The Cost of Making a Card............

The reason for this page is to inform the reader about how my cards are priced and why.

 I have thought long and hard about why I charge what I do and why it is worth you paying that little bit more for a card made by me.  I could make a card in five minutes, and it would end up looking something like this:

This is a blue card sprayed with a shimmer and a peel-off of a fish added with a peel-off sentiment.  This card cost me 5 minutes in time, and about 30 pence for the peel-offs and a penny for the spray.  The card cost 10 pence.   If I was to charge the minimum uk  rate of pay for making a card, which is about £6.25 per hour then my time would have been 52.8 pence.   If I have to post it to someone that would cost 60 pence (first class).  And finally the cost of my website is £7.00 per month, which works out at 23 pence per day. 

So here is the breakdown:

Time:  5 minutes

Time:        52.8p
Peel-offs: 30p
Spray:      01p
Card:        30p
Website:   23p
Postage:    60p (minimum)


The cost would be £1.96  just for this card. Someone offered me 99p for it!!  For me to make any profit from it I would have to sell it for a minimum of £3.00  giving me a profit of £1.04.  What do I do with my profits?  I order new items to make cards with.

Let me show you another card and it's breakdown of costs:
This one is in my shop selling at £5.50

 So here we have a beautiful Steam Punk designed card.  I have used red card, gold and cream ribbon, orange and red checked textured paper, brown leather effect paper, peel-offs sticky ribbon and a printed image which has been decoupaged.  It took me 35 minutes to make this card.  I have not included the cost of glue or double sided sticky fixers.

I am pricing this out this to show you the ACTUAL cost of making:
Time:           £3.64p
Peel-offs:          45p
Ribbon:               60p
checked paper:    10p
leather paper:     10p
Image:                 80p (to buy and download)
Printing/ink            5p
Photo paper:       60p
Website:               23p
Postage:              60p
The TOTAL cost of making and sending this card to a customer is:   £7.17p
I have made a loss of £1.67  This exercise has not taken into account the cost of an envelope or poly pocket!

My cards are made with the finest of top quality card and embellishments.  I take time to make sure you get the best so that the person receiving your card bought from me will keep it for ever.

This page today is an exercise for me to see where my money and time goes and to share it with those who want to sell cards and don't know how to price them.  My shop cards will be increasing in price very soon because of the cost of buying whether it is me going to a shop to buy items or on-line shopping.   Both costs money.....either car costs or postage costs.

I love making cards, and won't be stopping anytime soon.  If people want to go and buy any card, that's fine with me......if people want beautiful, well thought out, Bespoke cards them I'm your woman for that. 

I hope this is helpful to all you card makers and crafters..........we should not be short changing ourselves just because we like what we do.  We should not be bullied into selling our stuff cheaply for fear that someone else will be cheaper.  Our work has value and I am not prepared to undersell what I make.  Personal cards ordered, and made to requirements will cost just as having clothes made to fit by a tailor would cost.....more than off the shelf!!