Decent Business Cards?

Lrandoom on 08/06/2009 - 17:12

After much searching and researching on the web, I'm still looking for a decent company to produce some business cards for me.

A couple of things I've decided upon:

  • Will provide my own artwork in any format required (no pre-designed cards, eg Vistaprint's 'freebies')
  • Full colour, single sided print required (for the front only)
  • Want at least 300 gsm stock, at least semi-gloss
  • Gloss celloglazing would be nice (front only)
  • Want either 500 or 1000 cards, depending on price difference

Have been looking around locally and a few places want $200+ for 500 cards at the above specs. I see 99cards.com (and various other places) charge far less and tick all the above boxes, but I was hoping to hear from any happy/unhappy customers from any online places.

Anyone know of any deals on at the moment, or can otherwise vouch for anyone they've gone through?

Cheers in advance.

Find Me A Bargain

Comments

  • randoom on 04/07/2009 - 16:05
    +1

    Went on a very detailed search of the web and found AstroPrint: http://www.astroprint.com.au/

    Got 1000 cards printed on 420gsm stock, with matte celloglazing, double-sided printing (one colour, on greyscale), with postage included, for the total of $88 and a few cents.

    Excellent service and communication from the manager, and quick processing. Pay with Paypal (a bonus for the security concious), and a money back guarantee. Now I'm just waiting to receive the order (they say 7 days to get the order).

    Pretty impressed thus far; will post back on my thoughts on the quality - hopefully it's good. Ticks the boxes on everything else, though. Cheaper and better specs - at least on paper so far - than anywhere else I have seen.

  • AntMan76 on 04/07/2009 - 16:13

    Thanks for the update. I may be looking to get some printed soon too so am looking forward to your next update.

    Thanks RockDJ.

    • randoom on 04/07/2009 - 16:39

      It'll all depend on how good the quality is, but they've got some decent options for other printing too: http://www.astroprint.com.au/product-list-all.php

      Gotta wonder how it's done so cheaply; or otherwise, how other places get away with being so expensive.

      Will let you know how it turns out later next week.

  • AstroPrint on 04/07/2009 - 18:27

    Hey hey! Nice to see some great feedback. Thank you very much for that - it's much appreciated.

    To give some insight into how we achieve such low pricing: AstroPrint is an online business only, and we have designed our entire operational process to be as efficient as possible. This provides us with huge savings in operational costs, which we can then pass on to our customers in the form of great pricing.

    Thanks again for spreading the word, and if you have any comments, questions or concerns please fire away!

    By the way, if you visit the site and see the "Live Chat" icon blinking, it means I am at my desk and able to answer your questions in real-time :)

    Cheers,

    Dario Paolini
    Operations Manager, AstroPrint
    http://www.astroprint.com.au

  • scotty on 04/07/2009 - 20:52

    ARGH! I meant to get some business card done before EoFY and I forgot! Thanks for the research RockDJ and welcome to OzBargain AstroPrint!

  • Steve on 05/07/2009 - 09:25

    Nice thread. I've been looking for a while too, got some VistaPrint cards with my own upload and paid extra for the thicker card but the quality of printing is poor. I complain and to their credit they did another run but the quality was just the same, so I now have 500 low quality business cards. My wife suggested we could use them as fire lighters when we next go camping.

    I've had a look at www.martinprint.com.au and www.cmykcards.com.au, but have only got their sample packs so far, which look good, but of course you'd expect the samples to wouldn't you.

    @RockDJ - what package did you use to design your own cards?

    @AstroPrint - any possibility of getting a sample from my own design? Any plans to introduce fridge magnets to your range?

    Cheers, Steve.

    • randoom on 05/07/2009 - 11:50

      I just used Photoshop as that's all I had available to me. Just followed the instructions for printing on Astroprint's site (300dpi, 2mm bleed [added in relevant guides], and CMYK colour) and made my own that way. I'm far from being a creative person, but some online Photoshop design tutes helped out there. Saved to Photoshop EPS format once I was done.

      As you've probably already seen, there's templates for Indesign and Illustrator on the Astroprint site; but I suppose it's up to what you want to use (and what'll pop out a suitable file format).

      @AstroPrint - maybe a Photoshop PSD template might be helpful on your site? I know Photoshop can open the AI templates, but my version (CS4) made a mess of the dimensions.

  • AstroPrint on 05/07/2009 - 12:29

    @Steve - I'd be happy to send you some samples of actual business cards that we have printed for other customers. Send me your details via the site, or through the contact form on this forum and I'll put something together for you. Unfortunately, it's not economical to produce a sample of your own artwork, as there is considerable cost involved in setting up an offset print job, which is why you will find many companies offering high quality cards will only do a 250 or 500 minimum order. I have tried to instill confidence in visitors to the site by offering a money back guarantee - if you aren't happy with what you receive we will happily refund your money. We haven't been operating for long, but have already received some great feedback from happy customers - which you can check out here: http://www.astroprint.com.au/satisfied-customers.php

    Also, regarding the fridge magnets, we can do them too, no problem. Let me know what you are after and I'll provide you with a quote. I'll also look at adding this to the product line on the site in the near future.

    @RockDJ - sure Photoshop templates can be arranged :) Initially I was hesitant to provide this file type because artwork designed as a PSD file usually ends up being quite large and I thought that maybe there would be bandwidth issues and lengthy upload times. But now that you mention it, I could provide instructions in the template so customers know to save to high quality jpeg or even eps as you did yourself as this will likely address those file size issues :)

    Leave it with me!

    • tlaing on 20/07/2009 - 00:52

      Any word on the PSD templates? I've been waiting for them to show up so I can place an order (not keen on learning indesign just to make cards!)

      Thanks

  • AstroPrint on 20/07/2009 - 09:23

    The PSD templates are going to take a little while to get organised and place on the site - but if you email details of which product you are interested in, I'll make you a template and send it to your directly… You can send to [email protected]

  • chloden on 20/07/2009 - 09:33

    I have no idea about business cards but I just recieved an email from a VP Rewards offering free business cards. I know nothing about the company, I actually have no idea how they have my email address!

    http://www.vistaprint.com.au/qs/swiss-multi-product.aspx?dr=…

    Hope it helps.

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