Hi All,
 
I've made up a few charts to identify the total cost per card by quantity for reqular shoppers and for artists, factoring in standard shipping, discounts, and commissions.
 
You can see in the charts the various quantity sweet spots for regular shoppers and for artists.  It is interesting to see that for artists, since we have a discount for quantities up to 199, that we are better off buying 1 card under the quantity of cards that triggers a shipping cost increase.
 
My motivation was 2-fold:
 
1.  I plan to do some direct marketing of my cards to businesses and wanted to be able to identify the best total cost price points for them as it is not very obvious looking at GCUs pricing and shipping charts.  Turns out at Qty 200 the cost is just $1.99/card for shoppers including standard shipping.  That's a huge selling point.  
 
2.  I also may dabble in buying my own cards and placing them on consignment in local store as an experiment.  Since we can buy a mix, I wanted to see which quantities provide the best bang for the buck.  The short answer is qty 49 at a cost of $1.78.  If we sell these for $2.99 retail, and give the store owner 50-cents/card, then the artists makes 71-cents vs. the 56-cents online here.  Angela sells her's for $3.29 locally and in some areas maybe you can get more.  It's all an experiment and could lead to more online sales down the road too ... and perhas some custom business orders.
 
I hope you find these charts helpful!!  
 
Qty 1-200:  http://i33.tinypic.com/2dhtlkx.jpg
QTY 1-1000:  http://i35.tinypic.com/sl5ick.jpg
 
TOM

Interesting and useful info, Tom!  Thanks!
 
Okay, I'm going to toss out a suggestion for marketing your cards to shops:  If you have a store that deals in retro or vintage items, I think that your cards would be a great fit.  Also, eclectic retail shops, those that carry a mix of old/new, or re-purposed goods, with small home decor items (pillows, wall art, candles, etc.) I think that you could fill a niche in a store like that.  Just an idea...
 
Good luck with your retail endeavor, Tom!  
 
Penny

Thanks Penny.  That's a good idea.  I'm going through my cards now to see which ones I should buy to show to these shops.  It seems that they have to be general, but very appealing, like Birthday Cards.  I'll post my progress if I go that route.  I'm going to start a couple of threads on a few ideas I have been noodling along this line.

Quote from Mary__137064 on Oct 10^th, 2009, 8:49am:

Thanks Bright ... I'll mssg you on this.

Hi Pat and welcome,
 
When I first joined GCU in Feb 2008 my intent was to do the local thing, but the economics did not make sense.  It still is questionable unless a person can find a friendly store owner who isn't asking much from each sale.  Generally speaking, they buy wholesale cards for 50% of the retail price, or $1.50-$2 each and make the same in profit.  That doesn't provide us artists for much "play" unless the store owner is happy with just 50-cents or so.
 
Please share what you experience, and good luck at the art guild event.
 
TOM

Hi Tom,
 
    I have a few Art Guilds that carry my cards and have been for a few years now.  I do have a large selection of photo cards that I have made up myself, and they do sell quite well.  I recently introduced the cards printed by GCU and they seemed to be pretty happy to receive them, in fact between the two places, they took everything I had including the one I used for a sample.  Since these places have a commission of 35 to 40%, I have put a price on the cards at $3.75 each.  I just recently placed them, so I do not know how they are doing yet.  My own card designs sell for $3.00 each.   I also sell matted prints of my images, framed prints,magnets and photo earrings......the earrings also sell well, although they do not sell on e-bay as I can't seem to get a good
enough photo of them to really show how unique they are.   However, as far as marketing on the web, I fall very short.   I plan on contacting another Art Guild before the Holidays hit.       rosiecards