want. Vista prints are pretty cheap if you get one of their "free" specials. Not the best qauality printing and stock...but not horrible. I like the price (free..sort of) for testing out images. I think of this company as my "rough draft printer". I find their online specials for free. They are not really free...as you pay for shipping , which IMO is slightly overpriced...but not too bad. I had some business cards printed up tehre. Think I got 250 deluxe cards for like $7. They ....did not meet my expectations...but again..were not too bad. I am pretty picky about the look and feel of my cards. I usually look for specials, to try out a service before I make a large order. Unfortunately....I'm usally not impressed. One of these days. :-)

For short, special cards, I print my own on heavy photo paper and hand trim and fold them. These are usually for family members and friends. I do an anual Christmas/Season's greetings card. Probably print out about 30 of these. yeah...I don't have too many friends or family. *-)

Good luck finding a reliable, affordable, quality printer. Let me know if you find one. LOL

We had a saying at school......regardikng graphic design. Products/work come in many forms...but if you want them.... Good, Fast, Cheap....Good Luck!!!! You can only pick two characteristics at one time.

[E.B. West]

Thanks Mike. I went to about 5 different online printers and asked for samples. Once we are ready to give it a try I'll try a small order at one of them. Then figure out if it's really worth the trouble.

[billw]

EB; I have printed a couple of note cards just to experiment.
We are distributors for a company that sells a 15 pack of mat photo stock note cards.
They are 10X 7 and fold to make a five by seven note card and come with envelopes.
That pack sells for about $12.00 and is printable on an inkjet photo printer.

[Jeff JTPhoto]

EB I just buy Avery card stock and print my own. In the end I get the quality I want for a particular application by purchasing the quality of card stock required. I haven't found a print shop that can put out that kind of quality in small numbers for an acceptable price.

[ricwis]

EB:
Before I retired to do just this photo stuff, I worked in a store that sold all kinds of treats and goodies for wild birds, including nutritious meal makings. In addition, we had many things for the backyard like bird baths and other merchandise including gifts. And a greeting card rack. A photographer friend I know has an incredible collection of wild bird photos from all over the country and he would have them printed at Costco on card stock as greeting cards. They were done up nicely in clear plastic sleeves with an envelope. We sold them in the store. They did not sell very well. At $3.75 US$, you would think they would being from a local artist, of excellent photo quality, and in a store whose customers liked the wildlife. Same thing with my photo books. Very hard to sell. Don't know why, other than many think because it is a local person, they should be cheap.

[David Cramer]

If you are printing a small number, you can get best quality by doing them yourself. I print and sell thousands of them, so I use shutterfly.com. I purchase the prepaid plan (500 or 1000 at a time) which lowers the cost, and they put my business logo on the back of the card. A couple of times a year they offer free shipping on prepaid plans, so I try to stock up! That makes the card priced at about 95 cents each. I sell them for $3. The quality is decent, but I do find that over time, some batches of the same image come out a little different. What I like about this deal is I can have a thousand cards, each with a different image on them if I wanted. You'll get the cheapest price but best quality from a local printing company, but you usually have to order 500-1000 of a single image. Everyone I know who has done that ends up with boxes of cards in their garage. Good luck!

[E.B. West]

Thanks a lot for the responses. We're still just toying with this idea and I'm not sure were it's going, if anywhere. We still have some exploring to do.

Thanks again, I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.