Can you get full color business cards cheaper than Vistaprint?
Vistaprint is famous for their free business cards. However, they come to you printed with Vistaprint advertising. For a serious business, this is not an option. It just doesn’t make a good impression when you hand out business cards that screams “I’m too cheap to pay for business cards!”
Vistaprint offers what they call premium business for $19.99 and up. 1,000 will run $39.99 for color on one side. Printing on the back side is optional ($13). The paper is a rather flimsy 80# glossy card stock. It’ll cost $60+ for the same one sided cards on 100# stock.
If you search the web, you’ll find many printing companies that can offer these cards to you for less. Way less. For example, nationwideprinting.com offers 1,000 business cards this month for $15. These are high quality cards printed on 14 point coated two sides card stock. That’s 40% thicker than 100# glossy cover stock. Plus, printing on the back side is included. And the price also includes high gloss UV coating on one side. You’d have to pay Vistaprint more than $70 for the same cards, and you’d still get a thinner card and UV coating isn’t even available.
So when you need business cards, don’t just automatically go to Vistaprint. There are many good quality, less expensive alternatives out there.
A friend asked me the other day if it was too late to order custom greeting cards. His company made a last minute decision to send out cards and he was worried they wouldn’t get to their destinations before Christmas and Hanukkah.
The good news was that his run quantity was relatively small, only about 150 cards. Too small a run to offset print, I suggested going the digital route. They can generally be done in 2 to 3 days after proof approvals. You can choose whether you want to include matching envelopes.
He put in an order this morning and they’re scheduled to ship to him on Wednesday or Thursday. He’ll receive them on Thursday or Friday and he plans to get them into the mail by the weekend. If the Postal Service does it’s job, they should start arriving on the 19th of the month.
Larger quantities will require offset printing your holiday greeting cards. Turn around times are a bit longer, up to 5 days, depending on the job specifications. They can also be bulk-mailed to your recipients. It’s likely though that if you order them now, they’ll start arriving at their destinations just after the 25th.
High quality postcards are ideal for a mailing campaign. They’re useful for point of purchase displays and also to promote your product at a trade show.
Thick paper is recommended (at least 14 points) and for maximum impact, specify full color on both sides. An aqueous coating gives them that extra high quality look.
5,000 offset printed postcards for less than $99? Check out nationwideprinting.com for this special deal. Other quantities available too.
