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.