Postcards by Vincent A. Vermeulen are now on sale

It is with a combination of excitement, relief and pleasure that I can say that the first stage of a long outstanding project has been completed.

I recently was informed that the first lot of my postcards have arrived in Samoa and are now on sale. I had four sets of A6 postcards and two sets of A5 postcards printed a while ago but due to various issues I had to keep delaying sending them to Samoa.

Finally when the last exam was done I decided I had to just go out and sort out the postage issue. I still think I should be able to find a cheaper solution to getting my postcards to Samoa but at least I was able to get them sent a much cheaper rate than I was originally being quoted. Sometimes you just need to go down and talk to people and explain to them what you are doing and ask them to go over all the option because often there are some options that are not available on the self service systems and not mentioned in the pamphlets or properly detailed in websites. Also if you just go to the counter and say you want to do something they will usually just give you the standard response. But if you explain things and ask them to help they are usually willing to help you find a solution.

However, I'm need to do some more investigating to find out if there are any cheaper alternatives to get my products to Samoa from the United Kingdom. One possible solution which is going to take a bit of work is looking at the possibility of finding a printer in another country where the postal costs to Samoa are lower. This will mean comparing printing and postage costs. Although, there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration like being able to ensure quality as well as how to deal with and store excess stock.

The other problem that I had to overcome was a reliable printer. Unfortunately due to my initially using a very unreliable printer I missed out on a huge opportunity a year or so ago when there was a huge UN meeting in Apia. The Printer I have ended up using, Whitehall Printing in Bristol did an excellent job and delivered as promised. This makes me reluctant to have to go through the time and costs of trying to find another printer especially in another country since that bring all sorts of additional complications.

The next stage I'm planning is getting some more postcards done as well as some plain greeting cards.

You can find the postcards at Vanya Taule'alo's Art Gallery and at The Orator Hotel Gift Shop.