Wholesale Card Sales

Perhaps blank cards and envelopes and then have some 4x6 prints printed up. Get yourself a can of spray adhesive spray on back of photo place it on the front of the card. This will work for some small runs of cards but if you are wanting to mass produce them then not sure where abouts to have them printed at reasonable rates.

If you buy a pack of 25 cards through FAA, the price including S&H should be less than 45, which puts each card at less than two dollars to buy. I'm sure there are cheaper places though through the net. I know the quality is really good here and I'm not sure if the quality would be as good anywhere else. I have thought about trying to sale some this way, but don't believe I will tis year. I do plan on sending some out though to friends, family and co-workers.

Now if you're trying to buy one card at a time and resale, yeah, that's probably not worth the trouble.

I make my own.....with a clear sleeve, on metallic stock with matching, embossed envelope, it costs about $1

Wow, Marlene. Where do you get the stock and envelopes? Sounds like a deal. I've begun looking on Amazon...but...

My partner is a print broker so I get wholesale pricing...and we buy the largest sheets in big quantities and cut to 10x7...much cheaper that way.

I print my own, and everything is less than $1. I buy my cards from redRiverpaper.com. Note - my cost is cheap because i Use a 17" printer; the ink costs on a smaller printer are much greater (however cost should still be in the $1 range).

I do buy my cards from FAA to sell at art fairs and craft festivals. I buy them in quantities of 10 each, which makes them $1.95 apiece, and then I sell them for $5.00 each. They are dependably good sellers for me, and I feel like the quality of the cards justifies the price.

The only card I sold here was purchased by a member. She held a contest and mine was one of the 100 she selected to purchase and then display in one of two places in her town. An art gallery, and a gift shop.

I am not sure how successful the project was.

Best of luck Peggy. As you pointed out, it's cost to you that hurts. I made a few thousand dollars a year at one time with cards, but to be honest the return was not worth the time invested. Even with the solid network of retail locations I have, I thought it was not worthwhile. Too much hands on, fingerprint job.. I was pleased to walk away from the card sales racket.

If it's something you really wish to take a swing at, look up Red River Paper. They sell good card stock in bulk, and they have templates to download for your printer. Including ink, your cost will be in the 1.00 per unit range. From that point, you need to consider wholesale bulk cost to your retailer who in turn needs to make a profit to reap the benefits of using you. It's likely they will push for sales under $5.00 per unit to move them rapidly and also looking for a $2.75 per unit profit each. The math spells out your wiggle room is about $1.25 profit each....Just something to ponder

thanks everyone for the good suggestions....I'm starting to wonder as you said Thomas, so much fiddley work for so little return. Anytime theres middle men any profit is so little.
I've been bummed ever since Leaning Tree cards sold out and have lowered their standards. I checked into them a few years ago and found out they will set you up with one of those spinner card racks full of cards for about $800. This has been a few years ago, but it figured out to about $1.00 a card.
Can't compete with that.

http://us.moo.com/products/greeting-cards.html

Use this coupon and you get 10% off

I love Moo because they allow you to print more than one image. With most companies like Modern Postcard you have to order 250-500 per image to get a good price.

If printing in bulk, I have used a website nextdayflyers.com. I think I heard about it on these forums here. Prices start at about 75$ for 50 including shipping and envelopes. I've also been able to find clear sleaves for about 7cents a piece. Only thing you have to do is fold them! Cheaper if you get lots of 100 or more.

Although, I can't promise this is slways the case, I often recieve 60-70 cards (or more) even though the order was only for 50 so it comes out to just about 1.10 a piece and I don't need to print them. At art fairs I sell for 4 each and in bulk for a bit less.

As said above though...you have to sell a LOT to really make it worth it. If you know you can sell, buy in bulk and go for it....but be warned.. A few hundred cards are heaven and take up space :)

Good luck,
Matt

Yea Peggy, it's that third party that throws the curveball. I've had a handful of retail vendors that were just thrilled to allow me to set up a little shop in their store, set the pricing and restock monthly. Since they were "touristic" shops in my scenic corner of New England I could price retail over $7.00 per card. The cards were regional scenic icons and fall foliage scenes, I would gross $200.00 in a slow month, and peaked at $600.00 at one specific location for October. They took 30% commission, came to around $2.25 ea. and my cost was just under $2.00 ea. using "Photographers Edge". (they are a rip-off) The net profit was only in the neighborhood of 2.00 per card.

Other retailers I engaged with while I wholesaled cards I found had NO understanding of the "impulse purchase" at the register. I told one very hard edged woman that I honestly have no idea how she plans to stay in business with her tactics. Sure enough, she lasted in this very busy little town just under 2 years....and yes I did stop by to rub her nasty nose in it. My experiences proved that most retail locations have zero knowledge on how to appropriately market the product in their store, and of course they mostly felt they knew much more than I do about how to market them.

That's just the range of mindsets you'll cross trying to establish a network of good retailers. My math dictated that about 85% of all my card sales were sold by only 15% of my retail partners!! The 15-20% of retailers are out there however, it's just finding them..

Just another thought to add. If you do print them, make sure they have your name, website and maybe even a scannable QR code to direct buyers back to your website. This will allow both buyers and those that receive the card to find your wok. A profit of 2 or 3 $ is nice...but if it leads to a web traffic/print sale...that's even better!

Matt

You can buy real nice spinner card stands online for very reasonable prices....table top ones as well.
When I wholesale to places to resell, I throw in the spinner of the order is large enough.