Is there justification for "holiday" postcard pricing?

[MasterpieceCafe]

I am so confused by why Zazzle ups the price on "holiday" postcards vs regular postcards. They are just postcards? Right? Nothing different or special about them? Other than being associated with a holiday?

What makes a "holiday" postcard 60 cents more expensive?

[A_New_View]

Hmmm, not sure but check out the "Creator News". 

[shellifitz]

I agree, there is no difference making them special other than the theme which is likely to be either confusing or irritating to the buyer.   If they came with some special feature like embossing or larger size or foil or something that would obviously increase the value then it would make more sense and not seem like charging for intentions. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

Ok, so there isn't anything physically different about the holiday postcards? Just charging more for the name? I have an image of a pumpkin pie, so I named it Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie. But now that postcard is considered "holiday" and more expensive just because I chose to say Thanksgiving. And removing that word doesn't change the price. Grrrrr.

[shellifitz]

You mean it automatically chose holday postcard for you?   I was thinking that was a choice we made in which blank we choose to use... hmmm.  What would happen if you transferred it to a normal postcard and also remove the word Thanksgiving.  ?   (even though that word is not always the title of a holiday)   Maybe use the words, "giving thanks" instead... 

[MasterpieceCafe]

It's a postcard that was create years before we had "holiday" postcards. The designation was something Zazzle added later. I could transfer it and lose views/sales data. But it bothers me more that Zazzle charges extra for no real added value.

[Windy]

I read somewhere in these forums that holiday postcards go on sale sometimes, but regular postcards never go on sale. So I have planned on making only holiday postcards from now on. But I had no idea there was a price difference.

[MasterpieceCafe]

Really? That seems odd. I guess nothing should surprise me anymore.

[MasterpieceCafe]

I'm starting to wonder if I should recreate all of my Christmas postcards without the word Christmas and then adding that back in just so they can post at the lower price. It would be awful to lose all of the views/sales data, but costing 60 cents more per postcard for no reason is also upsetting.

[shellifitz]

I would not remake any of mine that have sold.  but that is just me.  

ETA:  I might experiment with one that hasn't sold yet to see what happened, like if it will move or not or if the "holiday" word puts it back in that higher priced version...  or if it sells now that it is cheaper.  Just out of curiosity. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

I decided to recreate a postcard and keep both versions and see what happens. I added the word "holiday" to the regular postcard, so they have the same titles.

https://www.zazzle.com/vintage_christmas_retro_jolly_santa_claus_holiday_postcard-256421408875950390

https://www.zazzle.com/vintage_christmas_retro_jolly_santa_claus_holiday_postcard-256283059659172864

[Fiorenzo]

They added much higher priced holiday and announcement postcards years ago during the paper break. Don't ask me what the sense behind this nonsense is. I always use the regular postcard blanks for anything. No way I will ask 60 cents more for the same product just because it's Holiday themed. Postcards are regularly on sale during card sales.

[ColsCreations]

I wouldn't do that.  The Paper Breakout  defines use-cases for each type of blank. Choosing the generic blank for what is intended as a holiday card design in order to make it the lower price would be gaming the system and would also effect how your product is categorized and marketed and which sales it's included in.

I have no way of knowing which blank you used for your thanksgiving pie card but I can see it was created long before the paper breakout and was thus probably migrated to the holiday_card type with the breakout since "thanksgiving" is used in the tags, title and description. For cards created today, you can edit Product Info --> Marketplace Department and Categories --> Events & Occasions to manipulate where/how it can be found, but you can't actually change the blank it was created on and it's that product type blank that determines the base cost. If you change the wording in your title you're sometimes prompted to confirm your Marketplace Department choice or to select a different one but even if you select a different one it doesn't, as far as I know, change the actual blank you're using.

[MarilynR]

Savvy customers could transfer the design to a regular postcard.

[Cat]

It's like this with a lot of the paper products, and I can only assume that it's a marketing thing. Like they've done some sort of research to indicate that people buying holiday cards are willing to pay more than people buying other sorts of postcards or something. 

Seriously, just compare a few paper products - it's common that products which are EXACTLY the same physically have different prices. RSVP cards & thank you cards cost more that Note cards even though they're the same physical product - and a flat invitation of the same size & paper type costs even more. 

I think @Windy is correct that sales are generally tuned to the specific product - so they'll have a sale on invitations but not on note cards etc., so I guess there is some advantage to putting designs on the more expensive specific product rather than the generic one.

I'm pretty sure it all came about with the paper breakout years ago (https://blog.zazzle.com/2018/07/25/the-paper-breakout-explained/) but I find it really confusing and as a person who's been broke most her life I sorta feel a bit guilty and squeamish about charging customers more for the exact same thing just because you gave it a different name. But I figure there must be some sort of method to the madness, so I usually try to put things on the correct product and hope that Zazzle knows what it's doing here.

[CreativeLeahG]

Holiday cards are generally bought in bulk and benefit from volume discounts, up to 35% or more, this could be one reason? The price comes down per unit .... if it started off low, the volume discount would then perhaps not be viable?

[WittyBetty]

Holiday postcards go 50% off during the Christmas season; I don't know about Thanksgiving or other holidays but Christmas postcards surely sell with big discounts. The final price would be even lower than the price of a "normal" postcard.

[MasterpieceCafe]

I think it's dishonest to tack on an extra 60 cents for the word "holiday" 

There is nothing different between these two postcards. I added the word "holiday" to the regular postcard.

https://www.zazzle.com/vintage_christmas_retro_jolly_santa_claus_holiday_postcard-256283059659172864

https://www.zazzle.com/vintage_christmas_retro_jolly_santa_claus_holiday_postcard-256421408875950390

[shellifitz]

Please share if you see anything worth mentioning 🙂