Their printing services range from all kinds of invitations (baby shower, birthdays, parties, weddings, etc), announcements (weddings, graduation, moving), all kinds of baby & kid related items, and holiday gifts. Items like custom printed labels on mint tins are not something you find at every online stationary printer.

Ordering Business Cards

Like I mentioned, the only service I have experience with is ordering a set of business cards, but I am going to guess that the other print services are the same.

I started originally wanting to upload my own design – sounds easy right? Well, no. Unfortunately, TinyPrints does not allow you to upload your own custom design like most other printers. I had a business card design that I created in Adobe Photoshop and had printed at other places but wanted to try it through TinyPrints but could not.

So, than I had to switch directions and pick from one of their premade designs to customize with my information. Once I found a design that I liked, it was very simple to add in my information and quickly complete my order. Now, while you cannot upload a completely custom card design, you can upload different elements to your card such as your own logo. Some of the templates are set up to have a picture of you in which case you can upload a photo and edit it for use on the card. This was good to see and is a nice feature to still be able to personalize the cards more for your business or brand rather than just having a plain text card.

Most online printers offer your standard vertically and horizontally printed business cards. TinyPrints.com has those and many other options too. If you’re looking for something a little more unique then a normal card, check out some of the options they have – folded cards and different size cards.

25 cards for $23.50? Isn’t that a bit expensive?

This simple answer is yes. There are plenty of options when using a printing service online that offer some rock bottom prices and offer all kinds of additional services and features as well. At almost $1 a pop, these little cards are pricey, especially for not being able to upload your own custom design. When you think about the price your paying for the cards though, it is important to consider a couple points.

First, the shipping time is pretty quick. With some of the other online printing services, you have to wait weeks for your cards to just be printed let alone shipped. I ordered from another service a few months ago and the wait was 4 weeks just to have my cards and banner printed.  It appears that the standard shipping service for TinyPrints has the cards arriving in about a week to a week and a half from when you order.

The minimum order quantity is only 10 cards. Then you can order basically in increments of 5. Other sites, your minimum order are usually 100 and can often times be 250 or more. With a higher quantity, they are obviously going to be able to charge a lower price. But when you only need a small run of cards, invitations, or other items, TinyPrints is offering that service and you are going to pay a premium on such small orders.

Finally, the quality of the cards is great. I’ve ordered from 3 other websites and also the printing service at my local Staples store. The cards are always much thinner and sometimes the printing is a lesser quality than how my cards arrived. The card stock for the cards is a nice thickness and corners are not easily bent when in pockets or your wallet.

So while the cards would be expensive, the quality and turnaround time is great so there is a trade off. Either way, my experience with these guys was good and I’d recommend them for small printing runs or definitely for the other services like baby announcements and invitations as their designs looked great.

Have you used TinyPrints.com? Share your experience in the comments!

Disclaimer: TinyPrints.com sponsored the business cards for this review. The opinions in the review are 100% of it’s author.

Let’s review a few parts of the process:

1. You need to figure out what you want your cards to look like.  What kind of card says, “This is MY business”?  Is it a glossy card printed and cut from an 8 x 10?  Is it something on vellum paper, with a crisp, old school flavor to it?  Is it a little more down to earth, maybe printed on watercolor paper?  Is it funky, and printed on thick plastic?  Your card says an awful lot about you… put some thought into what makes your card different from everybody else’s.

2. Are you going to design it yourself, or are you going to farm it out? You can save some cash, and just use a freeware art program (like the Gimp) to put together a design… but it might not be the best.  Or you can hire someone (are you cool with a good designer?), and get it done professionally… for a price.  It’s your choice, either way.

3. Where are you going to produce the actual cards?  You can go to an expensive print shop, a discount printing place, a web site that lets you print (or prints and sends you) your cards, or you can use your own printer.  Obviously, the best option for ease and high quality is going to be a professional shop – they do this for a living, after all.  And if you’ve got a decent printer, and did the design yourself, your only outlay may be a few bucks for some high-quality paper (or plastic, if you’re really funky).  But of course, there’s always the middle ground – you can get really sweet effects by designing it yourself, and then get it printed up glossy (and pretty cheap) at the photo kiosk in a drug store.  Sometimes there’s the pretty ghetto act of having to cut an 8 x 10 into a dozen business cards, but they still look good.

However, the story really starts a couple weeks ago when I moved and posted a tweet to Twitter looking to connect with other locals in the area, entrepreneurs, and businesses. One of the companies that followed me was 123Print.com, an online printer similar to OvernightPrints or PrintPlace.

When I went and look at their website, I saw they had 100 business cards for just $3.95, a pretty good deal. Most places would charge you at least $9.95 for 100 cards, or you may not even be able to order that few. So I was happy with the price and wanted to try out the service.

One thing I have been doing for a couple years now is including in all the packages I send out for eBay or Amazon sales is including a business card that basically says ‘Thank You for buying from us’ and asks the buyer to leave positive feedback for us. I had been printing them on just regular business card stock that you get from your local office supply store. Yet the last batch of paper that I bought I was not happy with and just printed the cards anyway – the perferations for where the cards pull apart is not that good and would always tear. But, putting a half assed business card with torn edges was not a good representation of my business – nor should it be one of yours.

So I quickly uploaded the design to the 123Print.com website and within 5 minutes had my order placed. Well, the cards came and they turned out great. The service was incredibly easy to use and fast. The shipping time was decent (the shipping price was high – $7 for a very small and light box), but the cards turned out nicely.

If you are looking to pick up some cards for yourself and get just a small number of them, then 123Print.com is definitely a great place to check out. You can’t beat the price and with hundreds of templates online, you can easily make your own design.

Here is a couple pictures of the box and cards!

Business cards in the box from @123print

Cards with discounts on them

The actual cards that I got printed

Here are some of the basic reasons you need to have a business card as a student.

1. Share your contact information – this is pretty basic. Without a business card, you find yourself writing your name and number or email address on any scrap paper found or a bar napkin. It is then likely to get thrown away because it looks like trash. With a business card, it is much more recognizable so it does not get tossed, and it looks much more professional.
2. Professionalism – going along with the above point, if you are trying to network with people within your university community or local business people, not having a card to give back to them after getting theirs does not look professional. Solve this whole dilemma by GETTING BUSINESS CARDS NOW!
3. Networking – if you are serious about making connections, then you need to have business cards. It happens to me and I am sure it happens to you all – after you meet someone and talk to them for a few minutes, you move on and start talking to someone else. Then after the night is over, you can not remember what the first person you talked to did. But, if you have their business card you can easily see their company name and probably a slogan on the card or you can look up their website to find out about them. The same thing goes for students. If your card is focused on use as a student, then you are likely to have your University/College name, your contact information, and your degree or program of study. This quickly gives someone a snapshot about you and helps refresh their memory about the conversation they had with you.
4. Personal Branding – as a student and soon to be college graduate, you need to brand yourself in a certain way. Whether that be in your area of interest, a certain discipline, a certain industry, or based on your own company. Personal branding plays a huge role in college and having business cards is a way to help you stand out among your fellow students.
5. Other “Partners” – college students like to party. So why not give out your business card when you are out at the bar, club, or party to give your information to prospective “partners”. I’ll leave it up to you which kind of partners you share your information with. I’m sure there are some who you do not want to have your number the next day.

Hopefully these tips help you out in deciding to get business cards printed up as a student.  Don’t think about whether you need them or not, think about what to put on them and how soon you can order them.

If you are looking for a good online printing company, I strongly recommend PrintPlace.com. They are a online printer that I have used many times and never had an issue with. The quality and range of products are great.

Best of luck,

Chris Pund