COUNSEL
Crafty cards
Valentine’s Day is approaching and the shops are stocked with greeting cards to mark the occasion. We take a
closer look at the card market in Ireland.
AT A GLANCE
Prices.
Charity Cards.
e-Cards.
Make your own.
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Sending greeting cards is a popular
custom, and it’s not just for Valentine’s
Day that the shops stock up. There are
cards available to celebrate almost any
occasion or relationship. You can buy
cards for common occasions such as
birthdays, the birth of a baby, weddings,
engagements, and anniversaries. You can
send a card when somebody moves
house, passes an exam or gets a new job.
There are ‘Thank You’ cards, Valentine’s
Day cards and Christmas cards of all
designs and sizes available to buy. And
consumer choice
FEBRUARY 2010 COUNSEL
Consumer Choice also noticed some more
unusual options – you probably haven’t
considered sending a card to wish a pet
a speedy recovery from illness but,
believe it or not, the option is there!
The price we pay
Greeting card prices vary widely – or
wildly, depending on how you look at it.
A simple card can cost from €1 to €10
depending on where you buy it and on
the brand name. Cards which have
special techniques such as playing music
cost more than the average price. This is
understandable as technology is needed
for this to happen but what we can not
understand is how an ordinary card can
be priced so high depending on where it
is purchased. When we checked in the
Hallmark Card Gallery we found that the
code prices ranged from €1.20 to
€16.00! However they did have a stand
with value cards for €1. Outside of the
well-known branded card shops, Dunnes
Stores, Penneys and Marks & Spencers
are now selling cards which can be
need a lot of paper in order to be
produced. Millions of acres of forest are
chopped down each year to make paper
products. The way this paper is
manufactured can have a negative impact
on the environment. Making paper and
cards utilises a lot of energy and some
pollution may be caused in the process.
There is also the problem of using toxic
ink in the printers when making the
cards. It is certainly more
environmentally friendly to use recycled
paper to make greeting cards, although
this is not a priority for many
manufacturers.
The cost and energy required for
disposing of greeting cards when you add
up how many can potentially be sent in a
one year period are also frightening.
Millions of tonnes of paper are dumped
without being recycled. Of course, the
same goes for all the materials and goods
we all use in a given year. Nonetheless,
there are greener ways to send greeting
cards. Consumers should look for cards
made on recycled paper or chlorine-free
paper and look for the recycled sign on
the back of the card or envelope. If you
buy cards online, search the website to
see if the company mentions whether
they use recycled paper. Most of the cards
we spotted did not mention whether they
were made using recycled paper. We did
see Fairtrade cards in Marks and Spencers
- but at a cost. They were priced at €4.00
each. There are also hand-made Fairtrade
cards for all occasions available, for €1.50
upwards, in charity shops such as Oxfam.
Useful contacts
www.123greetings.com
www.artnhobby.ie
www.bluemountain.com
www.craftsupplies.ie
www.making-greetingcards.com
www.world.org
Alternatives to binning cards
cheaper than many of the branded cards
available in newsagents and card shops.
The €uro shops also sell cards for all
occasions for either €1 or €2 depending
on whether you choose a large or
smaller-sized card.
When it comes to buying birthday
cards and ‘Thank You’ cards, consumers
can plan ahead in order to save money.
You are more likely to give a few of each
of these types of cards to family and
friends each year and it’s cheaper to buy
a multi-pack of five or ten cards. You can
buy boxes of cards with even more than
this inside and you will make greater
savings this way, particularly at
Christmas. We found a pack of eight
‘Happy Birthday’ cards for €3.50 in
Marks & Spencers, making them an
average price of 44 cent each. M&S also
sells a pack of ten ‘Thank You’ cards for
€4.75, making them an average price of
48 cent each. In Penneys there is even
better value to be found - packs of eight
cards cost just €1.50, making the cards
just 19 cent each. You can choose from
birthday themed cards or blank cards.
Blank cards are a great idea as you will
have them on stand-by if the need to
send a card to somebody arises
unexpectedly.
Environmental Concerns
Aside from the costs, one of the major
downsides of sending greeting cards is
the impact they have on the
environment. The billions of greeting
cards that are used worldwide each year
If there is a facility for recycling paper in
your neighbourhood, you could save
your old greeting cards and recycle them
along with old newspapers and
magazines. The World Environment
Organization’s Recycling Database (see
Useful websites) offers some other useful
(and creative) suggestions on what to do
with old greeting cards:
• Use as bookmarks.
• Reuse old cards with some
strategic editing!
• Make into an ornament.
• Make into gift tags by cutting an old
card with pinking shears, punching a
hole in the corner, and tying the pieces
together. Add the name and a note
inside.
• Cut off the side with the picture (if
there is no writing on the reverse side)
and reuse as a post card. Pay only
postcard postage!
COUNSEL FEBRUARY 2009
consumer choice
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Transparency and charity cards
Report by
Sinéad Mc Mahon cc
Do you assume that if you buy charity
cards at Christmas that the named
charity receives all the profits?
Unfortunately this is not always the case,
and charities may in fact get only a small
fraction of the retail price of some
charity Christmas cards. Card publishers
and the retailers are often the bigger
winners. The cost of print, distribution,
VAT and the cut taken by other parties
eats away at the percentage that actually
goes to the charity. The amount the
charity receives often depends on where
you purchase their cards. Some charities
make their own cards and sell them in
their own shops or online; others sell
them in normal shops; while others only
license their names to card printers who
then pay them a lump sum of money for
being allowed to use the name. The
charity gets a lower proportion of the
proceeds if the cards are sold through
commercial outlets rather than through
its own outlets.
We saw a pack of 10 Hallmark Charity
Christmas Cards on sale in December at
a cost of €5.60. On the packet it said
that 64 cent out of this price would be
divided between two charities, Barnardos
and Action Breast Cancer. So, if you
spent your money on these cards, the
two charities would have only received
32 cent each from each pack of cards.
We also saw packs of Christmas charity
cards manufactured by Lantz in various
card shops. Boxes of cards sold in aid of
many different Irish charities were
available for either €7 or €8.99 per box.
In the Hallmark Shop, we asked staff
what percentage of the selling price the
charity would receive from each box but
they said they didn’t know. They said
that their company gives a lump sum to
the charity instead of giving the charity
some of the money made on each sale.
It is very difficult for consumers to
choice comment
Choosing and sending a greeting card is thoughtful, brings
joy to friends and family and marks occasions which are
important to celebrate. However, it is clear that many
consumers are paying a higher price than necessary when
they decide to buy a card, particularly when it is a spur of
the moment purchase. Our advice is to shop around; buy
packs of cards that you know you will use and remember to
look for the recycled mark. Better still, if you have the time
and the interest, follow our tips for making your own
personalised cards or for sending cards via the web.
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consumer choice
FEBRUARY 2010 COUNSEL
know what really happens to their
money because the label often has no
information on how much money is
allocated to the charity. There is little
regulation in the area, so there is no
requirement on card-sellers to state what
proportion of profits is being donated to
charity. The word ‘charity’ boosts sales,
and therefore, the breakdown of costs
should be given on the box so that
consumers can decide where their
money is going. Consumers can also
consider sending e-cards instead of
buying cards and stamps, and making a
direct donation to the charity.
Mass cards
A new Charities Bill was brought into
legislation last year, making it an offence
to sell bogus Mass cards. Up to that, it
was not illegal for commercial
companies to sell signed Catholic Mass
cards in shops or petrol stations,
promising to say offerings for the dead.
It was alleged that the priests who were
named to say the Remembrance Masses
were often untraceable or had passed
away. Under section 99 of the Charities
Act 2009, the sale of Mass cards within
the State is prohibited, unless a Catholic
bishop or religious provincial of an
order of priests approves the
arrangement. Breaking this law could
lead to a 10-year-jail sentence or
€300,000 fine. However, permission is
not likely to be given to retailers, as the
Catholic Church bans the selling of Mass
cards in commercial outlets.
e-Cards
Given the high prices that many card
sellers are charging, and the current
emphasis on making savings whenever
possible, maybe we should be thinking
outside the box by sending e-cards rather
than paying for paper ones. This is only
possible if you have an email account
and if the person you intend to send the
card to also has an email account, as
these email addresses are needed for the
process. e-Cards or electronic greeting
cards for all occasions are easy to find
online, and they are easy to send once
you have practiced sending them once or
twice. There are many good sites that
offer free e-cards – if a charge is sought
just move to another site. You should be
able to find free e-cards through a quick
search using a search engine such as
Google. We have also compiled a list
under the Useful Websites section. There
is a multitude of styles and themes
available. Sending cards online rather
than through the post means they are
delivered to your email inbox rather
than your post-box. This means that
there is ultimately a reduction in the
postal transport costs and associated
fuel-consumption.
Make your own cards
Rather than paying extra for shop bought
cards, home-made versions are becoming
increasingly popular, as they can be
personalised and made with materials
people already have at home. When you
are starting out, the best thing to do is
buy a set of about fifty blank cards and
envelopes. Then decide what type of
design you want to try. Various websites
offer advice and suggestions on designs the best are simple and easy designs that
won't take forever. Cards that you can
print out and give to children to colour
in are also available online. However,
any type of design is suitable, no matter
your level of artistic ability, as it really is
the thought that counts. Calligraphy
looks impressive when you have a
message to put on the outside of a card
but will probably take a little practice.
Designs drawn with a thin marker and
filled in with paint afterwards are very
effective so look out for books with
templates of Celtic designs. You could
also do a collage using different
coloured and textured paper. Materials
such as glitter, twine, sequins, ribbon,
beads, and small pictures - whatever you
have lying around the house - can be
stuck on. You can also look in art and
hobby shops for coloured paper,
envelopes, stickers and other materials
for card-making.
There are flower pressing kits available
to buy if you would like to design cards
using flowers. Rather than buying a
flower pressing kit you could also press
the flowers using materials you have at
home. Get an old book and line the
pages with thick card so the pages do not
get ruined. Place the flower(s) in the
book and close down firmly on the
flower once you have arranged into the
form you want it to be pressed into. You
can put some more heavy books on top
to increase the pressure. Leave in a cool
area for two weeks or more. We also
heard a tip that that you can preserve
flowers quickly and cheaply by
microwaving them! We haven’t tried this
out ourselves, and it sounds like a trial
and error method, but it might be useful
if you want to make a card in a hurry.