I VERY MUCH ENJOY sending Fresh Cut Paper paper bouquets. They usually cost in the $12-15 range, and they take four regular stamps to mail, and they’re perfect for things like “aunt’s 80th birthday,” where you want to send something kind of fancy and special but also it can be thrown in the recycling when they’re done looking at it. Or, if you are me, you got one from a friend and it’s still whimsically/beautifully decorating your bookshelf a year later.
If you haven’t encountered these things before: there are a ton of different kinds, but here are a few samples:
(image from freshcutpaper.com)
(image from freshcutpaper.com)
They’re folded flat for mailing, and then you pull on them a certain way and they go 3D. And sometimes there are sales, like 30% off certain bouquets, or 50% off all Christmas, or whatever. All of this is to tell you that while I don’t mail these constantly, I do mail them from time to time, and I find it very fun. I sent one of the Christmas trees (the one with an ornament pack rather than the one with birds) to Rob for his first Christmas in a studio apartment far from home.
The company came out with a new line of 3D ANIMAL cards, with little accessory packs so the animals could be decorated for birthdays and holidays.
(image from freshcutpaper.com)
(image from freshcutpaper.com)
I hadn’t bought any of them, because they had like half a dozen different cats and a dozen different dogs and I felt it was too hard to choose: do I match the animal to the RECIPIENT’S animal? What if there’s no animal close enough? Would most people prefer 3D paper flowers over a 3D paper animal? Etc. Then I noticed they were clearing them out and they were 50% off, and I tried not to lose my mind. I reminded myself that I tend to HOARD things like this, “saving them for special.” I pre-scolded myself that if I wanted to buy these, I needed to ACTUALLY SEND THEM—ideally all within a year, so I wouldn’t have to wonder if I’d already sent someone one on their previous birthday. I bought what I considered a REASONABLE selection. Let’s not actually count up how many; let’s just say it was REASONABLE, considering how much I like sales and how much I like sending cards and how much I like sending THESE cards. I bought some birthday ones, but I mostly bought Christmas ones: I love sending Christmas cards, and I thought it would be fun to send these to the families I know with younger kids.
Today, taking the pre-scolding to heart, I am already mailing the first of the birthday cat cards—only a week after the box arrived, so that is PRETTY GOOD. Instead of the usual message in the stamp section about needing four first-class stamps, there was a QR code. I used the QR code, and it said if I was mailing a cat card, it would need four first-class stamps; if I was mailing a cat card WITH BIRTHDAY ACCESSORIES, I needed to consult the USPS. I stopped by the USPS and consulted. It will cost SEVEN DOLLARS AND NINETY CENTS to mail. This is an ENVELOPE. But the birthday-accessory pack means it does not technically qualify as an envelope and now qualifies as a package, and it costs EIGHT DOLLARS to mail it TO THE NEXT TOWN OVER.
Remember I mentioned that it normally takes four regular first-class stamps to mail one of these. That feels right to me, and I don’t do the math. Let’s do the math right now: at the current rate of $.78 per stamp, it’s $3.12 to mail. Fine. I liked it better when I hadn’t done the math, but fine. The birthday/holiday-animal cards cost MORE THAN TWO AND A HALF TIMES THAT AMOUNT to mail. No wonder they are clearing them out! No wonder!!
I took the envelope back home with me to think. There are a couple different things at play here. One is whether I want to spend eight dollars to MAIL a birthday card. Another is how the recipient will feel, seeing that I spent eight dollars to mail their birthday card. And keep in mind that I have ALREADY PURCHASED MANY CARDS. That is of course a sunk cost—but I feel it’s worth unsinking if possible: I still love the cards; I still feel the recipients will like them too; I’d still like to send them.
In today’s particular case, I COULD hand-deliver the card. That saves me eight dollars. But I do feel cards are better and more special when they arrive in the mail. Do I think they are EIGHT DOLLARS better and more special? I’m leaning no. And normally I CAN’T hand-deliver, so this question won’t apply to MOST of the cards I bought anyway.
I know when I pre-pay and print postage from the USPS website, there’s an option to hide the amount and not print it on the label. I could do that. I still pay the money, but we remove the issue of the recipient knowing how much. And since I bought the cards at 50% off, I could choose to see it as me spending roughly the same total mount as if I’d bought the card at full-price but then got the shipping for free. If I’d seen a deal where the animal cards cost full price but came with free-shipping vouchers, I would not have bought AS MANY, but I would have bought SOME.
I could mail the birthday accessories separate from the card. It looks like the accessory pack, which weighs so close to just-over-an-ounce it’s ridiculous, would take a second-ounce stamp to mail—so, $.78 plus $.29, or $1.07. Then the cat card would ship for $3.12, and the total would be $4.19 instead of $7.90. That’s a pretty good savings! I would definitely have thought it was reasonable if I’d had to add 1-2 stamps to the big envelope in order to add the accessories. But it means the two pieces arrive separately, possibly on different days—and, with the USPS as it currently is, this doubles the chances that one piece gets lost or arrives three weeks later. And even if they arrive together, I’d say it definitely lessens the overall impact of the card.
I could look into whether I could do things to make the whole card weigh less and go back to qualifying as an envelope. For example, I could remove the birthday accessories from their separate envelope before adding them to the main envelope. I doubt that would make enough difference—but considering how close the accessory pack is to one ounce, my suspicion is that Fresh Cut Paper did not take into account the postage situation when they were designing these. It’s possible we’re within a fraction of an ounce of making this work. …Okay, I weighed it and it is 4.6 ounces; an envelope becomes a package when it weighs over 3.5 ounces; I would have to remove the entire accessory pack to turn it back into an envelope, so that’s not going to work. Hm.
I want to suggest that sending the accessory pack separately (with a note in the card about the accessory pack coming separately and a sticky note on the accessory pack about the card coming separately) might actually make it BETTER, especially for kids. My kids LOVED getting individual letters, getting two BIG CARDS for their birthday, and getting to open both an envelope with a card and an envelope with stickers *chef’s kiss*
And I am not sure this isn’t true for adults as well…
Agreed that, as an adult, I would enjoy getting the two cards separately, and it would feel like two fun gifts instead of one. I would probably mail them at the same time, but with little notes on the flap like “open this one first!” and “save this one for tomorrow!” or something.
I would absolutely not spend parcel rates to send them together unless I were going to add a box of girl scout cookies or something to make it worthwhile. But at that point we’re upgrading from “thoughtful little birthday acknowledgement” to actul gift, which probably cuts down the number of possible recipients.
I would be delighted to receive a card like that in my mailbox from a neighbor who dropped it in instead of posting it, or a former co-worker who swung by to leave it at the front desk, or whatever. There’s no way I would pay $$ to mail it myself if I could do one of those things– the card itself is such a fun cute surprise, it doesn’t need the bonus of arriving in the mail to make it worthwhile.
It is good to get a second vote for this idea, because I am really coming around to it. And I like your additional idea of LABELING them. One of my fears was that one would arrive and the other would not and there would be CONFUSION AND MISUNDERSTANDING—but labeling the two pieces would SOLVE that. And in the case of the holiday cards to families with kids: I could DELIBERATELY mail them a couple days apart and it might INCREASE ANTICIPATION AND ENJOYMENT. First the cat! Then, a couple days later: THE HOLIDAY ACCESSORIES!
OKAY SO this is attitude-altering. Yes. I can see it. Especially if I label them so it is clear they are part of a set. Okay, it is possible I can come to terms with this situation AND save money.
I’m not sure I will invest in the accessory kits but the animal cards are super, super cute! I didn’t know those existed, so thank you for telling us. I also love the paper bouquets, they are perfect for those in-between situations where real flowers are Too Much but a plain card is Not Quite Enough.
That is exactly, EXACTLY what they’re perfect for: “real flowers are Too Much but a plain card is Not Quite Enough.” YES.
Try seeing if it’s cheaper to ship using PirateShip. That’s what everyone uses for the kids clothes BST groups, and postage is generally cheaper than when you take it to the post office. I think the cheapest packages these days – which this would be – run around $5-6, which is still a lot, but a lot better than $8!
Yes! This is a good option. I purchased these exact cards for Mother’s Day (I love them!) and sent across the country using PirateShip and it was $5.89. Probably still a little more than you wanted to spend, but a great reason to set up your PirateShip account. :-)
PirateShip was so much easier in reality than it felt in my head—I don’t even own a printer so I take the QR code to a UPS store.
I want to support our post office, but $10 in shipping would not be an option for me unless the recipient was someone I’d normally give a gift to and there was no other gift.
I do feel surprisingly shy about PirateShip!!—so this is good to hear.
Ooooh, I don’t think I’ve seen those paper bouquets before — so pretty!!
Could you send the animal card by itself, and then the accessory pack a few weeks/months later, as an extra surprise? Maybe send the card for a birthday and then a holiday-themed accessory pack when it gets closer to the holiday in question? At the very least, you could be reasonably sure that the card will arrive before the accessories. Although I guess the success of this idea would depend on how likely the recipient is to recycle the card before the accessory pack arrives.
YES, this is my primary worry!!: that I would send the cat card ahead of time, and by the time the accessories arrived the cat card would be recycled!! This is one reason I bought a cat for every accessory pack, rather than doing my original plan, which was to buy cat cards for a bunch of people, and then send them accessory packs throughout the year. It assumes a certain…commitment to the bit.
My comment is more existential and covers more than just expensive postage: I try to harness my Rich Lady Energy when I’m quibbling over a few dollars (that at one point in my life would have been a big deal to me) Rich Lady Energy doesn’t mind buying a $10 card and shipping it for another $10 :) :) they are filled with generosity and abundance!!
Another example, sometimes I KNOW I could sell a nice item of clothing but instead *Rich Lady Energy* means that I donate it and let it be someone’s lucky day at the thrift store!
A corollary to rich lady energy is taking your categories of how much things SHOULD cost and shaking them around a little occasionally. $8 feels like a lot for postage but it’s also about the same as a trip to Starbucks if you also get a pastry, and most people are ok with not completely depriving themselves of Starbucks – even with a pastry – because it’s fun and something to look forward to sometimes. But a friend receiving a surprise in the mail is ALSO something to look forward to, and healthier too. (I usually end up getting the Starbucks plus the thing that if you think about it barely costs more than a trip to Starbucks, but logic isn’t always perfect.)
I agree with the people saying two packages would be a fun treat and not silly. But I also suggest going to the post office and buying several booklets of fun Forever Stamps to store with the cards (Mr. Rogers & Barbie stamps are coming soon I think!), and then never calculating the total cost of sending them again but instead just enjoying how fun and mysterious an envelope with a ridiculous number of stamps on it looks. Cause doing something that is fun is an important way to spend money.
I am now thinking about a fun card with Mr. Rogers smiling out next to Barbie smiling out, and it is funny! I also feel strongly that paying the expense now is better psychologically than paying the expense each time I have to send a card.
I also really love the RICH LADY ENERGY concept, and will try to keep it in my head. It is like taking the feeling that life has been lucky for me that I now can be generous and feel good about it.
YES. I do this too. Sometimes an expense will throw me, and I will adjust by remembering what I spend every week on groceries without blinking. Or what I will spend on coffee out with a friend.
And I DO LOVE putting a jumble of stamps on an envelope. I have stamps stretching YEARS BACK.
Yes. I do like this. I can definitely channel the “This can be someone else’s lucky day” vibe, if I try. “Filled with generosity and abundance”—I love it.
Oh these cards are so fun, I had no idea! Also I can So relate re USPS shipping costs, I just went to the post office to mail 1. a card, 2. a large envelope that needed tracking and so cost almost eight dollars, and 3. an envelope of flower heads/seeds, so not as flat as “documents” – thank you USPS employee, but really something that should be mailable via first class. I gambled on flattening the flower heads and applying two first class stamps (my go to for questionable envelopes), and we shall see whether they get to my mom in another state. We are moving abroad which will open a whole new box of shipping issues.
I have cultivated a nice rubbermaid tote of items I think of as very cute, but generic, filler gifts. Like these cards, I usually get them on sale- and have a hard time restraining myself! They’re stocking stuffers for when I need to add a little something extra. I would say these cards would work well for those cases.
(Mine tend to be fluffy socks with cute animals on them, bath bombs, and similar items.Maybe I should start keeping an eye out for cards….)
And if you’re shipping the cards with a larger package, the shipping cost for the weight of the cards would be negligible!