Why can't Smugmug find a notecard supplier?

Markjay · April 11, 2005

I think I've asked this before so, excuse me if this is duplication for you?

Currently, SMugmug offers a variety of "printables" that includ most every wanted image size for customers who want to purchase prints and printables ( Coasters etc.)

Smumug also has available: postcards
Smumug NEEDS to have available: notecards or greeting cards in the standard
5 x 7 car size (with printed 4 x 6 image ON it)

I know you guys are adding more services constantly and those new services are greatly appreciated. However, I just can't understand why adding a notecard or greeting card is not available at this time? In addition, there should be a price for a set of 10 cards.

Surely there's someone / company out there who wants a piece of this business, right? Heck you could get Snapfish to do the backend printing for this since I happen to know they offer that product as a printable / order product.

Thanks in advance, Smugmug!!

Markjay

Dee · April 11, 2005

I was surprised too...

Markjay wrote:

I think I've asked this before so, excuse me if this is duplication for you?

Currently, SMugmug offers a variety of "printables" that includ most every wanted image size for customers who want to purchase prints and printables ( Coasters etc.)

Smumug also has available: postcards
Smumug NEEDS to have available: notecards or greeting cards in the standard
5 x 7 car size (with printed 4 x 6 image ON it)

I know you guys are adding more services constantly and those new services are greatly appreciated. However, I just can't understand why adding a notecard or greeting card is not available at this time? In addition, there should be a price for a set of 10 cards.

Surely there's someone / company out there who wants a piece of this business, right? Heck you could get Snapfish to do the backend printing for this since I happen to know they offer that product as a printable / order product.

Thanks in advance, Smugmug!!

Markjay

When I was trying to see if I could get my photo cards printed instead of me printing them out and gluing them on by hand.

The problem might be finding a stock that will enhance digital prints, yet let someone write a message on the inside. Then do you indent the photo letting the card frame the print area, do you "bleed" the photo off the edge? I suspect it's not as easy as it would appear ...

Have you found any places on the web that will print up a photo card with envelope? What kind of printing are they using, and what kind of paper are they printing on?

Just curious...

Dee

ian408 · April 11, 2005

Dee wrote:

When I was trying to see if I could get my photo cards printed instead of me printing them out and gluing them on by hand.

The problem might be finding a stock that will enhance digital prints, yet let someone write a message on the inside. Then do you indent the photo letting the card frame the print area, do you "bleed" the photo off the edge? I suspect it's not as easy as it would appear ...

Have you found any places on the web that will print up a photo card with envelope? What kind of printing are they using, and what kind of paper are they printing on?

Just curious...

Dee

I made a few from a Red River notecard sampler package. They turned out
well.

Ian

tmlphoto · April 11, 2005

Ofoto actually does a nice job with photo cards. It is supposedly on the smugmug todo list somewhere, from what I remember.

Shay Stephens · April 11, 2005

White House Custom Colour has just started doing folded cards. They are offset printed (an indigo machine?).

http://www.whcc.com/pricing/WHCC_2005_printedcards.pdf

Markjay wrote:

I think I've asked this before so, excuse me if this is duplication for you?

Markjay · April 12, 2005

You are close but, not quite there, Shay........
Yes, while WHCC does do the 5 X 7 standard notecards, their price does not reflect enough "room" for wholesale profit to resell them to retail stores as I am wanting to do since, I already have the clientelle for this.... just waiting for me to come up with the right combo of price and quality.

I need to be down to a MAX of 12.00 - 18.00 a dozen, lest I end up with notecards that are going to have to retail at 5.00 a card in the stores.....
I don't think so :-)

Hallmark can sell cards to the stores that retail for 5.00 a card... but those are on the high end of the spectrum for a retail card these days. ( and yes, I've seen greeting cards retail for a little more than that with those fancy acetate covers and all).

Give me someone I can work with, that I can SELL my cards to the stores for no more than 18.00 a dozen or 24.00 a dozen (that's pushing things) and still have me come out with a profit margin of 40% (which is my target profit)

Thank you for your assistance......
I pose this as a challenge to you now, find it!!!!!! :-)

Markjay

Shay Stephens wrote:

White House Custom Colour has just started doing folded cards. They are offset printed (an indigo machine?).

http://www.whcc.com/pricing/WHCC_2005_printedcards.pdf

System · April 12, 2005

Markjay wrote:

I think I've asked this before so, excuse me if this is duplication for you?

Currently, SMugmug offers a variety of "printables" that includ most every wanted image size for customers who want to purchase prints and printables ( Coasters etc.)

Smumug also has available: postcards
Smumug NEEDS to have available: notecards or greeting cards in the standard
5 x 7 car size (with printed 4 x 6 image ON it)

I know you guys are adding more services constantly and those new services are greatly appreciated. However, I just can't understand why adding a notecard or greeting card is not available at this time? In addition, there should be a price for a set of 10 cards.

Surely there's someone / company out there who wants a piece of this business, right? Heck you could get Snapfish to do the backend printing for this since I happen to know they offer that product as a printable / order product.

Thanks in advance, Smugmug!!

Markjay

I'm in... I would love to have available any and all types of greeting and note card options that ezprints and smugmug can offer together. This card thing seems to be a good ticket for many photographers around and I would love to be on this bandwagon with smugmug's automated print fullfillment service as much as possible. If a couple of new options could be worked into the smugmug print option line-up, this would be great.

Have a good day.

-don

Haystack · March 30, 2007

Bumping this up, is there anything new on the note card front? I have a customer wanting some and I would like to send them through smug mug.

Andy · March 30, 2007

Haystack wrote:

Bumping this up, is there anything new on the note card front? I have a customer wanting some and I would like to send them through smug mug.

No, nothing new, sorry! Hopefully at some point we will have cards, calendars, books, and more.

Thanks for your patience.

Archangel · March 30, 2007

I had alot of customers that required greeting cards last year so I e-mailed the SmugMug help desk. One of the guys recommended www.vistaprint.com
I have used them several times and they are great! I highly recommend them

until SmugMug has these types of items available.

Jeanne
Photosbyjeanne.com (under construction)

bsvirginian · March 30, 2007

As was forementioned. It's the net cost to both smugmug and us to be able to re-sell with a livable profit.
Right now what I do is labor intensive. Get the 4x6 printed and use a manfactured 3 fold with adhesive to form a 5x7 (4x6 image area) foldable note card. right now this process takes me about 1 minute to assemble.
bsvirginian

dogwood · March 30, 2007

Andy wrote:

No, nothing new, sorry! Hopefully at some point we will have cards, calendars, books, and more.

Thanks for your patience.

Calenders would be cool-- maybe in time for 2008?

LiquidAir · March 30, 2007

dogwood wrote:

Calenders would be cool-- maybe in time for 2008?

Oooo, ya. I have been doing my calendars elsewhere and so far I have not been terribly happy. If you could just turn a 13 photo gallery (12 months and the cover) into a basic black calendar with good print quality I'd be thrilled. Add to that a calendar gallery style so the customers would get a the flavor for what they are buying and we'd be set. Please don't waste time on fancy calandar designs; photo calendars should feature the photos.

richtersl · April 2, 2007

Andy wrote:

No, nothing new, sorry! Hopefully at some point we will have cards, calendars, books, and more.

Thanks for your patience.

Thanks, Andy! That's good to know!!!

urbanaries · April 11, 2007

Archangel wrote:

I had alot of customers that required greeting cards last year so I e-mailed the SmugMug help desk. One of the guys recommended www.vistaprint.com
I have used them several times and they are great! I highly recommend them until SmugMug has these types of items available.

Jeanne
Photosbyjeanne.com (under construction)

vista print rocks. I print all sorts of things through them, they're so darn cheap....and lightning fast.

On notecards/announcements I can mark up the cost 50-100% (depending on qty) and still be super affordable.

Another option I've recently added is self-service via digital downloads, where I recommend clients use shutterfly. To be honest, i agree EZprints are higher quality (lustre paper) but I sometimes wish SM would have went with shutterfly for printing, their selection is right smack in my demographic. Canvas prints, cards, books, you name it, they print it....cheap.

Right now I'm juggling four vendors (soon to be five...flush mounts!) for these disparate items, and its getting cumbersome and frustrating for clients.

neens_wa · November 21, 2007

I know it's late to post this... but Photographer's Edge offers a lovely tri-fold card that holds either a 3 x5 or 4x6 prints.

Yup, you have to peel off the tape, adhere the card, and fold it, but I do them while watching TV or sitting on the ferry to Seattle. They have nice stuff, and pricing does go down with volume purchase. They have plain, decorated, etc. any card you could shake a stick at....

Hope this isn't too late.

Calendars would be awesome - a calendar you didn't have to pay out the ears for!

Markjay · December 16, 2007

I'm hoping for an update?
First, I have used Photographer's Edge: nice card stock, TIME consuming manual labor..... not for me.

I've found one or two online companies since (don't remember off top of my head) but, since I already have a Smugmug Pro account and, a website up and running with client photos uploaded (and more to come) I think it's time Smugmug get up-to-date with the rest of the online community and start to offer notecards. I'm not talking those odd size cards, I'm talking standard
sizes like a 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 folded notecard.

Maybe it's time for Smugmug to make a "deal" with one of the already estabslished online printers that offer notecards and, work out something where Smugmug gets a % off the total sales genterated or ???

In addition, frames would be a next logical step since customers are already buying the prints from us.... why not offer the images framed.

There are several sites for framing with real time WYSIWYG building of the frames... at a reasonable price. They even offer "blind shipping".
What I would give to have their system integrated into the Smugmug system? Can you hear me begging through your computer?

http://www.pictureframes.com/scripts/WebObjects/PictureFrames.woa/wa/FrameShop

Thank you in advance Smugmug for taking these ideas into consideration.
Think of this as: additional revenue stream? :-)

neens_wa wrote:

I know it's late to post this... but Photographer's Edge offers a lovely tri-fold card that holds either a 3 x5 or 4x6 prints.

Yup, you have to peel off the tape, adhere the card, and fold it, but I do them while watching TV or sitting on the ferry to Seattle. They have nice stuff, and pricing does go down with volume purchase. They have plain, decorated, etc. any card you could shake a stick at....

Hope this isn't too late.

Calendars would be awesome - a calendar you didn't have to pay out the ears for!

Photog4Christ · June 22, 2010

I'm going to bump this....

I too am looking for a HIGH QUALITY note card solution. Yes, I am aware of Photographer's Edge and I have used their product in the past, but I would like to try and lower the base cost. I've done Photographer's Edge at $2 - $2.50 (to make back my investment) and the merchant needs to sell it at $3.50, which is just too much.

I have merchants in my town that would be very interested in selling my images on note cards, but they want them at a lower price. They are currently selling note cards by other photographers and truthfully, the cards are crap (the actual cards, not the images on the card).

Andy · June 22, 2010

Photog4Christ wrote: »

I'm going to bump this....

I too am looking for a HIGH QUALITY note card solution. Yes, I am aware of Photographer's Edge and I have used their product in the past, but I would like to try and lower the base cost. I've done Photographer's Edge at $2 - $2.50 (to make back my investment) and the merchant needs to sell it at $3.50, which is just too much.

I have merchants in my town that would be very interested in selling my images on note cards, but they want them at a lower price. They are currently selling note cards by other photographers and truthfully, the cards are crap (the actual cards, not the images on the card).

Have you checked out the cards at Tiny Prints?
http://www.tinyprints.com/promo/smugmug.htm

Or perhaps the postcards here at Moo?
http://us.moo.com/en/smugmug/

Foques · June 22, 2010

^^
are these options listed on our sites?

Andy · June 22, 2010

Foques wrote: »

^^
are these options listed on our sites?

In the Buy button and also here:
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog/P#More

Foques · June 22, 2010

hah! didn't see that. thank you

Photog4Christ · June 22, 2010

Moo cards would cost me about $1.56 per card (for 50 cards).

Photographer's Edge would be $1.08 for 50 cards.

TinyPrints would be $1.24 for 50 cards.

Photographer's Edge would allow me to use my own prints because the cards have "windows" for you to place a print. So, technically, I can have 5 of "Card A", 5 of "Card B", 10 of "Card C", etc.... and it would only cost me $1.08 (plus cost of each print) for each card. So, it looks like Photographer's Edge is still the best solution out there.

Why can't Smugmug find a notecard supplier?

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