 Louise Lethbridge |
Postcards I am just starting out and would like to try and sell some of my photos as postcards as I take alot of photos of the local area. Does anyone have any idea how you go about doing this?
|
|
|
|
||
|
Ken Raymond |
Go to your local printing shop and ask them if they print postcards, if they do you will then have to talk to the owners of the local stores to put them on display. You could also look at existing postcards already in stores, they usually have the name of the printer printed on them and they can turn your images into postcards as well as market them for you.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Michael H. Cothran |
Louise, I'd like to offer you some discouragement in the hopes of saving you a lot of time and money. First - Any 4-color printing company, online or local shop can print your post cards. However, there is always a minimum purchase, and an even greater minimum purchase for a better price. Most printers have a set-up fee, and then a cost per item which diminishes with larger quantities ordered. Couple that with the fact that post cards are not great sellers, they normally retail around 25 cents, and that retailers will buy them from you @ 10-15 cents each, or charge the same amount in a commission. It does not take a math genius to determine how much you would need to sell in order to make just a single dollar. The effort and financial investment you will incur are simply not worth it. For example, if a store sells a dozen of your postcards in a month, you'll gross a whopping ONE DOLLAR, and net maybe 25 cents. And then you'll spend more than that in gasoline just driving to the store to restock. Now let's say you really luck out, and another store sells 100 of your cards in a month (very, very unlikely, but just suppose). Now you've grossed $10. Minus your initial printing expenses, minus your gas and car expenses, minus your taxes, minus your time, and you'll most likely net nothing. Bottom line - to be successful selling ANY product in the 10-25 cent range, you've got to sell thousands and thousands, and continue selling thousands and thousands. Sorry - been there, done that, learned from it, and moved on. Michael H. Cothran
|
|
|
|
||
|
Sharon Day |
I appreciate you taking the time to spell that out, Michael! I've wondered the same thing a few times myself and ultimately decided it would not be worth it. There are quite a few truck stops in my area. I thought of those, but like you've mentioned a person would have to sell a huge amount of cards to make it worthwhile.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Mark Feldstein |
Several years ago or so, we used a printing outfit in Kansas City called McGrew Color Graphics or something like that. Since then it's been swallowed up by a bigger printing outfit called Jefferson/Keeler printing headquartered in St. Louis. There are still a number of large shops around that do what's referred to as gang print multiple jobs from different orders on the same press run to save money. Postcards included. So, if you really want to try to get into this, and as Michael said, it's a tough nut to crack but who knows? Then the first thing you want to do is figure out a format, size, how many cards you want to start with (I'm talking thousands here, not hundreds) and get quotes from commercial printers. If, for example, you and Sharon (or more) pooled your resources and had your job pressed together, sharing in the quantity and cost, you might (maybe) stand a chance. But remember, the competition is pretty steep. Good luck.
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||