Cheap business cards: what you are really paying for
Where the money goes on a printed card, which savings are free and which ones show, and how to spend less without handing over something flimsy.
Read it →Most people judge business card prices by one printing quote. The year costs more, because cards are reprinted when details change, thrown away when a design is wrong, and wasted in a drawer. Counting every line usually changes which option is cheapest.
The four lines to count
Design. Zero if you use a free design you can download, or a one off fee if somebody lays it out for you. Design is the line most easily taken to nothing without it showing.
Printing. Paper, finish, sides and quantity. Real money, and it falls per card as the quantity rises.
Reprints. Every time your number, title, company or address changes, the remaining cards become recycling and the printing line is paid again.
Waste. The cards you never hand out. A box of a thousand ordered because the price per card looked good, of which three hundred are given away.
Why the reprint line is usually the biggest
Think about how often the details on a card change. A new mobile number. A promotion. A company rename. A move. Over two years, most people hit at least one.
When that happens, the cost is not just the new print run. It is the run you already paid for, minus the cards you had handed out. Order a thousand, hand out two hundred, change your title: you have thrown away most of what you paid for. So the cheapest option is nearly always the one that survives a change of phone number.
This is the argument for two habits that cost nothing:
- Order fewer cards, more often. Two hundred and fifty at a time.
- Put a code on the card that points at something you control. With a tracked link behind the code, you edit where it lands and every card already handed out keeps working.
The second one is the part that actually removes the reprint line, and it is the reason the digital card and the printed card belong together rather than being alternatives. The QR code guide shows how to set one up.
Working out your own number
Take a sheet of paper and answer four questions.
- How many cards did you actually hand out in the last twelve months?
- How many did you print in that time?
- How many times did a detail on your card change?
- What did each print run cost you, delivered?
Multiply the last two, add the runs you did not use up, and you have the honest figure. Most people find the number is two or three times the quote they remember.
Where the digital half sits in this
One card at your own address costs nothing, and neither do the print files, so design never enters the calculation at all.
The paid plan is a subscription rather than a cost per card: Pro is $0.99 a month, a smaller line than any reprint on your sheet of paper. For that, everyone who saves your card from the code can get card notifications from you, so a new number reaches them the day it changes instead of waiting for the next print run. The wallet pass add-on goes one step further: a card held in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet updates itself. The plans page sets the free and paid columns side by side.
The relevant point for the year's arithmetic is that the digital card does not have a reprint line. It is the same card after your title changes.
The cheapest sensible year
- A free design and free files.
- Two hundred and fifty cards on 350 gsm matte from a local shop, single sided, with a code on the face.
- A tracked link behind that code, so the cards outlive any change.
- A second run only when the first one is genuinely running out.
That is one printing bill for the year and no reprints. Compare it against a thousand cards at a lower unit price with a reprint in month seven, and the arithmetic stops being close. The sums are much the same whatever you do for a living; the pages for 25 trades only change what goes on the card, not what it costs. The cheap business cards page covers where else the money goes, and the free cards page lists what costs nothing. The first line of that year is free: make your free card.
Questions people ask
Is it cheaper to order a thousand?
Per card, yes. Per year, usually not, because of the reprint and the waste lines. Order what you will hand out in six to nine months.
Does a code on the card really save money?
It removes the reason most reprints happen. Your details change and the card keeps working, because the destination behind the code is yours to edit.
What does the digital card cost?
Nothing for one card at your own address, for as long as you keep it. The paid plan and the add-ons are listed, with what each one holds, on the plans page.
Should I count my own time?
If you value it at all, yes, and it argues for the same answer: design once with a free tool, print a sensible quantity, and never lay the card out again.