Pictures on Postcards

<p>Hello I am thinking of trying to find a niche in postcard photography. Like having birthday cards, get well cards, etc. etc. made but with fine art photography on them. Does anyone know of a good company that can allow for your photos to be uploaded to them and cards be produced and mailed to you? maybe with short sayings in a custom font?<br>

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome. Thank you<br>

Glenn</p>

glenn are you thinking of making money at this? is it just for fun? is it part of an overall marketing

campaign, or a way for you to get some material "out?" are you going to retail them, or whole sale

them? If so, you'll have to go over sea's with your printing, or find a post card company that will handle

this, or if you plan to print in USA be able to get a lot more for your cards than anyone else is getting

these days. . . To get the price per unit down you need to print 10's of thousands of post cards, again

unless you have a way of selling your cards for more than the 20-45 cents that people pay now a days

for them.

 

the key to post cards is volume and retail locations . . . if you have a ton of great retail locations and

can move thousands of cards, it might be worth the effort. If not, your cost to entry is huge and your

return will be in the black for a long long time . . .

 

as for printer, google post card printing . . . there's are literally dozens of them . .

 

ps print, overnight prints, printing for less, next day flyer all come to mind right off the bat . . . like i said

though, youre going to have to order 1000's or find a printer over seas and still buy 1000's and be

able to sell the heck out of them . . .

<p>Tony, well said...I agree with all your points about this endeavor. However, I believe you meant "...in the red..." in your statement "...If not, your cost will be in the black for a long, long time...", ("in the black" meaning "<em>profitable</em>"). Thanks!</p>

<p>hey guys, thanks for the input. I do plan on making money at this and no its not to get my name out. I didnt mean the typical postcard that comes to mind to most people. That was the wrong word. I am really imagining being a competitor to something like Hallmark with cards, but I would be small time and sell high quality cards. Instead of generic designs that hallmark uses on everything, I would offer something very nice with fine art and quality stock paper. Many of them might be blank. It would be very seasonal - xmas would be a popular time for example. maybe in the 4-5$ range for a card? It doesnt have to produce rock solid results immediately. It just seems like selling at the local farmers market for a $18/day booth would allow for a high profit potential at the get go with little cost.</p>

<p>What you are talking about are called greeting cards. That you don't know this is a bit of a concern, because it means you haven't taken the time to research the industry and don't know what the trends are.</p>

<p>Those trends are pretty dreary, too. Sales have been steadily dropping for years, and outlets are decreasing. You mention Christmas - Christmas cards have seen more of a drop than other types of greeting cards. Also, people tend to purchase boxes of cards for Christmas, and that's not going to happen for expensive cards.</p>

<p>$18/day sounds good, it's a pretty low price, but you have to factor in a tent, attractive display racks, credit card processing (if you want to sell more than one or two at a time) and inventory costs for cards that don't sell. On the production cost side, if you buy them online, card plus envelope runs at least $1.15 each with quality materials and a hardcopy proof for at least 50 at a time. If you buy 50/design, that's going to add up quickly. If you print yourself, you have to factor in the card stock, envelopes, ink, waste, and probably time, and it may not be any cheaper, although you don't have to print 50 of each design.</p>

<p>Also, when you talk about "generic designs" from Hallmark - are you aware that Hallmark alone has 23,000 card designs coming from 700 artists? And people can buy them seven days a week.</p>

<p>Look at this as a business and see if it makes sense. Simply thinking that there is a niche there isn't a good way to start a business.</p>

steve, yes i did mean in the red . . . sorry . . .

 

you can get cards with envelopes for less than $1.15 . . . but you need to buying them in the 1,000's.

even at 1.15 you cant really make enough money to make cards worth the effort - i sell my own cards in

my own gallery and the ONLY way i make money is because they are fine art cards, i pay to have them

printed and i also sell them retail at my own retail location - in an art gallery . . . they are not big money

makers but they do help offset the light bill . . .

<p>No problem, Tony...you make excellent points! Back in my film days, I used to create postcards on Kodak B&W Postcard paper. Never tried selling them...they really were meant just for promotional purposes. (And not exactly Ansel Adams' Quality either!) :-/</p>

<p><a href="http://www.doubleupaper.com/subcat.asp?cat=Specialty">http://www.doubleupaper.com/subcat.asp?cat=Specialty</a></p>

<p>He said he was looking for an online service that prints cards. The $1.15+ is based on that and a modest (500 units) volume.</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses. No I haven't done much research on the industry yet. I just got back from new zealand and this came to mind when thinking of something to do for some income. I didn't think I had to be an expert at this before asking some questions on photo.net. I've always come here to ask something when I wasn't sure but when it comes to the business forum it seems like people had better know their shit before hand. Yeah I know Hallmark pays for artists' work - maybe even 300 artists' work. But that doesnt change my point that when people think of fine art greeting cards, Hallmark is not in their head. I'll research next time and already know the answers to my questions next time I want to ask a question on the business forum, even though that makes absolutely no sense. Have a great day Jeffery</p>

glenn, it's not photo.net that's an issue . . . when you post in the business forum you have to be thinking

business and expect business answers - think of your banker if you asked him, "I've got this idea about

buying a house can you help me." He or she is going to get tough on you and in a hurry! It's assumed

that in a down economy with 1000's of out or work photographers that have tried about every angle to

make money, you're going to get right to the issues . . . Just be glad that you have people willing to help

you not make the same mistakes many have made . . . if you really want business innovation ideas, you

are WAY better off going to a business forum on the web, not a photography site with a business forum .

. .

 

Good luck. . .

<p>I think one can upload own pictures to zazzle or redbubble and buy it as a post card.. have i answered the threadstarter questions? thanks.</p>

<p>Or, you could make them yourself. I use the Epson Artisan 725 to print all my work. The printer does 4x6 which would be the perfect size to make a get well card or any other card for that matter. All you need to do is find a company that sells the cards and then you could use stick glue and glue your photographs onto the card after you printed some kind of saying in them. You could find a website with purchasing controls on it to build an easy to use ordering system.</p>

<p>The reason I mention doing it this way, it you are interested in getting money for your artwork that you have produced yourself. Thus, there are a lot of people that do like to buy individual cards some cards could even be limited editions of your work.</p>

<p>I have used Zazzle as well, but for those special cards sometimes your own work needs to be done by you.</p>

<p>I have actually used photographs of winter of my favorite places to shoot at as my own hand made Christmas Cards to family and friends. Each one was hand signed and some of my friends have even framed the card after they received it.</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>