For years I have been using CafePress.com to make calendars as gifts. This year when I went to their web site, I found I was unable to create a new calendar. Their customer service told me that calendars are currently unavailable, and couldn’t tell me when they will become available. They said that calendars weren’t discontinued, and suggested that I check back again in a few weeks.
That’s a long time to wait with the new year approaching. I’d like to find an alternative. Can someone here recommend a service for this? I’d like it to have good quality, heavy paper, with good quality printing. I use my own photographs as artwork, so the printing should have good color matching.
I used Snapfish for this for more than a decade. The quality was very good and the website was easy to work with; often, the calendars showed up as expensive, but just as often, they ran massive discount deals as holidays approached.
My brother is a very good photographer. He makes us a calendar each year and they are really nice. I just looked at the back of our 2022 calendar and it was made by Costco!
I have used Snapfish and Shutterfly. Both often have deep discounts/special deals. Good quality from both.
Walgreen’s offers photo gifts through their photo dept, mugs, throws, etc., you might want to check there as well. They have deals and coupons but not as deeply discounted or as many to choose from.
Check out Shutterfly and Snapfish online, sign up for their announcements and then go with who offers the best deal on your timeline.
My wife has used Shutterfly for the last decade. It’s not extremely cheap, but the quality is good. You can sign up for discounts to be sent to you, never pay full price.
In the mail today came a card from Snapfish offering a code for 60% off calendars if I ordered before December 16… definitely you can get a good deal. I assume other similar sites do the same sort of stuff.
Thanks for your advice, everyone. I decided to go with Costco. For me, they have the best interface. The price isn’t the lowest, but that’s OK.
I had a frustrating experience with Snapfish. One of their calendar options is for “premium stationery.” I contacted their customer service department and asked what the difference is between premium stationery and the other calendar options. The person told me, among other things, that premium stationery is printed on card stock, but they didn’t tell me how it differed. I asked whether the other options are not printed on card stock, and the person replied that they’re not printed. I said I didn’t understand, and asked whether they meant it’s not printed on card stock. Again, the person said they’re not printed. After a brief pause, they told me they would escalate my question to someone with more expertise, and that they would send me an email within a couple of hours. That was last night, and I still haven’t heard anything.
I’ll post what I think of the calendar when it comes in the mail, which should be in about a week.