A funny story about business cards and vista print offers

Haha! Upselling is a cool and great technique! It also happens offline - I mean with business that aren't really online. It happened to me when I bought membership at a hotel chain. No plans of buying really but their offer seems really good. Before I even came to their place I was told not to bring any cash or credit card. I was with a friend. We had a scrumptious dinner at the hotel cafe, free of course. Then they presented something to us after the dinner. I actually cannot remember all the plans and pricing but the discussion went long because me and my friend had lots of questions. The presenter also told us: "In your lifetime, you would travel this much and this often, how much do you think would it cost for you.... If you buy this plan, it would just cost you about 5 to 10 local trips equivalent. The difference, you can enjoy travelling with five star accommodation and cruises. You will have xx% discount for all of these for 30 years....." she said so much more. The offer is actually really good. My friend and I ended up buying the lowest priced plan at about $3,000.

What can I say? This technique is good for business owners.

Yes, I forgot that this was the offline marketing forum, but as I mostly buy my cards offline previously, and business cards are a tangable marketing item i figured this was the better place to discuss it.

I should probably update my card design soon, but with long delays in them sending the cards, and the relatively low cost of it, I figured I may as well get them now and get it out of the road.

I was considering buying magnets but they are about 80 cents each, which is way too much to randomly hand out. At $80 for 2000 cards the price comes down to near 4 cents (my last cards were closer to 20 cents each) so now I might hand these out rather than the DL flyer that I usually hand out at markets.

Wonder if people are more likely to put a business card on their fridge and buy my dog treats than a yellow flyer?

I've always been a little disappointed with the quality of the product I receive from Vista Print. I've had cards, mugs, car magnets, stickers etc produced as I have a tendency to be lured in by price and convenience. However the best cards and other collateral I have had printed have always been by local suppliers in my area.

It's also a good chance to network. A few years ago I spent $3,000 on signage at my local print shop franchise which opened the door to them becoming a client. I later used them as a case study when I approached other stores in the franchise. It's good to leverage your relationships wherever possible.

I am currently looking at vistaprint having just been quoted 4 times the price locally for the same products?
Will look closer and get some samples before commiting to them, thanks for the heads up

I have cards from Vista print and they offer deals where you only pay for postage if you choose from a limited range. It cost me less than $10 for 750 cards. I was able to use both sides too so I had more than enough room for what I wanted. They have deals running all the time.

some times the discounted card will have the printing company's logo on it or at a corner.

I was really dissapointed with the cards I ordered from Vista Print for a client before. They do push the upsells very heavily. Another company that probably makes a killing on upsells is Go Daddy. They market to small business owners who know little to nothing about the internet (buying domains, hosting, web design, etc.) so they make their user interface extremely complicated for these business owners and they end up buying extras they don't even need. It's quite genius actually.

I was just looking into getting my business cards from there as well, how are they anyways? I am that type of person that gets up selled all the time, thinking that I am getting a better deal if I go a selective way. It happens so often, I try to save money as much as possible.