Postcard printers? Need recommendations please

eoren1 · September 12, 2012

Some stores in town are interested in postcard using my landscape photos.
They sell postcards for $1 each which means they would buy them from me for $0.75

With that in mind, bayphoto and whcc seem like nonstarters

I am looking at Vistaprints (but cardstock they use is the thinnest), 48hourprints, Overnightprints...
Anyone with experience with these or others specifically for postcards?

Thanks

wayne861 · September 12, 2012

eoren1 wrote: »

Some stores in town are interested in postcard using my landscape photos.
They sell postcards for $1 each which means they would buy them from me for $0.75

With that in mind, bayphoto and whcc seem like nonstarters

I am looking at Vistaprints (but cardstock they use is the thinnest), 48hourprints, Overnightprints...
Anyone with experience with these or others specifically for postcards?

Thanks

I have had good luck with gotprint: http://gotprint.net/g/welcome.do

eoren1 · September 12, 2012

Thanks. Prices look good. Just ordered a sample kit to check out the quality of the postcards.

Glort · September 13, 2012

How many Thousand they want?
Even if you get them for free, it's going to take a lot of .75C to make any worthwhile money.
Offset that with the TOTAL time and effort in the entire exercise and you'll want to be selling them by the truckload to make any significant profit.

I know it sounds great ti have people wanting to sell you images but when I have had things like this come up in the past I always work it out on the weekly wage standard.
IE, IF I gave up my day job and did this full time, how much would I make at the end of the week?
Often on that standard, things don't look so appealing.

eoren1 · September 13, 2012

Hey Glort
Agree the opportunity to make money isn't large (or medium...).

It came about because the stores in town that currently sell my calendar asked if I would consider putting together some postcards for them to sell as well. I've done pretty well so far with the calendars - started selling them last year but did most of the work myself. Quality was good and customers there so now have it in three stores.

I see the postcards more as a good will gesture and another chance to 'get out there' with paying customers.

If anything, I plan to use it as a marketing move with sharing 30 candidate images to my FB page and letting people 'vote' on their favorites. Last time I did something like that it boosted my 'likes' by 6%.

That being said, I don't want to lose money on the deal. The company mentioned above sells a pack of 100 for $25 + shipping. I'm probably going to start with 5-6 designs and the minimum 100 for each. Yes, small money but I'm not actually in this for the money. I have a full time job and photography is the escape. That being said, it does feel nice to have people want to buy landscape prints from me and I'm happy to have them send a postcard to a friend and have that friend (or them) turn around and buy the full size print (at full price).

Glort · September 16, 2012

eoren1 wrote: »

H I have a full time job and photography is the escape. That being said, it does feel nice to have people want to buy landscape prints from me and I'm happy to have them send a postcard to a friend and have that friend (or them) turn around and buy the full size print (at full price).

You are a smart fella on several counts.

Firstly to keep the photography as something you enjoy. Once it beocomes work, it's work. Much better do do it for the love.

Secondly to use this as a marketing tool. I think it could have good leverage in that respect. I'd suggest you know what you were trying to build interest in to market and try to create some new products eve as a test exercise.

Im not at all into this face waste thing so please don't take my question as condescending even if you take it as stupid which it may well be.
It seems to me people ( and large companies ) fall over themselves to get 'Likes" on facewaste.
You said your Likes were up 6%. What im interested in is how much your bottom line went up?

I don't really understand face waste so to me I wouldn't car if I had a million "Hates" as long as I saw the translation in the bottom line.
It always seems that likes are a buildup to a financial increase but I never see anyone say that increase has happened, rather it always seems to be something to be realised in the future.

Do you see any increase in your sales or profits as your facewaste likes go up?

Demian · September 16, 2012

Do you have any competition? My first thought was you should charge a little more... Your work is good, and you're providing postcards unique to Marblehead. That's a bit more premium than generic postcards, and definitely worth more than $1. In my estimation, at least.

Anyways, good luck man

eoren1 · September 16, 2012

Glort-
You are correct on several points.
As for the face waste/marketing angle, I see fb simply as a way to extend and somewhat quantify my 'reach'. I have yet to find any study that shows more likes translates into increased sales. In fact there was a good NPR piece arguing that buying likes via ads did not make back the money spent.

I would argue though that I simply want my work seen and admired. It has already opened many doors for me and increasing the reach should only serve to improve upon that. Sure sales are great but I'm happy to shoot, share and then reap any rewards as they come. I'm fortunate to not have to depend on my photography to supplement my income and can charge what I think is fair and wait for customers to come.

In answer to the other point about charging a premium, I really appreciate the kind words about my work. I do charge a premium on prints compared to others in town. For postcards though, the $1 price is very consistent among the three stores I visited. I'm happy to start there with 100 cards and 3-5 scenes and see where that goes. Unfortunately, the price precludes my using bay or WHCC which I would have preferred.

I'll post back with my experience when the samples arrive.

Thanks again to both of you.
E

Postcard printers? Need recommendations please

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