Postcard Printing Costs
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Hey guys, another question about postcards
I am curious as to roughly how much people have paid to have their postcards printed and for those that chose not to post them themselves, have them posted directed to their mailing list.At the moment I am quoted between $300-400 to have 150 postcards printed and sent out, which seems higher than expected, but it seems a large part of that is the processing fee to have the postcards sent out for me (excluding postage costs). I think it might actually be much cheaper to send them from the US to Japan and back to the US again rather than have them send them for me
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curious of this too.
vistaprint 250 5x7 inch card (front + colored back) = 102 $ + tax
they only have 100 and 250 cards optionsUS stamps 0.35 * 250 = 87.5
guess you can pay a friend you trust in US to send them for you? for ~$100 or what ever you both feel comfortable. It's just writing address, put stamps and dropping them to USPS.
So you end up paying ~ $300 or less for 250 cards. or if you are willing to do 100 cards with black and white back, it will be much less.
BTW, love your art!
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I'm curious that you can find 100 - 250 places to send to. I went through The Book for SCBWI and was able to send out 30 or so. Many weren't accepting art or I checked their website and didn't think my art style would suit them. I don't know, maybe it's my style - I know the highly graphic style is in these days but it's not what I'm interested in making. I wish you best of luck, hope you get some good return on it.
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Be careful of your sizes! In the US, a 5 x 7 card is considered an oversized postcard and costs $0.50 to mail. For the postcard price ($0.35), see the dimensions below.
This is for within the United States, so if you are sending FROM another country, you'll have to check sizes & prices with the local postal service. (I think the price for sending FROM the United States TO another country is $1.15 for both postcards and letters 1 oz. or less.)
You might also want to research whether it might cost less to ship a package--with all your postcards already stamped, addressed, & ready to go--to a post office in the US. I think you address the package to: "Postmaster" & label it "Re-mailing". I've heard of people doing this to get a cute postmark for their Christmas cards/letters (https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/christmas-post-office-names.pdf) If you try this, I'd definitely contact the postoffice beforehand, since postal workers are NOT always aware of the info on their website. (...or even the correct postage for non-standard mailings--I've had a couple of bad experiences with postal workers at the postoffice!) I would also try using one of the post offices in the link above, since they would be more familiar with this service.
Info from https://www.usps.com:
Postcards must be rectangular to qualify for First-Class Mail
prices.
Oversized postcards will be charged as letters or large envelopes.Postcard Size Requirements:
Height: 3 1/2" min. / 4 1/4" max.
Length: 5 1/2" min. / 6" max.
Thickness: 0.007" min. / 0.016" max"
For more info:
https://pe.usps.com/text/qsg300/q201.htm?q=size&t=H&s=R&p=1&c=DMM|QSG|Pub28|IMM -
@miriam Thanks for your advice. I asked the post office in Japan about how much 5x7 would be and it seems its about an extra 40cent more (about $1 each)
At the moment it looks like I can do 150 5x7 postcards through overnightprint.com which costs about $200 total, although I get an excess of 100 cards that I can't get sent back to Japan. They sort out mailing the postcards so I presume the price i'm quoted will be in consideration of oversided postcards I hope. I was going to go with uprinting which is what Will talked about in his video but they have a minimum $150 service charge to do any direct mailing and press media (the other one mentioned in the video) are quoting nearly $400 for 150 cards
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@gary-wilkinson Aside from cost considerations, I am not sure one way or the other whether it would be an advantage/disadvantage/neutral to have the postcards come from Japan going to USA companies since they will likely have the Japanese postal ink stamp on them when processed.
Generally speaking, I would think that it is not an issue anymore due to internet & globalization and maybe a benefit because there is a bit of a story to your bio by being in Japan (plus, you have great work!); however, I could see it giving companies pause, so it might be worth looking into.
It's actually something I would like to have more insight to as it is possible—some unknown time in the future—that we could move to Taiwan to be near my wife's family. (Maybe things will change even more by then!)
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For printing try PrintPlace.com
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@gary-wilkinson Have you looked into Moo.com? They seem to be offering reduced rates on postcards at the moment and I always like their quality.
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@QuietYell that's a good point. I decided to not include an address that indicates what country I live in for the moment just in case I move or if it will prove to be a disadvantage if they worry about language differences (though presumably my name should indicate I'm not Japanese)
@jimsz thanks I will look into them if I need another set printing. Their charge of $85 for processing the mailing list is much better than uprinting's $150 charge
@johanna-kim unfortunately moo.com doesn't offer direct mailing. I managed to get an order with overnightprint in the end for 150 postcards delivered to my mailing list and another 100 postcards send to my friend in the US to hold onto for a little while for about $180 (there are always coupons for print places so make sure you search for them first)
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@gary-wilkinson
That's great that you were able to get it done for a good price! Good luck!
