blue-ultra Loc: New Hampshire

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

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

You are up against stiff competition from Amazon and Walmart. Good luck!

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I do art fairs and sell a lot of cards. I purchased stock from Photographers' Edge, used some of my own Christmasy pictures and made up a bunch. It took a long time to sell them. No one seems to send cards anymore, or if they do it's the ones of their family vacation that they print at Walmart themselves. And, it's impossible to compete in price with the boxed cards one can find on the market.

Ufauxreal

I use Vistaprint to print my own image and messages. I don’t sell them so you would have to check their prices to see if it would work for you. They do a good job, the paper they use seems to be good quality.

MrPhotog

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/1KbI3S2

They 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.

blue-ultra Loc: New Hampshire

[quote=MrPhotog]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.

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I think I will explore some of your options. Just so you know what I am trying to do is to appeal to local folks who have shown me their desire to have this image on a Christmas card.

(Download)

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

[quote=blue-ultra]

Hallmark would make a ton of cash from this beauty 💰💰💰💰💰

BebuLamar

For only 100 to 200 cards I don't think you can do photo quality offset printing. When I worked for the printing company they would run a 1000 copies of the LP album but they would have to charge quite a bit. They wouldn't do anything less than that. The press can do 17000 copies per hour and it takes several hours to set it up not counting the labor and material to make the plates. So if your card involves photo they has to be done with inkjet which is quite expensive per card.

MrPhotog

I used to get sales materials from companies that offset-printed catalog sheets, brochures, post cards, and such. Their minimums were usually 3000, after that, though, their price per page dropped rapidly. That was far more than my typical customer might need. A lot of that business has been taken over by high speed, high capacity, laser printers. There is no need to spend time, labor, and materials on halftone photos or color separations, so there can be much smaller minimum orders. These seem to be the types of machines used at the Office Depot ( and similar office supply store) service counters. Ink jet is not the only option.

MrPhotog

Consider having just that printed, and the card not folded. You could then run these through another printer to personalize the interior, or sell them with envelopes as a kit, for others to personalize on their own home printers.

If you are selling these at a craft fair you could do the personalization at your booth with a laptop computer and a small printer.

Lovely picture, by the way. Have you tried it as a blue-tinted, or straight black and white image with just ‘spot color’ on the red areas?

kmielen Loc: Eastern NC

You might take a look at what White House Custom Colour (WHCC) has to offer...
https://www.whcc.com/products/folded-cards/#pricing

David Pictures

Hello. I am thinking of doing what you are doing. How long did it take to sell the cards? Was it hard to create your business?
David

blue-ultra Loc: New Hampshire

[quote=MrPhotog]Consider having just that printed, and the card not folded. You could then run these through another printer to personalize the interior, or sell them with envelopes as a kit, for others to personalize on their own home printers.

I guess I was not very clear on how I wanted to move forward. I am satisfied with what I have been able to do so far.

I am creating small orders 6 - 24. Each customer is able to personalize the card and they are happy. Others with orders less than 6 have been satisfied with the card as I printed it...

However, I want to say thank you for all the valuable information you have provided. You have a lot to offer and you have some very good ideas.
Again, Thank you!!!

Bob

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

If you have an Epson eco tank printer or similar you can print your own. Just make sure to get “scored” card stock.
As someone pointed out, cards are a hard sell. Consider packaging them in boxes of 5 or 6. Or maybe you have.

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Perhaps a little more information. Do you want unfolded 2 sided? 2 sided folded? Tri-fold 2 sided? Any (limited by the size of your printer) can be produced on your own printer with a careful measurement and a 12 inch paper slicer. Determine what envelope size(s) you want to use; design the card size to fit; put as many as you can to each page; print text sides first; let dry 24 hours; print fancy side; let dry 24 hours; fold as needed. Or check out Shutterfly. I have no idea what they charge, but they will print client-designed cards.