New foil cards unusable for occasions & events due to min. order of 10

[Fiorenzo]

The minimum order quantity of 10 makes the new foil cards unusable for all sorts of occasions and events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. Even for thank you cards, get-well wishes, condolences, and some Holidays such as Valentine's Day they're obsolete unless you target small businesses. You don't buy 10 cards in bulk for such events, also considering they can be personalized

Is this truly necessary? Old regular foil cards don't have minimum orders, so I doubt there is a technical reason behind that choice. Are there perhaps (hopefully) regular flat greeting cards coming with no minimum order quantity?

It would be a true shame if it wouldn't be possible to sell single greeting cards.

[CreativeLeahG]

They're mainly for invites, announcements and save dates I suspect, so bulk is the norm.

[Fiorenzo]

@CreativeLeahG I hope not, it would be a shame to neglect the whole personal greetings department for enforcing bulk sales. There are a lot of events and occasions yelling for beautiful cards with a "luxurious" feel. Mother's Day would be a perfect example. Or gratulations for anniversaries. The list is pretty endless.

A regular greeting card variant with no forced minimum order would be appropriate, IMO. You can buy single copies of the old foil cards, so I don't see any reason not to offer this option for these new cards. The manufacturing can't be that different and the cards are very expensive. You can't even choose custom amounts.

I used the "Holiday Foil Card" blanks for testing, btw, not an invitation or save-the-date variant or similar.

[Cat]

@Fiorenzo Where did you find the "holiday foil card" blank? I can't find it anywhere!

[Fiorenzo]

@Cat here:

Foil Holiday Card

[CreativeLeahG]

@Fiorenzo It may just be the case they're still working on it and a greeting card section will follow soon.

[Fiorenzo]

@CreativeLeahG I hope so, although there is already a "Holiday foil card" blank available, and this one has the same limitations as the invites, a minimum order of 10 AND predefined number of cards you can buy in steps of 10, sometimes 5. You can not buy, let's say, 34 Christmas cards, you need either to buy 30 or 40. 

Knowing well how sometimes things work on Z, I wanted to bring attention to this flaw, so it may be discussed and hopefully addressed. It would be a shame not to be able to use these great cards for personal greetings.

I personally think the min. amount has been done to address some designers' reluctance about single-card offerings and/or to avoid the hassles of handling single card purchases. I may be wrong, tho, and it may be a technical limitation on how the cards are printed.

[CreativeLeahG]

@Fiorenzo  it could also be the case the single unit price would be too high to make it competitive with foil cards offered by other retailers? Hopefully Zazzle mod will let us know.

[Fiorenzo]

@CreativeLeahG Single 5x7" folded foil cards with foil application on front + back and full-color inside prints are at 3.50 and 10 cost 5% less, 3.30 each, this as a comparison. I know, the foil application is on an unprinted background there, but the production itself already has to go through full-color printing AND a separate foil application process, so it's not much of a difference, this on a paper sheet double the size and with a folding process involved. I doubt this is a decision based on technical limitations or costs.  

Yes, I would like to get some official feedback, also if there are other card "variants" in planning besides the Holiday-themed version, to use for anniversaries, birthdays, thank you cards, condolences, and the like.

[CreativeLeahG]

@Fiorenzo 

The new foil cards are superior, they are foil on a regular printed background offering more options and greater visual appeal, unlike the folded cards. May be a different supplier.

[Fiorenzo]

Both made by Zazzle in Reno, different departments, tho. I know they are superior, but the production costs aren't significantly higher, and Zazzle's prices are high compared to others that offer the same, personalization included, so there is enough margin. I have designed a lot of cards, product labels (wine, oil, etc), and packaging with foil printing, embossing effects, and the like, for years now. Prices are higher but not as high as you may think.

P.S. Please don't misunderstand me, this is not a rant, it's more constructive feedback in the hope, Z may reconsider its pricing policy for these cards. Being able to buy single personalized cards is one of Zazzle's gems, it would be a shame if the foil cards would be excluded.