blue-ultra wrote:
Hello All,
I am looking to produce a limited number of Christmas cards. Probably around 0ne to two hundred. These will be for sale not personal use.
I am looking for a company that can do this without costing so much they would be unsaleable.
Is there anyone here that has experience with this type of project and would you recommend them?
Thank you in advance for any advice.
Bob
I usually do my own cards, though not in such quantity. I create unique ones, designed for one person, for one reason or event. Nothing too fancy. There is a lot of software for making cards, including templates that come for free with word processing software, such as Microsoft Word.
I assume you want 200 copies of the same card, not 200 unique cards. I’m going to guess you want a photo on them, which is why you posted your question in this forum.
Any office supply house will print a large quantity of your files for a reasonable fee. If it is B&W it should be close to a dime a page. Color may be $0.25 to $1.00 a page. Often the price drops with a larger quantity.
A greeting card is nothing more than a piece of cardstock, matte or glossy, which has been folded. The cardstock is easy to find at most office supply stores. You can easily fold these by hand, or some office supply stores will fold them for you, for a fee.
The bigger problem (and cost) with making your own cards is finding the envelopes. You want to get ‘baronial’ envelopes. For larger cards ( unless you are in a metric country) you’ll use 8.5x11 paper, folded in half to be 5.5” x8.5”. These cards are printed on both sides, which may increase the printing costs. Some people have the color printed by an outside vendor, and print the interior of the card on an inkjet or laser printer at home. For these you’ll want 5.75 x 8.75 envelopes.
If you double fold the card, you print on only one side of the page and end up with a card 5.5” x 4.25”, which fits in a Baronial envelope that is 1/8” to 1/4” larger in both length and width. Office supply stores have Baronial envelopes, or can order them.
Amazon sells these for about $15 for 100
https://a.co/d/1KbI3S2They also stock different sized envelopes which you might prefer. Some of these require you to trim your paper before folding it: easy enough with a paper cutter, or even a simple knife and straight edge.
On Amazon You can also find ‘invitation’ kits which have the envelopes and a heavy matching paper or cardstock ( often scored for easy folding).
Paper supply companies who sell paper to print shops have a much better assortment of papers and matching envelopes. Since they usually deal with print shops they usually sell in large quantities, and may have a minimum order size. But they may be able to get a ‘sample’ of a few hundred pages or envelopes from the paper mill that supplies them. Samples are fairly common in the printing trade as the printers will often run tests on paper and ink to check compatibility, and press feeding, before committing to buying a large amount.
Google local print shops in your area if you do not want to do a lot of the work. They are a vanishing breed, mostly replaced by FedEx/Kinko storefronts, and the service counters at office supply stores.
If you have a printer and envelopes it is simple to print your own. Once you have a template it is quick to change the wording (Happy Birthday, gets replaced by Best Wishes On Your Anniversary, Retirement, Promotion, etc). If you have someone print these for you, you will probably want to do this first, anyhow.