It’s getting close to holiday time again–which means it’s time for me to start on the IvanExpert holiday cards. Each year, we send out holiday/New Year’s cards to our top clients, and the cards always feature a photo I’ve taken somewhere in NYC.

So yesterday I used iPhoto’s amazing card printing service (yes, built right into iPhoto) and ordered 4 sample cards, each with a different photo. I find I can’t always predict what the cards will look like ahead of time, so that’s why I test a few different cards before doing the mass-printing. Once they arrive and Ivan and I decide which image we like best, we’ll write the inscription on the inside (yes, this can be preprinted on all cards) and order a few hundred.

In previous years we have ordered the cards in bulk direct through iPhoto but their price for hundreds of cards isn’t all that great. So this year I’m going to try a different service: a company called Modern Postcard in California, which has been around for years. Their minimum order for cards is 250 for $155, plus envelopes are an additional $19. They have templates for creating your cards, so you just download the template, fill it in with photos and text, upload the file to their site, and done. Not quite as easy as iPhoto but pretty close.

Then comes the fun part–stuffing and licking envelopes. It’s the postage that kills you. For 250 cards at $0.44 each it’s a total of $110!