The Price of Greeting Cards
How much did your Valentine’s Day cards set you back last week?
A few blog posts ago we took a look at the price of pizza. This week let’s take a look at the price of greeting cards.
When did a greeting card go from costing $1.50 to $8.00? Is it just me, or is $8.00 for a greeting card ridiculously expensive?
Especially for something that someone will read and whether it’s later that day or days later, will eventually toss it in the trash. Unless they are a hoarder. In which case they will keep it, along with every other greeting card they ever got, forever.
No one was more disappointed than me when our local gift shop, which sold their greeting cards at 50% off and I never had to spend more than $2.50 for a decent card, went out of business. I no longer have a go to discount card store.
I needed a card for someone the other day. I went to CVS. That’s when I saw the $8.00 price tag. And it wasn’t even a Papyrus card!
Papyrus, for those who aren’t familiar with the brand, is, I think, the brand that started the expensive gift card trend. To be fair, their cards are gorgeous. Lovely card stock, designs, illustrations, embellishments, sentiments. I mean, if someone gives you a Papyrus card you know they love you or they just have oodles of money so much so they don’t know what to do with it.
I put that CVS card back and walked out of the store.
I needed to double check my stash.
My inherited stash I should say.
When we were cleaning out my dad’s apartment after he passed, we came upon a shoebox full of greeting cards. Nothing fancy. Basic greeting cards. No Papyrus in this bunch.
And they ran the gamut. From birthday to wedding to funeral and everything in between.
My dad died 3 years ago. This shoe box full of cards has become like the miracle of Jesus and the Fish. I keep thinking that there is no way I will find an appropriate card for whatever the occasion is that I need. That the stash has to have been fairly well depleted after 3 years.
But no. Like Jesus and the Fish, these cards seem to be multiplying and I always seem to find just what I need.
On this particular occasion, I was able to find a blank card with a lovely flower illustration on the front. It would do quite nicely. And voila, looking through the box I found an envelope to fit it. Thank you, Jesus.
Ernie shares my disdain for paying a lot of money for a gift card. Which, even the non-Papyrus gift cards, just your average Joe gift card, is still a ton of money.
This has led to our fun little card exchange we do for Valentine’s Day. We go to the card shop together. Standing side by side, we peruse the offerings and find the one we would have bought. We then hand it to each other to read. We laugh or have a sentimental “aw” moment depending on whether it was a serious or funny card, give each other a kiss, and then put the cards back.
$16.00 saved! That will pay for a bottle of wine. Or a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Ok, I exaggerate a bit there. A cup of coffee and a muffin at Starbucks.
Valentine’s Day is about the only holiday where this little cost savings hack works. Sometimes, as our birthdays are only 5 days apart, we’ll do it for our birthdays too.
But that doesn’t solve my need for greeting cards for all other occasions. Hoping another discount gift shop opens nearby because I don’t see the cost of greeting cards coming down.
It’s either that or hoping that the miracle of Jesus and the Shoe Box full of Greeting Cards continues to provide.