Cheap Holiday Cards
Season's Greetings: Cheap Holiday Cards
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Warm Wishes for the New Year -- whatever you want your holiday cards to say, there's a website ready to offer you deep discounts around this time of year. The key is finding the best deal and jumping on it because many deals don't stick around long.
The first thing to do is decide what type of holiday card you want to send. You can do traditional folded cards with a scene or holiday decor on the front; you can send holiday e-cards via email; or you can choose to create photo Christmas greeting cards through a retail store or online vendor. E-cards will be the cheapest, and many sites, such as egreetings.com, offer them for free and you won't have to pay postage. You can also purchase boxes of folded holiday cards for as little as a dollar for 10 to 15 cards at your local dollar store, although you'll still have to pay for postage. The super-popular photo holiday cards are easy to set up and fairly cheap, but again, postage is required.
Online photo shops are a dime a dozen, but the big names like Snapfish, Shutterfly, and Tiny Prints are good places to look for discounted cards. Vistaprint, an online stationery store better known for cheap business cards, also offers up some cheap holiday deals on cards at this time of year. Don't forget to check with retailers such as Walmart, Staples, and Walgreens, and Sam's Club and Costco if you have a membership. All of these retailers have a photo center that you can use to create memorable photo holiday cards for minimal costs.
What are the best deals right now? After much research, here are some deals (most based on 4x8-inch, flat photo cards) you may want to pounce on:
Snapfish Holiday Cards Deals: The online photo shop is running a deal that lasts until December 3rd (you'd better hurry!) that makes photo cards for Christmas far cheaper than any other deal we've seen. At a regular rate of $0.30 per card (with an order of 220 or more), the site is offering 50 percent off at checkout with coupon code CYBER50, making the Christmas greeting cards just $0.15 each with a minimum 220-card order of Snapfish Basic cards. And, there are options available with as many as eight photo spots.
Costco Holiday Cards Deals: Costco members can get super-cheap cards for Christmas. For 50 cards you'll pay $14.99, or $.30 per card, but order 25 more for another $5.49 and the per card cost drops to $.22; that price holds for every additional 25 cards you order. A few things to note about Costco's cards -- they measure 6x71/2 inches and there aren't a ton of options, although you can fit up to five photos on some styles.
Shutterfly Holiday Cards Deals: Another heavy-hitter among online photo shops, Shutterfly is currently running a special offering up to 40 percent off all Christmas greeting cards plus free shipping on orders of $50 or more. The discount is already taken out of the price of the cards before you check out, making the normally $0.40 cards just $0.28 each if you order 225 or more from the styles Classic, Contemporary, or Whimsy. With some options you can add up to eight photos.
Walmart Holiday Cards Deals: The superstore, known for low prices, also offers good deals in the Christmas greeting cards arena. For $0.28 each on a minimum order of 240, you get four or more picture spots on a 4x8-inch card. Or, if you really want to cut costs, you can pay the same price for 4x8-inch cut-apart cards that you cut into three separate 2x5-inch cards.
Some of these quoted prices are special deals, while others are the seasonal prices. If you miss a good holiday card deal, don't panic just yet. The holiday season is just getting underway and there are sure to be additional cheap holiday deals as these expire, so be sure to keep tabs on your favorite photo sites to find the best deals.
Tell us what type of holiday cards do you usually send out? Classic, funny, contemporary, or ... ?
