(last edited on April 29, 2014 at 1:27 am)
I have a paypal account that I use as my “research” fund, and the latest purchase is these Mini Cards from Moo. They were all the rage last year, when Moo was offering free sets of 10 for a limited time. Since I have a bunch of pictures now in my Flickr account, I thought I’d give the service a try.
Moo is based in the U.K., so my $20 order of 100 cards took a few days to get here via Royal Mail. The cards themselves are quite small, 2 3/4″ by 1 1/8″ inches, or about the size of a squattish stick of gum. They’re nice and stiff, coated with that nice matte finish…very nice. They all come packaged in a sturdy plastic box.
I printed these via the Flickr photo sharing service. The Moo printing option allows you to pick 100 different pictures so they’re all different. Since SXSW is coming up, I thought I’d have a bunch of these on hand to give to people in case they needed my mobile number; the conference was kind of nuts last year with all the people running around, and I’ve been thinking of ways to make it a little easier to keep track of everything. This year I plan to be prepared!
The flip side of the card has some customizable contact information, and a URL to the actual photo. They’re a bit pricey at 20 cents per card. It would have been cheaper to get some custom printed business cards of comparable quality online (it’s shocking how cheap this is now), but I wouldn’t have been able to get a different photo on each card on such nice paper stock. Plus, the experience of picking a card itself will become part of the fun. When faced with a selection, how will people decide what to pick? What will that say about them? If I were to break up the 100 cards into 10 groups of 10 photos, I might be able to make some kind of psycho-analytical tool, maybe create a mini card game of some kind. These mini cards have a powerful totemic presence that’s very tempting to apply in a creative business context.
Anyway, the Moo Minicards get a thumbs-up for me! I believe they’re only available with Flickr photos, so you’ll need an account (free ones are available). You can browse my flickr account to see what I’ve been doing over there, if you haven’t clicked on the photos in the sidebar before.
12 Comments
I ordered some Flickr cards with Onegai Teacher screenshots on them. They are very useful for handing out at anime conventions.
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You’re right – watching people choose is quite the best bit. I was at a conference the other week and it all started with a mass business card handout. First came the standard sized ones, then three of us pulled out Moo cards and were mobbed. I even spotted trading going on with people swapping the design they got for another one! Also, the designs I thought would be most popular, aren’t, and the one I have least of is most popular. It’s been a while since my business cards generated that much excitement.
It is shocking how cheap biz cards can be. Realistically, when trying to bootstrap a business, you’re supposed to just focus on what you need to succeed, not all that nice collateral stuff. But how can you afford not to drop $30 on 1000 nice business cards so that when the need arises, you’re prepared.
Thanks for sharing.
What business card service do you recommend Mark?
Kyle: That’s very neat.
Cas: That’s a great story! These Moo cards might be very valuable in understanding what a particular client likes, and they certainly are memorable. I may have to get a bunch printed up with bits of portfolio on them now, maybe some other items, and see what I learn from that! Bwa ha ha! :-)
Mark: The business cards are a good investment. I actually still haven’t had mine printed “for real”, but I’m going to have to do it after seeing these.
I actually had a friend lay them out and place the order for me. It was around $30 or $35 for the 1000.
He orders print through http://partnerprinting.com. He invoices his price, pays them, and they ship with his name on the label.
This is the first recommendation that comes to mind elsewhere:
http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2007/01/04/pressed.html
AWESOME! Thanks for the simplebits link Mark! I was looking for a Letterpress printer a while ago, because I love the feel of it.
FYI: You can also get them through a partnership with Skype. A few different options than the Flickr deal.
Hey Dave,
I just had a load of these delivered too – I got them via Skype though.
The skype variety has a nifty little web app to create the ‘back’ of the cards with some preset colours and fonts.
Overall I am thoroughly impressed by this company – I bought them as I didn’t think £10 was much of a gamble and it certainly paid off. My friends, colleagues and clients love them – I’m buying sets for all of our staff too!
I’ll write up my experience with MOO soon!
Kee
Now the trick is to see how you can affect what card they choose.
Display their 10 choices and just make a few subtle (or not so subtle) reactions. It could be the Official Dave Seah Business Card Ten Second Social Experiment (ODSBCTSSE).
BTW: Congrats on hitting 3500 readers! My blog is catching up, at last count I was up to 6! That’s a 50% increase in only 1 week! BOO YAH!
great review, i was always curious about these cards. now that i have surplus of flickr photos, i will most definetly give these a try. great idea with the personalization too!
if you want some cards that are full sized, and the ability to add your own images to the cards (outside of flickr pictures) then you should check out http://www.printsmadeeasy.com , they have a ton of design capabilities to rival moo easily