Reviews: Promotional items and/or companies

Thought it might be a good idea for us to rate/review not only business cards but any promotional items. Here's what I have on order and will review soon; all items personalized with author information:

Moo.com: 10 sample business cards, HQ

Vistaprint.com: 250 free business cards, 250 HQ cards, 2 rubber stamps (with my name, websites, e-mail etc. to use on the backs of hand-made bookmarks that my lady and I are making)

Zazzle.com: 4 sets of round, 1.5 in. stickers, 20 stickers each set (to go on fronts of hand-made bookmarks, 4 stickers per bookmark [3 sets represent 1 of my book titles each and 1 set is just of my logo]), 2 15oz. coffee mugs, 2 21oz. travel mugs (1 stainless steel, one black/white plastic; better be microwaveable)

Pensxpress.com: 150 medium-quality ink pens


Got specific items/companies to review for promo items? Let's get it on.

10 sample business cards (free and free shipping) from moo.com: my cards were with a black background and light lettering with light drawings/artwork. The quality was remarkable but I didn't feel the "satin finish" I keep hearing about. The cards are smooth, for sure, and so thick and sturdy that they feel like little squares of wood. To me, though, texture means a lot (subject to change) and I was really looking forward to that satin-feel. Either way, excellent cards.

Two coffee cups/two travel mugs from Zazzle.com: Near-perfect quality on arrival; one small greenish dot mark on one of my cups... negligible but I'll probably ask for a replacement. The white travel mug looks like plastic on the outside but, like the reflective mug, it is solid stainless steel. It looks phenomenal regarding color, contrast, placement, sharpness, and build quality (apparently; let's see how time treats these; they can break, text can start wearing off if they aren't made correctly... I'll post follow ups).

Lids for the travel mugs are pull-off/push-on but snug; top mechanism is twist to open/twist to close spout (drinking hole). They are not dishwasher safe.

Initial impression of the two white, over-sized, 15oz. coffee mugs and the two travel mugs from Zazzle.com; high quality, great results but they should be for the price (paid about $78 for the four). See pics by visiting my FB author page (in signature).

Vistaprint

Ok, today I got my VistaPrint order: calendar magnets (paid), two rubber self-inking stamps (free), 500 biz cards (free, due to error; will explain) one ink pen (free), two engraved biz card holders (paid), three sticky-note pads (paid).

First, the free biz cards: horrific. Worst quality business card I have ever seen in my life, and that includes all of the ones I've ever made using a personal printer. The background was supposed to be black with simple white lettering. Instead, it looked like a splotchy, light black, almost grey, and the white letters were blurry. It looked like the printer was juuuust about out of ink. AND, instead of sending me the free 250 along with the 250 premium cards I PAID for, they sent me 500 of the free, low-quality shit cards. Not happy with that.

Stamps: geez leweez, I had to assemble the damned things myself. You have to push the stamp down, lock it open, remove this impossible yellow strip on the stamp itself to reveal adhesive, then you put the little rubber floppy thing (the actual thing that was customized that will make contact with the paper) perfectly centered, THEN you have to stamp another piece of paper, perfectly centered which will become your stamp title (you have to completely remove the outer plastic cover, insert the title card you stamped, and put it back on, and it's hella flimsy). Yes, I know, they were free, but the dam site didn't say assembly required. Quality of stamp image is medium.

Magnet calendars; I thought I bought business card-sized calendars but they were about twice as big as a business card(no complaints; easier to see stuff). BUT, they text and my 200dpi logo that looked clean and crisp on stuff from zazzle looked marginal on the calendars. The name and calendar itself was pretty crisp.

The free ink pen; sad. White text on green background; white text blurry, and you can clearly see the white seam that shows where they wrapped the sticker around the pen. Give me a break. I don't care if it's free; if this is what they are calling standard quality, I'm done.

Two engraved business card holders: looked good; only hold about 10-15 cards, tho. We'll see how they hold up.

Sticky notes; these were the best product in the batch, but the logo was still slightly blurry; the same logo that looked clean and crisp on zazzle stuff and on my CreateSpace covers. Meh.

Already blew my lid on customer service; will post results here. Again, I cannot and do not expect to get quality stuff for free, but I have two problems; first, the "free" offer is what pulled me in and got me to shop there (mission accomplished; Vista, 1, author, 0) and secondly, they imply or state that these free things are standard samples of their standard products. If it's true, I can just tell you right up front; go somewhere, anywhere, except to VistaPrint.

NOTE: Some people here are happy with their hq business cards; I can't speak for them and I have not seen my hq cards yet, ahem, so I can't dispute it. Will let you know what happens.

Update on Vista: the hq biz cards sat there and sat there, for 14 days, saying "printing" as their status. I inquired. No response; the next day, the order was canceled and they refunded me, no explanation given.

A small credit to VistaPrint: after my complaints, they sent another 250 free cards (same low quality as before) and another 30 calendar magnets (I changed the imaging at their request to make text larger and it did look better). That's all I have to say about them that's good.

Pens: got my pens in from pensxpress.com and they are great. For 38-cents per, you can't lose. I got 150 of the yellow Express Noah Gripper pens with black lettering. For a quality check, I tried to rub off one of the letters on one with a key, but couldn't scratch it off. The grip is a dry grip; pencil-eraser texture. Smooth writing, nothing spectacular. Feel is solid but light. Lettering is placed opposite the pocket clip. Only problem; production time. From order to receiving, 2-3 weeks unless you upgrade.

The last order I have lingering is some hq biz cards from zazzle; will report. I also need to order posters for library book signings and possibly a banner. My lady friend made about a gazillion bookmarks for my 3-26 book signing using the stickers from zazzle and they look awesome. Some laminated, some with added decor. She's also dressing up the free (low quality) VistaPrint cards to make them acceptable.

You're right... I was worried a bit about bandwidth; anybody know the best way to go about posting pics w/o choking things?

I'm glad you guys had good experiences with them. I had even more bad ones. I bought some more high-quality ones with a different design (dunno why) and again I ran into the faux-black. What looks like a solid, deep black on the web (and I checked it on two computers to make sure it wasn't something to do with my color settings) comes out as a light black, almost a dark grey, smoky color. I didn't even complain this time; I'm just finished. I sincerely hope that your luck continues to be good with them.

I guess you really do get what you pay for. Moo cards are the best I've personally ever handled but hella expensive. Oh, hey, if you guys want some creative ideas, check here (for biz card designs/build) it is really interesting: http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs and keep in mind that that page is only page 1 (there are 4 pages total; see top of page to go to 2, 3, and 4).