The honest answer is: fewer than you think, unless your details are settled. The useful answer takes about two minutes to work out.
Start with how many you actually hand out
Most people badly overestimate this. Count the events, meetings and counter interactions in a typical month where a card genuinely changes hands, and multiply by twelve. For a lot of people that lands somewhere between 100 and 500 a year, not the 1,000 they ordered.
If you attend trade shows or work a counter, the number is far higher and the maths below matters more.
Why per-card cost falls so steeply
Most of what a print job costs happens before the first sheet is printed: setting up, matching colour, and cutting and finishing the stack afterwards. Those costs barely change whether you print 100 cards or 1,000, so they are spread across more cards as the quantity rises.
That is why doubling the quantity never doubles the price. The practical consequence is that the step from 100 to 250 usually costs far less than it looks like it should — and the step from 1,000 to 2,000 saves proportionally much less. There is a point on that curve past which you are buying cards you will never hand out. Our minimum is 100, and the live price for every quantity is on the product page before you configure anything.
When to deliberately order fewer
- Your address, title or phone number could change in the next year.
- You are testing a new design and want to see how it reads in the hand.
- You are between brand identities.
- The cards are for one event with a known headcount.
A box of 500 obsolete cards is not a saving. This is the one case where the higher per-card price is the cheaper decision.
When to order more
If your details are stable and you hand out cards regularly, order the larger quantity. Reprinting in three months means paying the setup cost twice, and you will have spent more in total than the single larger run would have cost.
Minimum order is 100 cards, standard turnaround is 3–5 business days from proof approval, and you approve an on-screen proof before you pay. If the timing is tight, express and next-day options are available at checkout on most products — see turnaround and cutoffs.