Yes! The main success of our product is that people hold onto these forever – we get calls all the time of people that held onto a card for years.
In order to manufacture high quality metal business cards, our process requires creating one-time-use screens and plates, setup on a running production line. While it isn't the easiest or cheapest process, it allows us to make the highest quality cards. The caveat is that low quantities come with higher cost.
How to get a Sample Run of Metal Cards
When it comes to production samples or making just a couple cards, this is a difficult process due to the costs and setup involved in our manufacturing process. While we don't charge any extra setup costs, we do typically require a minimum order quantity to cover these costs. With our production, unfortunately it’s not possible for us to make one metal card cheaply – the sample cost covers the production of the sample primarily, getting setup on the assembly line where nothing is reused in a future order – We have to make plates and screens that are one-time-use, along with usual setup and production costs of running the line (such as calibrating alignment, doing test prints, mixing inks, etc.). The actual cost of making 5qty to 50qty in setup is exactly the same, every time for us. If you’re looking to make a large order, we recommend ordering 50qty, our "short run" minimum, for a better cost break and price per card. That will be your best cost to benefit ratio, and why we offer the low run of 50qty to our customers.
If you need a sample run of your project prior to ordering, we can usually produce 1-3 samples of your card for a flat fee starting at $200 for an identical design.
This covers the cost of production, where the order will run on the same line and take the same turn time to complete – and if the same exact cards are ordered for mass production (over $500 within 30 days) we will credit $50 to your order. If you place an order over $1000 for the cards within 30 days we will credit $100 of the sample run cost to your order. While we can produce cards with custom data (name, date, etc) via variable printing, our minimum order is generally 50qty for a short run with specialty processes.
Looking for pre-made samples instead? We offer free samples of cards we have made here: https://our.ladesk.com/240610-How-can-I-get-samples