Why do cardmakers put the price of the card on the back? Why is it that after all the years of my mom scrubbing away at price tags on a glass vase do people at Hallmark, American Greetings, the dollar store where most Indian moms (and Nate's mom) buy 2 for $1 cards think that someone who is celebrating needs to know how much they paid?
Furthermore, I think it takes away from the fact that someone is thinking nice thoughts and sending them your way. I was looking for a card today and I wanted it to be simple. No loud songs playing when you opened them (though those are really cool), no big cutout of a dog saying "HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAY IS DOG-GERRIFIC" (that doesn't even make sense).
The ONLY card I could find that was simple, funny, wasn't too sappy was one of the 99 cent cards. No, I didn't even start in that section, I actually began in the "fresh ink" section, for those of you who thought it (i know you did).
So now, I'm standing there, perfect card in hand, and I look over and see that clearly it states
.99
So now, I'm faced with a dillema. Do I give this person a card that I actually like, or do I give them a card that is ridiculous, costs $4.99 (for a CARD?!) only because I don't want someone to think I cheaped out on my feelings?
It's not fair. Just because the cheaper card was nicer, I feel like the person is going to judge me. They don't know that out of all the other Walgreens cards, that was the best one. They don't know that the creepy Walgreens cashier was staring at me the whole time I was reading cards. They also don't know that when I purchased my card, the cashier actually opened it to read it. Creepy.
So, I don't have the answer. I don't know why they do it. I tried relying on my Google folks to help me find "why they put prices on the back of cards," but all they came up with was:
why do they put coal on railroad tracks?
why do they put tape on the headlights?
if my G1 got stolen and they put their sim card in it...
Not helpful.
So, next time you're out purchasing a card, try and find ones that don't have prices on it.
You know who does NOT put the prices on the back? The smart people at Dollar Tree who sell the 2 for $1 cards. SMART.
Sidenote: I went with the cheap card. But I also bought a fun Pez dispenser to go with it. See, I'm not cheap. You would have bought the card and left. Rude.
