Cards For Skiers and More: Greeting Card Universe Giveaway

I know what you’re thinking. Greeting cards? What’s that have to do with skiing? I thought the same thing when I was contacted by Greeting Card Universe last fall. Then I looked online and found (no surprise) a universe of greeting cards perfect for avid skiers, riders, bikers, even badminton players. When I found a couple of designs I really liked, I decided to take a closer look.

Are You A Greeting Card Person?

I am not a card person. In fact, I am a greeting card failure. I am an excellent present person, but I truly often forget about cards. When our son turned 16 recently, he received some funny, and touchingly loving cards from relatives and friends. His dad gave him the perfect card, a mixture of parental pride and heart-tugging sentiment. I am ashamed to say that I wrote “Happy Birthday” on his Facebook wall.

How Greeting Card Universe Works

As the largest online paper greeting card store, Greeting Card Universe offers over 500,000 totally customizable cards. If you want skiing-themed Christmas cards, or a birthday card for your skiing daughter, you go online and search “skiing.” Over 400 cards show up.

Because they are based on keywords, not all 400 are appropriate. I found a quite a few waterskiing cards, as well as some keyword typos where “ski” was substituted for “sky” as well as some other random images, but there was plenty to choose from. “Biking” brought in an even better return. You can even search “uncommon cards” and find some really obscure, but possibly perfect, greetings (Happy Birthday to the Crazy Cat Lady?).

Currently, over 4000 artists are represented on Greeting Cards Universe and if you can’t find exactly what you want, you can request a custom card for free. According to GCU representative Paul Love, it usually only takes a few hours for the artist community to respond and you’ve got your very own design. Once you’ve chosen a card, you can customize the interior text, choosing your own font, color and alignment. Then you choose where you want it sent. Do you want the card to go directly to the recipient? Or to come directly to you with a blank envelope? You can even pick up the card on the same day at most Target stores.

The Greeting Card Universe site also allows you to set reminders, connect with your Facebook account to share contacts and birthdays and to send free eCards from their site.

Pros and Cons

For people like me, Greeting Card Universe is a nice alternative to sending eCards. For the past few years, I’ve been looking like I’m on the ball thanks to sites where I can schedule alarms and reminders for upcoming birthdays. The problem is, while eCards are better than no cards, they still are ephemeral. GCU offers the same type of service, but on paper.

However, while GCU offers an almost unimaginable selection of artwork, the cards are all 5×7 with no unique texture, shape or sizes available. You still have to search for the right card, but you can customize the greeting quite easily. Cards are $3.00 each and go down in price if you buy in bulk. There are also shipping charges, which vary between $.45 per card if they ship it to the recipient up to $1.00 per card if the card is sent to you.

Giveaway Details

Paul Love tells me that the key demographic for their business is busy women between the ages of 30 and 55. That covers many of us.

If you (male, female, young, old) would like to try Greeting Cards Universe, please leave a comment below. For a second entry, “like” Greeting Card Universe on Facebook.

One winner will be randomly chosen on Tuesday, September 4^th to receive 25 card credits on the GCU website.

To facilitate this post, I received credits at Greeting Card Universe. As always, all opinions are my own and are exactly what I would tell my family and friends.

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Stephanie!

 

 

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