If you run a party supply or stationery store, consider investing in graduation greeting cards. With the wide variety of educational options available today, graduations can occur year-round, making graduation announcement cards a profitable investment. Expand your graduation cards offerings by stocking graduation thank you cards as well.

By determining the pricing and costs of graduation cards, it will be easier to determine the type of cards you wish the sell as well as any special supplies such as greeting card racks. Price ranges of wholesale greeting cards vary depending on style, card stock, special features and whether you wish to offer customized graduation card services. As you set out to determine the pricing and costs of graduation cards, consider the following:

1. Simple graduation cards are inexpensive and easy to move.

2. Specialty graduation cards can excite your customers.

3. Customized graduation cards can bring in more business.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Stock a varied selection of graduation greeting cards

Graduation cards come in all shapes and sizes. Stock up on a wide selection of graduation announcement cards to ensure a satisfied customer base. You can offer simple one-side printed cards, pop-up cards, multiple page cards and the like. Prices will range from about $6 to $12 for a unit of 6 cards.

I recommend: Browse the selection of simple graduation cards from InterGreet which is an online wholesaler of brand name greeting cards. Stonehenge Collection has a wide selection of graduation cards.

Catch customers' eyes with unique and specialty graduation cards

Look to handmade, letterpress and eco-friendly graduation cards to impress your sophisticated clientele. Custom, artist-made cards will cost you from about $12 for a set of 10 to $200 for a box of 240.

I recommend: Loose Petals specializes in custom printed cards on recycled paper. Contact the company for wholesale prices. Jean Watson Illustration will provide custom designs or let you choose from her pre-designed options.

Supply customers with printable graduation invitations and announcements

Customers don't always want pre-designed graduation cards. Give them what they want with blank, customizable and printable graduation cards, invitations and announcements. A set of 25 blank cards ranges from $10 to $25.

I recommend: Invitation Paper has a huge selection of blank graduation announcements and invitations in packs of 10 to 25. It also carries foil seals and ribbon. Milestone Stationary offers blank and customizable photo graduation announcements in sets of 25.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Setup a store website to allow your customers to customize and send free graduation e cards online. Offer extra services like allowing them to print graduation cards online by using your free graduation templates. Such services have low overhead or are completely free to you, but will help you bring in new business.

Like Christmas, graduation season rolls around every year, and parents all over this country seek out graduation cards. For those in the stationary and card stores, this can mean an increase in business on those particular items during the graduation season.

As retailers, you can offer graduation announcement cards, graduation greeting cards, graduation thank you cards, printable graduation cards and many other graduation supplies not only to the parents but to teachers, to gift-givers and to the students themselves.

As a retailer, you can find and sell graduation cards through many avenues:

1. Work with a greeting and graduation card representative from the company of your choice.

2. Order your inventory online.

3. Purchase printable graduation cards and personalize them for your customers.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Carry a name brand line of graduation cards in your stores

Most major retail operations will let you carry one or two product lines in your store. From funny graduation cards to money holders, you can work with an area rep to come and stock your inventory on a regular basis.

I recommend: Contact Hallmark to see what opportunities are available for various product lines. American Greetings sells their cards wholesale through a program called InterGreet.com. You can also sell popular brands like Mary Engelbreit through your business.

Choose an online retailer for graduation announcement cards

Most popular graduation announcement card distributors have large portions of their inventory available for online viewing. They work through you, the business, to sell to your customers and generally will not sell direct to your customers.

I recommend: The Graduation Cards Shop sells graduation cards and announcements for preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, college and home school. They also sell matching thank yous so your customers can carry their graduation party theme throughout. Also consider Carlson Craft, a company from which you can have your clients custom order their announcements or cards. Jostens, a popular name in yearbooks, is another big name in the graduation card industry. InvitationPaper.com carries custom order announcements.

Send graduation cards online

As a business or a school, you might think to send a graduation sentiment via free online e-cards. Obviously cost effective (in other words free), they also are in sync with today's web-based generation of grads.

I recommend: Send graduation e cards through AwesomeCards.com. Their cards stand out because they feature animation. 123Greetings.com also offers free graduation cards in an electronic format.

Bulk up on graduation cards and supplies

Stock your store with wholesale graduation party supplies and cards.

I recommend: Check out the wide selection of graduation cards and other items as well as additional featured links at the Wholesale Party Store. Party Celebration and BulkPartySupplies.com also sell in wholesale to help you stock your store.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider offering photo greeting cards through your business. They are personable and eye catching.
• •  If you plan to carry brands like Carlson for your graduation cards, you will have to make a monetary investment in the product binders. They display nice and are a wonderful hard copy reference for styles to your customers.

The variety of online vendors that sell custom cards and invitations have made graduation cards designer education and training simple. You can sit at your computer and choose the elements and put them together to make a unique card all your own.

The specific actions taken to create a card vary depending on the method you choose for printing your cards. Follow these steps to create printable graduation invitations:

1. Decide whether you want to print your graduation cards yourself or order them from a printer.

2. Choose your design including paper color, font, overall design and possible photo.

3. Upload your design and order, place an order for pre-designed cards or print them yourself using a template.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Order and print graduation cards online using your own photo

Photo invitations and announcements are popular. Many online vendors can help you create a custom graduation announcement using a photo of your graduate. Order enough to send to out-of-town friends and acquaintances as well as those you plan to invite to the graduation party.

I recommend: Follow the instructions to use the custom-card designer tool at Celebration Cottage to design your own graduation announcement cards. Read the Frequently Asked Questions to learn all about ordering personalized graduation cards from Tiny Prints. Check out the step-by-step instructions to find out how to create photo graduation announcements at Shutterfly. Choose and personalize graduation announcements with matching graduation thank you cards from PhotoCardsPlus2.

Design your own printable graduation cards

Design a card using your own software or an online card-design tool and order the quantity you need. Or choose to download a template and print cards yourself with your own printer. If you want to print them yourself, keep in mind that many cards use non-standard envelopes that may be hard to find and more expensive to buy.

I recommend: Read the instructions on how to create your own graduation card design and upload it to VistaPrint. Follow the steps to download free graduation announcement templates for use with paper products from Jostens.

Create graduation greeting cards online

You might want to pick out a unique graduation card for that special graduate. Or you might order a quantity of cards to send if you have many acquaintances who are graduating. You can create a unique card to send and print it in any quantity from online card vendors.

I recommend: Create your own graduation greeting cards to sell or browse the designs for sale at Zazzle. Create a custom graduation greeting card using your own photo at Cardnotes.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Use a joke book or online joke website to find jokes to use along with a funny cartoon from a clipart gallery, if you want to make funny graduation cards.

Graduation from high school or college is an important life event, and as such is surrounded by a great deal of decorum. Sending graduation announcement cards requires attention to several different components, including personalized name cards, response cards and envelopes. Graduation announcements also often come in large quantities, so alternative strategies are needed if you're only sending a few.

Printable graduation invitations, as well as electronic graduation greeting cards, provide a low- or no-cost alternative to costly graduation cards, but are significantly less formal. Graduates also can obtain boxed sets of graduation thank you cards through either an announcement package or separately, for acknowledging the gifts or presence of family and friends.

Although graduation can be an intimidating social event, sending graduation cards for beginners can be broken down into the following basic components:

1. Order packages of graduation announcement cards for the most convenience;
   
2. Buy graduation greeting cards to congratulate young people on their accomplishments;
3. Use boxed sets of thank you cards for graduates to follow up.
   

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Send graduation cards for beginners with announcement packages

Graduation announcement packages include all of the components of a formal graduation announcement, including the invitation, name card of graduate, address labels, response cards and addressed return envelopes. Many packages also include formal thank you cards for graduates, and are tailored to individual school commencement date information. To save money and order time, however, printable graduation cards and e-cards are a less formal option.

I recommend: Jostens is a well known provider of graduation merchandise that offers a number of package options for graduation cards. You can also obtain free printable graduation announcements from American Greetings. My Expression provides tips for how to send announcements.

Congratulate graduates with graduation greeting cards

Graduation greeting cards also offer several options for individuals or businesses wishing to congratulate graduates. As with announcements, you can order graduation greeting cards as physical cards to be mailed, as printable graduation cards or as electronic cards to be sent through email, with printable and electronic cards providing lower cost, as well as less formality.

I recommend: Obtain personalized graduation cards from Gallery 19, or free graduation cards for email from 123greetings. You can also get suggestions for short personalized messages to include in your card from Bethany's Boutique Gift Shop.

Order sets of graduation thank you cards to send by mail

Graduation thank you cards are the final staple in the graduation card industry, and may be purchased either along with graduation announcement packages or separately from a greeting card retailer or graduation specialty store. Graduation thank you cards also can be personalized to reflect the sender's individual personality and plans after graduation using photo cards.

I recommend: While graduation e-cards are not recommended in the area of thank you cards, a number of options exist for ordering cards online. Ira's Peripheral Visions offers personalized photo thank you cards, while GraduationParty.com sells basic boxed sets of graduation cards. Use the tips provided by Dempsey & Carroll to determine when to send a thank you card and what to include in the message.