Hi everyone,
 
Q1.  Has anyone tried buying a qty of their best cards and getting them stocked in local gift shops?
 
Q2.  Can the UPC on the back of the card be used by the retailer for pricing and reordering?
 
Q3.  I've not read this anywhere, but I assume that we artists get $1 off our own cards (seller+artists commissions), and that we get that same amount off the qty price. So since the Qty 100 price is $1.89, will I get them for $0.89 each?  That might be workable to offer a local wholesale price of $1.49 (I make 60 cents/card) to the retailer so they can sell them for $2.99 (for instance).  I believe most expect the wholesale price to be 1/2 the retail price.  Not sure though.
 
Thanks .....TOM

Ew!  Good questions Tom!  I think I had already chalked it up to being too expensive to order the cards for resale.  (But then again, how about the postage?)
I would love to order from GCU for my resale cards.  The quality is great.
I am waiting for your answers with baited breath!
SueB

Hmm.  Well, now that is food for thought, Tom....
SueB

I went through this routine trying to get my goofy books into gift shops, but I think cards would be much better sellers.  What's exciting is to allow the store owner to choose the cards from a full line of samples (your top 50 say) you bring in to show them, and this allows them to match the cards to their clientele.  Making a full color catalog is also a great idea (takes time but it's effective).  
 
In addition, you could modify cards just for them, perhaps with their logo, message, or website somewhere on the card - OR - design a custom set of cards for them, for instance, if it's a cabin resort - do several of their site.  You'd be locked in as their supplier.
 
 
[I will be gone till late Monday]

Tom-
 
This topic was discussed back in October, see this thread:
 
Selling GCU cards to Stores?
 
Quote from _131887 on Oct 26^th, 2007, 11:21am:

 
 
Sue-
 
I believe we may be in the same "local market,' and I've found the same thing. . . shops want "area" images.  They also would like to see info about artist on the card, so I am waiting with baited breath for this option to be available to us before I think of putting MY GCU cards on local racks.
 
-Ernestine
 
 

Quote from Tom_133317 on Mar 1^st, 2008, 6:32am:

 
To answer...
Q2. the UPC can not be used for reordering.   Since we have yet to control the content on the back of the card outside of our logo, this is not our/GCU UPC.
 
Q3. At the highest quantity discount, artists buy their own cards for $1.89.  Less the artist commission only, 50 cents, cost per card is $1.39 vs 89 cents.  Artists do not earn a selling commission for buying their own cards.  That would be a bit too self serving, wouldn't it?
 
Note, the quantity discount is for the total number of cards in an order, not the total quantity of a specific card.  This gives you much more flexibility.
 
We'll head to the think tank to see what we can do to make this a better reselling proposition for artists.

[quote author=Mindy link=1204381949/0#10 date=1204586631]Quote from Tom_133317 on Mar 1^st, 2008, 6:32am:

 
Mindy - correct me if I'm wrong, but RIGHT NOW any BUYER can come in through any artist's widget and buy a mix of 100 of the artist's cards at a price of $1.89 each.  Of that, the artist gets $1 and GCU gets $0.89.  However, this is not true if the artist themselves is the buyer.  It seems GCU has already established that if GCU can net $0.89/card on a qty 100 order, it's worth it.
 
This suggests to me that the artist discount needs to be $1/card.  This would not only solve the inconsistency stated above, it would motivate artists, like me, to place regular qty orders and get more GCU cards into circulation more quickly.   Artists could turn out to be the biggest buyers and the biggest sellers of their own cards, if the economics supported it.  At only a 50-cent discount though, in my view, it doesn't work.
 
I'd hate to see artists work "around GCU," by having, say, a spouse, become the BUYER, and using the widget to get the $0.89/card effective cost at qty 100 in order to make selling cards locally economically viable for the artist.  
 
Here's another point.  In the past several weeks, I've talked to several gift shop and flower shop owners who are very interested in unique greeting cards, as they don't want to carry the same old lines found in large chain department stores and drug stores.  They want people to come in because they offer gifts that are unique,  with many locally made,  rather than made in china or india.  GCU and its artists fit well into this theme, so it would be great all-around to find something here that can make it work.
 
Two of these stores already have said they would stock a set of about 12-24 of my cards if I made them available at a cost to them in the $1.50/card range.  I'd like to find a way to get there through GCU.
 
TOM

Our costs are between $1 - 1.15 per card.  Add to that merchant processing fees (5.25%) and it jumps to $1.30 a card.  Plus all of the wonderful GCU developers, staff, equipment, etc & operational expenses we'll call "overhead", now we're talking $1.50 a card (let's say #1.49 to make it easy).  The model is $2.49 a card less $1.49 cost = $1 per card profit to be shared equally, 50 cents for GCU and 50 cents for the artist.
 
Keep in mind print on demand costs are higher than traditional printers.  The tradeoff is the ability for small "runs" and onesies.  POD will never be able to compete with traditional printers on large order pricing and nor they with POD's on small order pricing.  As our business grows we can always add a new division with traditional press capabilities where you can print large quantities at 10 cents or less per card.
 
Let's talk Widgets.  The Card Widget is a customer acquisition tool.  It is not a discounting device.  It's a temporary promotion.  The widget "cookie" is only good for 30 days (this will soon be limited so it only works once for each email address).  The seller commission is paid as compensation for directing new traffic/sales to GCU.  On all widget sales GCU losses money.  We are willing to do this as an investment to acquire new customers.  They come, they buy, they love it and come back again!  With the 89 cent card you refer to GCU losses 61 cents.  
 
GCU also losses money on artists buying their own cards for $1.99 as well as any special promotions (discounts, free shipping, etc).  These are specific programs that we have determined we will invest in to build the business.
 
We have seen many large sales and likely many more not visible to us that we have lost due to pricing.   We're working a revised commission structure that will still give you 50 cents per card for small quantities, but a reduced rate on larger quantities so we can be competitive.  So for larger sales with lower per card prices there will be lower artist commissions and lower profits for GCU.  This will allow us to be more competitive and capture more sales.
 
What does this mean for reseller prices?  GCU is currently not structured to compete on price alone vs. traditional printers.  Although we'd like to make it attractive for you to purchase your own cards at a discount, we are not able to extend special pricing lower than our quantity discounts (the new pricing/commission structure will be announced around end of month).  
 
So today the options are $1.99 with your artist discount (w/ your 50 cent commission your cost is $1.49) price or at large quantities buy for $1.89 at bulk pricing discount (with your 50 cent commission your cost is $1.39).  Hopefully you can garner a higher price from your gift shops and the like by offering high quality, unique and localized cards.