Cheap is normal here
A greeting card costs pennies to print. Almost everything you pay for is design, packaging and postage. That means a $1.50 card is not a compromise, and a $9 card is rarely nine times better. I buy multipacks for the everyday notes and save the nicer single cards for weddings and funerals, where the paper stock actually shows in a photo.
Compare the per-unit price, not the box price
- Divide the box price by the number of cards, and check whether envelopes are included. Plenty of cheap boxes are card-only.
- Look at the size. A2 and 5x7 fit standard frames and standard envelopes. Odd sizes mean custom postage later.
- Check the paper weight. Anything under 250gsm feels flimsy in the hand and shows bleed-through with a marker.
- Factor shipping thresholds. A $22 order with $7 shipping is worse than a $28 order that ships free.
The part that actually gets sketchy: gift cards
Discount gift cards are where the real losses happen. Resale marketplaces sell cards at 5 to 15 percent off, and most transactions are fine, but drained balances are common enough that you should treat any deep discount as a warning. The FTC has warned for years that gift cards are a favourite tool for fraud, and tampered cards pulled from open retail racks are a known problem.
Here is the line I do not cross, and neither should you. Nobody legitimately sells card numbers or security codes at a discount. Anyone advertising cheap CVV data is selling stolen payment credentials. Using them is fraud, the numbers get flagged fast, and the buyer carries the liability. If a site's pitch is about card data rather than a product, close the tab.
What a legitimate cheap gift purchase looks like
- A named seller with a physical address and a published return policy.
- A price that is lower than the brand's own site but not 70 percent lower.
- A stated dispatch window, not "ships in 2 to 6 weeks".
- A payment method with chargeback rights. Avoid bank transfers and crypto.
Common traps
- Print-on-demand sellers using low-resolution art. Zoom the preview before ordering.
- "Free" cards where shipping is $12.
- Digital downloads with no commercial or print licence.
- Gift cards from open racks. Ask for one kept behind the counter instead.
None of this is complicated. Check the unit price, check who is selling, and be suspicious of any deal that depends on card numbers instead of card designs.