ArtsCow Offering 400 Free Prints - My Review
A week or two ago, I read a post on My Good Cents about ArtsCow.com offering 400 free photo prints (200 4×6s and 200 5×7s) to new customers. I had never heard of ArtsCow so I checked it out, and signed up. I did get credits for 400 free prints (50 a month of each for the next four months, basically). And their normal prices for 4×6s and 5×7s are the cheapest I have seen anywhere. However, the site had some red flags for me - particularly that much of the text was not grammatically correct and because of that to me, didn’t quite seem professional. I investigated the website more, and found that if I placed an order, I could pay via paypal, so I felt like my financial information would be secure. So I decided to redeem my first 50 free 4×6 prints and see what I thought.
I had to download a Microsoft extension to be able to upload more than one picture at a time, and even then, I found the upload tool rather primitive. Once uploaded, I could select matte or glossy, which made me happy because I prefer matte prints. The pictures were available in 4×6 not the more digital camera-friendly 4×5something that a lot of sites are giving as an option now, but that was okay. They are free, after all. I then ordered 50 prints and paid through paypal - the prints were free, but I paid $3.99 shipping. (Shipping on 50 5×7s is $5.99 for me at least, by the way.) $3.99 for 50 prints was only a little under $0.08 a print.
It took about a week or so for them to arrive, and I was pleasantly surprised, but also quite confused. My order was fine - the pictures were printed on Fujifilm paper and the quality of printing seemed good. The paper did feel a little bit thinner than a normal picture, I think. I could be imagining that. Since I am using them for scrapbooking that really doesn’t matter to me. The weird thing, to me, is they were shipped from Hong Kong. They even had a customs label on them. How could the company be making any money if they are paying for shipping from Hong Kong? I don’t get it. I just… don’t get it. So I looked up Hong Kong currency conversions, and as far as I can tell, they only paid $2.89 in US dollars to ship the pictures to me. I think. My brain cannot understand how this is possible, but, I guess it is. I asked Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity what he thought about the shipping from Hong Kong thing, and he postulated that once they had enough business, they could mass ship from Hong Kong to the US and ship individually from here.
So, in short, I thought the pictures were good scrapbook quality, and I ordered my free 50 5×7 pictures for the month of May as well and am waiting for them to arrive. That, as I said above, is $5.99 shipping, so unless you want 5×7s specifically, not as good a deal. But I did have a number of pictures I wanted as 5×7s that I have been collecting up over the past year or so, so I was happy to redeem my credit. I haven’t decided if I will redeem the other 5×7 credits as they come up, but I will be redeeming the rest of my 4×6 credits.
The free 200 4×6 and 200 5×7 offer is still going on now - and since I was satisfied with my experience I want to pass it on to all of you. If you sign up, you will get credits for 50 4×6 prints and 50 5×7 prints for each of the next 4 months (May, June, July, and August). To redeem, you just have to click on the link in your account page for the appropriate credit, and fulfill your order as normal. I do get a referral credit for each person who orders something for free prints for me, 100 4×6 ones I think - but I have no idea if that counts if my referral just order the free prints since you are only paying for shipping. That is fine though - just get free prints! That is what I am getting. :) Free prints for everyone! This is a limited time offer - they are only doing the free prints until they give out a certain number of credits, so even if you aren’t sure you want to do it, you might want to create an account for to collect your free credits and then decide later.
You all know how I love free prints. These aren’t quite free because you pay for shipping - but still less expensive than I can currently order pictures elsewhere.
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May 12th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I can’t say I understand it either and I don’t think the explanation of mass shipping is correct, because these companies ship in a very timely way and I believe by air. However, I know someone who has used a company based in Korea more than once for printing things like newsletters and program books because it was much cheaper to get it from them than to order from someone local and the timeline was the same!
I know labor is much cheaper in Asia, but I admit to being lost as to how they can ship it competitively. At any rate, this isn’t the only company to be doing something like this.
In the case of the person I know, the organization is a non-profit and the person feels that there is a responsibility to the donors to keep the cost as low as possible.
My concern with this is that it’s not very ecologically responsible to be shipping stuff halfway around the world, but I recognize that getting quality work done at a much cheaper price is very attractive. It’s a dilemma I haven’t really resolved.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
If the company was based in HK, then naturally they will ship them from HK. Even though we are all from the US, the company is looking at worldwide shipments and shipping from HK might not be that much. Plus if its true that it only costs them $2.89 and they are charging $3.99, then they are making money.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Let’s order 50 4×6 and 50 5×7 prints at shutterfly, snapfish, kodakgallery, and ArtsCow.com, see how much the 200 4×6 and 200 5×7 free print credits are worth:
1. ArtsCow.com
50 4×6 prints, $0.06/each
50 5×7 prints, $0.12/each
Shipping: $9.98
Total: $18.98
2. ShutterFly.com
50 4×6 prints, $0.19/each
50 5×7 prints, $0.93/each
Shipping: $4.99
Total: $60.99
3. Kodakgallery.com
50 4×6 print, $0.15/each
50 5×7 prints, $0.99/each
Shipping: $5.35
Total: $62.35
4. SnapFish.com
50 4×6 prints, $0.15/each
50 5×7 prints, $0.39/each
Shipping: $5.98
Total: 32.98
If above ArtsCow is making money, then the other 3 online print companies are making crazy profits. Over 60-80% gross profits, how come these 3 companies are dominating 80% of online print market share. We should support new prints website like ArtsCow.com, lol…
ArtsCow.com 400 free print credits is worth:
If based on Shutterfly: $224
If based on Kodakgallery: $228
If based on SnapFish: $96
I believe that ArtsCow.com is doing non-profit prints business at all. At least its pricing is much much lower, based on its website, pricing for $0.06 4×6, $0.12 5×7, $0.15 wallet print, $0.49 8×10 prints will not change until 12/21/2010.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:52 am
ArtsCow.com has horrible customer service, shitty products, and an unsatisfactory BBB report. Avoid at ALL costs!
September 27th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
ArtsCow.com is great! I don’t like shutterfly because is very expensive and we decide to try artscow last july and we love it. For some reason a lot of people don’t know about it how much money they can save with this company. And i don;t understand how people prefer to pay 0.19 a print over a 0.06 with almost near quality?
September 29th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I love taking and printing pictures. And I love doing online scrapbooks with all my picture. I have done sone in Snapfish, Kodak, and Picaboo. (Picaboo makes beautiful photobooks, by the way, just sign up for an account and the first photobook is half price)But the only time I have printed something from them is when there was a deal, or sale, or I found a coupon for free pics. It is just too expensive to print too many at once. I just received my first shipment of my 50 free 4×6, 50 free 5×7, and a few free 8×10. I am completely satisfied with my pictures. I am anxious to do a photobook because I found a coupon for 10 free books, but I only have a month to complete the. i might let my children do a few of their own. I also found a coupon for anither 800 free pics. I’ll have 50 free 4×6 and 5×7 until 8/2009. Good deal for me.