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Online Business Cards
Thread poster: Preston Decker
Preston Decker
Preston Decker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:44
Chinese to English
Oct 22, 2015

I need to print new business cards, and I'm thinking of using an online service such as vistaprint. Has anybody tried one of these online services and gotten good results? I hate not giving business to the local mom & pop store down the street, but it looks like I could save 50 dollars with vistaprint, so if the results are the same I'll likely go with them.

 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 21:44
Danish to English
+ ...
No problems Oct 22, 2015

I've tried them once in Europe, and there were no problems. It's good value if you know what you want and can set it up on their site yourself.

They don't make individual designs for you, of course.


 
Triston Goodwin
Triston Goodwin  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 15:44
Spanish to English
+ ...
Vista print Oct 22, 2015

I saw the title and thought you were talking about vCards (add one to your business cards!). I've used Vistaprint for years and I've always been very happy with the products and prices.

 
Jean Lachaud
Jean Lachaud  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:44
English to French
+ ...
Yup Oct 22, 2015

I've also used another of these internet-based business card printers, in addition to Vistaprint, and the cards came out fine each time.

The differences are in the UI to design the cards. Some of these web sites are more user-friendly, and others even allow you to design your cards using your own application (CorelDraw, Illustrator, etc.) and upload the resulting file.

Triston Goodwin wrote:

I saw the title and thought you were talking about vCards (add one to your business cards!). I've used Vistaprint for years and I've always been very happy with the products and prices.


 
Preston Decker
Preston Decker  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 17:44
Chinese to English
TOPIC STARTER
Perfect! Oct 22, 2015

Thanks to everyone for the fast replies, they were very helpful and it looks I'll be Vistaprint's newest customer.

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Bear in mind Oct 22, 2015

You will pay twice the advertised price by the time you add on all the essential extras

 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 21:44
Danish to English
+ ...
It's still cheap Oct 22, 2015

Chris S wrote:

You will pay twice the advertised price by the time you add on all the essential extras


What interests me is the total I pay compared to other providers, not if it is made up of a base price plus extras or one single price, and that total is still significantly cheaper than if you go to a traditional printing business.

I didn't pay "all the essential extras" when I ordered from Vistaprint, so I'm not sure what you refer to. It's clear how much you pay before you order.


 
Suzanne Smart (X)
Suzanne Smart (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:44
Italian to English
+ ...
Moo Oct 23, 2015

I've never used Vistaprint but I've had great experience with Moo, in case you want to look at an alternative. I think a lot of colleagues use Moo as well.
Hope you're pleased with your shiny new cards, whatever you decide to do!


 
Karen Stokes
Karen Stokes  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:44
Member (2003)
French to English
Seconded Oct 23, 2015

Suzanne Smart wrote:

I've never used Vistaprint but I've had great experience with Moo, in case you want to look at an alternative. I think a lot of colleagues use Moo as well.
Hope you're pleased with your shiny new cards, whatever you decide to do!


Very happy with Moo too, particularly because you don't have to order hundreds of cards at once.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Vistaprint Oct 23, 2015

Thomas T. Frost wrote:

I didn't pay "all the essential extras" when I ordered from Vistaprint, so I'm not sure what you refer to. It's clear how much you pay before you order.


I ordered business cards for a sideline of mine.

Advertised price: £4.99
Eventual cost with no added extras: £13.18

Yes, I knew the total before I paid, but only after I'd invested a lot of time in designing the card and completing the endless ordering process, where you have to actively unselect a million extras.

My beef is that it is a deliberately misleading business model.

Like: Would you like a FREE business card holder? Yes, why not, seeing as it's free. Then, at the end of the lengthy ordering process, suddenly there's extra postage added for the "free" holder. And to cancel the holder, you have to start all over again.

So I can't recommend Vistaprint. The cards were OK, albeit basic. But no better than if you printed them yourself. For a decent finish, of course, you have to pay extra.


 
Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 21:44
Danish to English
+ ...
Still cheap Oct 23, 2015

Chris S wrote:

Advertised price: £4.99
Eventual cost with no added extras: £13.18


And so what? £13.18 is still cheap when you compare with traditional printing businesses. I just look through the hype and focus on the final cost.

Chris S wrote:
Yes, I knew the total before I paid, but only after I'd invested a lot of time in designing the card and completing the endless ordering process, where you have to actively unselect a million extras.


It's cheap because they don't make custom designs for you, and because it's a DIY shop what design is concerned. That's what you pay for if you use a traditional designer/printer. If you prefer someone doing all that for you, Vistaprint is not ideal.

Chris S wrote:
My beef is that it is a deliberately misleading business model.

Like: Would you like a FREE business card holder? Yes, why not, seeing as it's free. Then, at the end of the lengthy ordering process, suddenly there's extra postage added for the "free" holder. And to cancel the holder, you have to start all over again.


We could probably discuss for a long time if "FREE XYZ" includes free postage, but it is obviously designed to attract customers based on low prices while not mentioning postage.

But once you know how to cut through the hype, you can easily manoeuvre through it and still obtain products for low prices, and as I said, it's the final result I'm interested in, not the 'noise' along the way. But I can understand it irritates some. I just don't let it irritate me.

So if Vistaprint is a good choice depends on the user's preferences. It doesn't sound as a good choice for you, while others may be happy about it.


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:44
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Card = your chance to leave best possible first impression Oct 23, 2015

Thomas T. Frost wrote:
And so what? £13.18 is still cheap when you compare with traditional printing businesses. I just look through the hype and focus on the final cost.

I dunno Thomas, I feel that a quality business card is a vital part of that, er, vital first impression. I don't mind paying for that.

I understand that not every country cares about its business cards as much as Japan, but I have received Vistaprint-style cards and didn't rate them. A bit flimsy and cheap. It doesn't leave a good impression. If I get a thick, nicely printed card, I tend to think that the person is serious about their professional image.

Of course, you can screw up the all-important first impression even if you have a heavyweight business card printed on beautiful stock. But hopefully the rest of your game will be on a par with your card - well-presented, professional, credible.

Regards
Dan


 
564354352 (X)
564354352 (X)  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 22:44
Danish to English
+ ...
Vista Print for private cards, not for business Oct 23, 2015

I've been quite content to use Vista Print for private cards for years, but when I went self-employed, I wanted somethng a little more 'professional' for my business cards. I got a graphic designer to do the lot, including my company logo, and it wasn't incredibly expensive, but obviously a fair deal more than Vista Print. And better quality, I think.

The downside with Vista Print is that you run into their designs everywhere, so their cards don't exactly make you stand out from the
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I've been quite content to use Vista Print for private cards for years, but when I went self-employed, I wanted somethng a little more 'professional' for my business cards. I got a graphic designer to do the lot, including my company logo, and it wasn't incredibly expensive, but obviously a fair deal more than Vista Print. And better quality, I think.

The downside with Vista Print is that you run into their designs everywhere, so their cards don't exactly make you stand out from the crowd...
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Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 21:44
Danish to English
+ ...
Cultural Oct 23, 2015

It depends a lot on culture, Dan. What could be considered normal in one country could be considered pretentious in another, for example in Scandinavia, where overdoing it could well be perceived as if the person were taking him- or herself too seriously, and in such a case, overdoing it could backfire. Showing off in Scandinavia is a minefield - google "Jante law" to understand it. It is best avoided, in fact, even when one does not exaggerate.

Being Scandinavian myself, what the
... See more
It depends a lot on culture, Dan. What could be considered normal in one country could be considered pretentious in another, for example in Scandinavia, where overdoing it could well be perceived as if the person were taking him- or herself too seriously, and in such a case, overdoing it could backfire. Showing off in Scandinavia is a minefield - google "Jante law" to understand it. It is best avoided, in fact, even when one does not exaggerate.

Being Scandinavian myself, what the business card looks like makes absolutely no difference to me, except if it's printed on flimsy paper and cut out by hand. What matters is how the person behaves. I do business with the person, not a piece of cardboard. I don't give a damn about a piece of cardboard. I'd rather receive the information electronically so I can store it in the appropriate folder rather than having bits of cardboard sitting around. But of course, it's more important for others.

From that angle, there is nothing wrong with Vistaprint's cards, but someone doing the 'pretentious' game may want something more impressive - even oversized cards, which don't fit in anywhere.

Oh, and such cards may also give the message that the person is probably too expensive.
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Thomas T. Frost
Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 21:44
Danish to English
+ ...
Standard design Oct 23, 2015

Gitte Hovedskov, MCIL wrote:

The downside with Vista Print is that you run into their designs everywhere, so their cards don't exactly make you stand out from the crowd...


That's a no-no. I'd never, ever use a standard design. You can upload your own design on Vistaprint. If you aren't very good at design, I agree it's better to get someone else to do it.


 
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