Send Out Cards established by Kody Bateman in 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah, has grown from an $800,000/year business to one that bills $70 million in 2009.

While this growth is staggering, we must ask ourselves “Is Send Out Cards a scam?” Or are customers and dealers getting in on a real deal?

In this Send Out Cards review, we’ll look at what the company does, what support and training is given to distributors, the quality of their products, the costs to get involved, and what flaws are glaring in the business. At the end you will be able to decide if you want to participate as a customer or as a distributor.

Kody Bateman started the business after the death of her brother when she realized that acting on a prompt by sending a card is difficult for most people. When a prompt enters their head, it often goes by just as quickly because a person usually doesn’t have a card handy at home or gets discouraged by having to go to a store, park their car, find a card, write your message, then go to the post office, stand in line to buy a stamp, and finally send your card. Most people say “I’ll do it tomorrow”, but unfortunately that day never comes and the sincere thought of it is not expressed to the potential recipient of it.

Send Out Cards offers customers or distributors a virtual store service that can be operated from anywhere in the world whereby they can choose a card from over 10,000 selections, create a personal handwritten message, upload a photo, select a recipient and click send on your computer.

The Send Out Cards team then prints your card, puts a stamp on it, and posts it to you. Printing occurs in Utah and Australia. Distributors and customers can take advantage of the company’s campaign manager feature that allows people to create cards, select recipients, and send those cards at a future date.

Such a service sounds attractive, but is it the quality of the final product? The quality of the GSM card is the same as that used by major card manufacturers, but unlike the ‘out of the box’ cards offered by Hallmark cards and American greeting cards, Send Out Cards products can be personalized with your own message. You can even add photos to give your card a more personal touch. By uploading your own handwriting, you can save time ‘writing’ cards en masse.

With over 8 billion cards shipped annually in the US alone, there is plenty of competition. Hallmark cards and American greeting cards dominate the market with physical greeting cards. Blue Mountain cards and 123 Greeting cards offer an eCard service that is also popular. Send Out Cards takes advantage of these companies by providing an online service that produces a quality physical card with the click of send on your computer.

Card costs vary, but are generally between $3 and $6 for a quality card. As a distributor or wholesale customer of Send Cards, your cards are just 62 cents. The company also includes your first 100 cards with these packs when you get started.

Getting started with Send Cards can cost as little as $9.80 as a retail customer. This will allow you to ‘put your toe in the water’ and test drive the company. You don’t get all the features with this product and your cards will cost you $2 each. The Retail Customer account gives you 10 cards included in the package.

Preferred Customers can purchase a package for $31 per month. Card costs are now reduced to 31 cents per unit. Typically a card will cost 62 cents without personal photos.

But if you’re in a small business like real estate, financial services, home loans, medical, health or beauty, then this Preferred Customer package is your best deal. The cost per card is now 62 cents and includes all features. For those who want to start a Send Cards business, they should purchase the Entrepreneur Package at $295. This package includes all the same benefits of the Wholesale Package, but includes a Distributor Kit that allows you to run a business.

Now, up to this point, you might be thinking that Send Out Cards seems like a great service or business. But what flaws are there?

Well, you need to be organized to some degree with this service. Send cards still connected in the postal services of a country. There are some problems. Postal services can be unreliable for being late and are often subject to strikes. The message here is to send your cards out early. You need to budget about 5 days including printing time and shipping time.

Human beings are also involved in the process which can ultimately lead to problems. Mistakes can be made, but with Send Cards, the company makes up for them if they’re at fault.

Computers sometimes have glitches too and with increasing print runs, sometimes these glitches happen more frequently. However, in the bigger picture, such failures are very minor.

So is Send Out Cards the real deal? Well, you be the judge. Before engaging in any service as a customer or dealer, be sure to do your own due diligence.

With businesses trying to figure out how to keep in touch with their customers cheaply or people just wanting to send a heartfelt message quickly, the 8 billion market for cards is certainly growing.