Why are your prices higher than other vendors that I have seen?
This is a good question, and it is the most commonly unasked
question. The bottom line is that you get only what you pay for. We use only
top quality materials that are produced by the manufacturer of our printing equipment,
there are numerous vendors that utilize “small run” equipment, basically
desktop printers that are meant for health clubs and other uses that do not
incur high demand usage as our equipment does. The end result on these “small
run” printers is that the quality is often inferior and there is no protective
layer on the cards to keep the images printed on them from deteriorating
quickly just to normal wear and tear.
Beware of hidden fees! Our prices are clearly stated up
front, no additional costs for adding printing to the back of the cards (this
is a tactic of most other vendors that we have encountered). All of our options
are clearly stated as is the price for them.
Additionally you are paying for the service as well, Cards that are shipped with any errors or serious flaws are always quickly replaced free of charge at no additional cost to the customer.
What are your fees for custom designed cards?
You will find that our fees are fairly reasonable. Depending
on the request the fees may vary. If the request is for something as simple as
the alteration of a current template that appears in our store, there will most
likely be no additional fee incurred as we like to be flexible.
Custom artwork and layout work (major deviation from an existing template, or an entirely new template) is billed at a rate of $65.00 per hour for labor. Minimum charge is for one (1) hour of labor plus the cost of the card itself.
Custom artwork and layout work (major deviation from an existing template, or an entirely new template) is billed at a rate of $65.00 per hour for labor. Minimum charge is for one (1) hour of labor plus the cost of the card itself.
Customer provided artwork that is submitted will usually not
incur more than a $20.00 setup charge unless rework/adjustments are required to
produce a printable product. Customer submitted artwork should be 85.725mm X
53.975mm @ 600dpi.
What printer do you use for cards?
No other vendor that we know of will tell you exactly what
printer they use to produce their cards. We use a Fargo HDP5600 High Definition
Retransfer Printer that is outfitted with a card flipper, automatic magnetic
encoding and a dual lamination module. This printer produces full color images
on cards at 600dpi (dots per inch) that are photographic quality and very
resilient due to the protective layer that is fused to the cards over the
printed image.
What about the barcodes and magnetic stripes on the cards, are they real?
The answer is a 100% resounding “Yes”. With few exceptions our cards carry barcodes that are scannable with mobile applications
like PDF417. Barcodes and magnetic strips on our cards are encoded with the
data points that are visually displayed on the cards (human readable).
In shopping around we have found that many vendors do not offer this level of realism for cosplay applications, most of what we have seen is a single generic barcode that is copied and pasted over and over again from a barcode generation website. We have also seen many vendors that just “print” a magnetic stripe rather than using actual magnetic striped cards, of those that we have seen using the actual cards, none actually encode them for no cost as we do. The software that we use to produce cards automatically generates barcodes of numerous types and encodes the magnetic strips on cards.
In shopping around we have found that many vendors do not offer this level of realism for cosplay applications, most of what we have seen is a single generic barcode that is copied and pasted over and over again from a barcode generation website. We have also seen many vendors that just “print” a magnetic stripe rather than using actual magnetic striped cards, of those that we have seen using the actual cards, none actually encode them for no cost as we do. The software that we use to produce cards automatically generates barcodes of numerous types and encodes the magnetic strips on cards.
Are your cards too close to real?
This is a prickly question, the answer is yes and no. While
our cards are ultra-realistic when it comes to the cosplay and the prop world, they
are deliberately designed to not pass the “sniff test” by officials when it comes to someone
trying to pass them off as actual “identification”. The use of fake credentials (ID) is a
matter that concerns us deeply, and is something that we would never knowingly
contribute to in any way. Inappropriate requests for cards that land in the realm of “novelty
ID” or “Fake ID” that we receive are routed directly to the proper law enforcement
agency rather than being filled. We proudly comply with all State, Federal and
International laws when it comes to forged credentials. If you are thinking of
asking, do yourself a favor and don’t ask us.
We are happy to produce “hero” grade props for cosplay and
other uses (Motion Picture props, small/medium business Employee ID cards, club
cards, etc.), but mimicking any officially issued cards of “real” educational
institutions, major corporations or government entities (including the use of their logos or seals) is strictly off limits.
Requests for “official” cards for any of the aforementioned entities needs to
come from an authorized requester WITH accompanying legal documentation that fully
supports a potential lawful purchase and provides the legal authorization to
produce the requested cards, there are NO exceptions to this. Motion Picture Props follow a slightly different path, but they still require approval by the entity/agency portrayed in the production BEFORE props can be produced.
We reserve the right to decline ANY card request, for any
reason, PERIOD.
