Hallmark?

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by Rausch

I also see no point in buying a paper card and paying more to ship said meaningless card...

Right. And that's also a part of the problem. Hallmark is basically known for cards (even though they do more), and that's a shitty market. My wife sells a lot of cards, but even the high end cards she sells for $6 only represent $3 profit. That requires a lot of volume to make any kind of money from, and cards are Hallmark's brand.

Contrast that with a single wedding appointment for invites. She can clear $3000+ off one sale, if it's the right customer.

Hallmark doesn't do custom invites and such, though. So being relegated in the public's mind to just cards screws them, as people who buy cards now really want clever/profane/witty and printed by small letterpress printers. None of which is represented by HMK at the moment.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Right. And that's also a part of the problem. Hallmark is basically known for cards (even though they do more), and that's a shitty market. My wife sells a lot of cards, but even the high end cards she sells for $6 only represent $3 profit. That requires a lot of volume to make any kind of money from, and cards are Hallmark's brand.

And they do more, I get that as well. They do sell collectables. But even that is a down trending business model. They sell 2nd hand $3it and cute dogs and angel figures.

And even if they suddenly changed tomorrow and sold Batman figurines it would only hasten their demise and isolate the very small market they do have.

Originally Posted by NewChief

Contrast that with a single wedding appointment for invites. She can clear $3000+ off one sale, if it's the right customer.

Hallmark doesn't do custom invites and such, though.

So even the people that do buy cards don't tend to buy them there. And they have almost nothing in collectibles. No exclusives other than cheap trinkets...