I thought ya'll might be interested in my best selling cards at this point. These cards are almost always sold out every week at the store.
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=352556&pag e=1&aid=134247&title=Birthday Ostrich humour&ref=cb_card_title
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=216291&pag e=1&title=butterfly and cocoon hello&ref=cb_card_title
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=427422&pag e=1&title=General sympathy&ref=cb_card_title
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=299241&pag e=1&title=Shirley the Turkey&ref=cb_card_title
 
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=393090&pag e=1&title=You’re How Old? Birthday&ref=cb_card_title
 
As you can tell, most are humorous birthday.  

Thanks everyone for the catalog edits.  
 
Ang - yes, interesting feedback on popular cards.  Thanks
 
Avis - yes, I actually looked at Loonie, Loony, and Looney and thier usage and origins.  The Canadian Loonie came from the MN Loon, a waterfowl bird, that has interesting habits.  The Looney Bird is an actual real bird type, though rare, but it is the correct usage for the common expression we are using.  
 
A few lessons-learned on the short catalog:  
 
1.  I initially made each sheet 2588 x 3331 full bleed since this was the spec for the Vistaprint's "Flyer" (25 full color both sides for FREE is a commonly advertised offer).  When I then made a PDF from each JPEG image page, this caused a 9 pixel wide white horizontal line top and bottom.  I then switched the base jpeg canvas size up to 3349p and the line disappeared.  Once I thought about it, the normal approach would be to do a 300dpi image on a 8.5x11 canvas, thus 2550x3330.  DUH.
 
2.  I went with 12 images per page rather than 16 as the text on my card fronts can be rather small at times and my test proved that the 12 image/sheet format was easier to read.  It still was a rather tedious process to create this, but now that I have a "template" for each page it will be easier to maintain.  BTW, each tile is 500p wide.  If I work on this again, I might try to create a WORD template and avoid having to resize all my images ahead of time as layers.  WORD drives nuts though, so I will need to be in the right mood before I start.  Perhaps drunk!
 
3. Cards with a white border "melt" into the white background on my catalog page.  I had to manually add a 2 pixel wide border around these image fronts to get them to look right.

Looney Bird 'e' -
 
Thanks for the helpful info.  Seems each person has to determine what works in their area, and to be flexible.  I am not in a tourist area but people might like to buy from a local guy if they can be made aware of that.
 
Questions:
1. How are your cards displayed? - are they just mixed in with others they sell in the same category?
2. Can you share pricing/consignment details?
3. Do you have to constantly "make the rounds" to check on inventory/sales?
4. What has worked and not worked?
 
Thanks!
 
TOM

Quote from Tom_133317 on Oct 15^th, 2009, 12:12am:

 
Tom...I hate to belabour the point, but I'm curious...how did you come up with this term 'Looney Bird' for artists that want to try what you're asking? What did you mean by 'correct usage'?
Sorry but inquiring minds want to know! I think it's a very smart idea!  

Questions:
1. How are your cards displayed? - are they just mixed in with others they sell in the same category?
see link for photo..click on photos to enlarge them for detail    this is actually when i was in the other window of the store, now in the new window location, it is not as cluttered and looks more like a real card shop  
http://brvatn.blogspot.com/2009/05/postcards-are-in-and-new-location.html
 
The only other cards available are from our local historical society, they are usually displayed on a piece of furniture somewhere with my cards.    the white card stand i got at a thrift store for 50.00  two sided has 32 5x7 divisions  16 on each side with an unbelievably large drawer underneath for storage...basically 10 inches deep and the size of the whole base  36 x 32    the card rack is post card sized bought on clearance online for 26.00 + shipping.... need another one.  wall space for framed art, baskets, racks etc for other odds and ends all belong to the store and they merchandise it for me usually.
 
2. Can you share pricing/consignment details?
 
5x7 sell for 3.29  local work,  5x7 on clearance 2.50    postcards 1.00   fine art linen cards marked down to 4.00    the store gets 20% commission with all of the extra signage, poster etc  design work on a barter type set up.
    
3. Do you have to constantly "make the rounds" to check on inventory/sales?  
 
we are expected to "work our booth" as they call it... dust, straighten, rearrange to keep things fresh about every 2 weeks or so.. but the man who helps me most in the store with merchandising usually just does mine.  they keep me busy with other stuff haha   oh and we got the homeless lady moved into her apartment this morning.  yay
 
4. What has worked and not worked?  working... local scenes   not working.... all occasion birthday, get well, sympathy etc.

oops tom and ernestine... i thought tom was throwing out another general to all looney bird question.. pardon me stepping in your post

Very helpful info ladies.  You both have earned your feathers!
 
As for me, I picked up my little "short" 4-page catalog draft today, and well, I have a few changes to make.
 
It was a single 11"x17" 2-sided color, folded, at a cost of $1.53 for 1-copy (not bad actually for 4 equivalent 8.5"x11" surfaces).
 
First, although the PDF I sent had a full border (blue), the digital printer still left a 1/8" white band around the edges.  Apparently this is normal and can only be overcome if they print on a larger sheet and then trim to size, effectively making it full bleed.  Added step - added expense.  The cost for the next size up paper (13"x21") is significant.
 
Secondly, my blue border wrapped around the fold and very quickly the ink in the fold "cracks" and the underlying white paper shows through.  Result --> looks really bad.
 
He recommended I either go full professional offset printing at minimum qty 250 "as is" at a cost of $1.44 each, or redesign the blue borders away to all-white and try again on their regular digital printer.  Not sure what I'll do yet.  
 
While I was there I asked him about how well their greeting cards were selling as I noticed 2 large card spinners full of cards up front.  One was "The Learning Tree" cards and the other was from some company I've never heard of.  Surprisingly, he said both of these are consignement stands, as he does not own the cards, but he makes about $1 from of each sale and he says they sell well.  Cards were priced at $2.29 and after each sale he sends the supplier $1.29.  The supplier comes around and places in new stock and removes cards that are not selling.
 
That's what we're up against out there Looneys!  
 
TOM

Oh NO!
There's a Looney Bird suit?
 
Good Luck and may the Loon be with you...or something like that!
 
Pamela