Hey everyone, Mac again.  A friend of mine called me up recently and told me that he wanted to send out postcards to all the parent in his kids' school and he wanted to know if I knew of any cheap post card printing services.  (In case you're wondering why on earth he would want to send out post cards to all the parents in the school, he's the head of the PTA.)

I told him that I really didn't know of any such thing, but that I would look into it, and so I did.  I never mind researching things, and I'm particularly glad that I looked into post card printing because it turned out to be a very inexpensive, easy,  and unique way of connecting with a lot of people, and I think I might do it myself some time in the near future.  It would definitely be a cheaper alternative to those fabulously overpriced Seasons Greetings cards that I seem to send out more and more of every year.  (I suppose that's a good thing, because it means that our circle of friends and family is growing, but considering how many of those cards end up in the trash, it just doesn't always seem like its worth it.)

Using a custom post card printing service is also a great way to do mass marketing in your business.  And if you think about it, you'll probably realize that quite a few businesses that you patronize make use of post card printing and mailing to get more clients or retain the ones they have.  I know that I for one have gotten post cards from my dentist reminding me to come in for my annual checkup and for cleanings.  So there are really a lot of ways to make use of the services of a post card printing company.

Now, if you want to try out one of these companies, you really have two options.  One is that you could look in the yellow pages to find brick and mortar post card printing companies in your area.  The other option is to go for online post card printing.  For me personally, I would choose the later.  I just really prefer to do as much of my shopping online as possible.  It's much more conveinent and I find that I can get much better prices.  But not everyone feels that way, so it's good to know that you have both options.

Wherever you choose to do your post card printing, you'll find that there are some basic differences in price, depending on what exactly  you want to have done.  The first choice you'll need to make is how many post cards you want to order.  At 500 or more postcards, you're paying bulk business prices, so it's a lot cheaper per card, but if you're ordering postcards for your own personal use then you're not likely to want quite that many.  You can order smaller quantities as well, but with most online post card printing services, you'll need to order at least 50.

The second choice will be regarding the quality of the postcards.  You can select the quality of the paper, including the thickness and the glossiness.  Most if not all of these companies offer color post card printing as the default option.

Particularly if you choose to shop online, you will find that most of the post cards printing services also offer mailing.  Now yes, you will have to pay extra for this, but it can be a major time saver as well as cut down on expenses.  If you're only sending out a small quantity of postcards then you're probably planning on doing it yourself or coming up with some ingenious way of getting other people to do the work for you.  (Remember those envelope stuffing parties?)  But if you're sending out postcards for your business, then you're probably going to be paying your secretary to stamp and address all of them, and if you calculate the costs, you'd probably be spending less to utilize the mailing part of a post card printing and mailing service.

If you decide to use these for personal use though, like with my Seasons Greetings cards example, you'll probably have a couple of reasons in both directions.  Firstly, chances are that you won't be paying anyone to sit and stamp and address the post cards, so making use of the mailing service would be an added expense.  Secondly, if you're sending your postcards out to relatives, a hand addressed postcard gives a much more personal feeling than one that's printed, and you have the chance to write a little personal message to a few select individuals.  But on the other hand, as long as you're doing post card printing to begin with, you might just want to have the whole job taken care of all at once, leaving you without any work.