Last night, I was thinking. Thinking about this blog, thinking about my former careers( all three of them), thinking about the future and thinking about greeting cards. Not long ago my birthday rolled around, and last night I checked out the cards family members sent one more time before putting them away in a drawer for safe keeping. ( I’ve been keeping them for a few years now…strange I guess..) As I mulled them over I noticed there were some nice ones, funny ones, one serious one, and one that was hard to describe. But none of them were camo. None of them had a fish on them, or a deer, or a gun. Not one card had a river scene, a box of trout flies, or a frog meeting his demise inside the gaping mouth of a largemouth bass.
So I thought, well why not? When you need a card for your wife, there they are. Valentines Day? Gotcha covered. Sympathy? Of course. Birthdays for miles – for everyone from kids to moms, dads, aunts, fourth cousins, the dog….you’d hardly break a sweat. But if you need a greeting card for a sportsman or woman – well, good luck with that! I’ve never seen one, although I suspect that someone, somewhere has a few out there. ( I’ve seen some cards called “outdoor” greeting cards, but they always have the obligatory bear or eagle or snow-capped mountain, and never a trout, rabbit, shotgun or compound bow on them) So maybe that’s a good reason not to try it – reason to toss that idea right now and let the ‘ole brain keep zipping down Hwy. WhazNext on the road to the next “big idea.”
But, the ‘ole Owl’s brain has stopped for a cheap chili-dog and RC Cola; and it apparently got stuck talking to some old codger on the steps of a fly shop about why you can never find a good squirrel hunting birthday card for your hunting buddy, and the old coot just about swallowed his pipe. Crazy ‘ole guy suggested that Owl’s brain look into paper costs, printing options and retailer potential. Then, some kid walks by with a cane pole and kicks Owl’s brain in the left shin. “Ooowww.”
” You really need to ask around first, dude. Maybe no one would want stupid old greeting cards with an outdoor theme!”
The kid had a point. So, Owl’s brain told Owl’s fingers to punch out a little message to the outdoor blogger world and just ask…..
If you wanted to get your favorite outdoors person a card and you could get one created especially made for them, would you?
Coming Soon to a Fly Shop near you?
Fly Fishing the Southern Blue Ridge 
I would totally buy one for my dad every year, he’d love them.
I feel like I’ve seen the outdoorsman cards at Bass Pro or Sportsman’s Warehouse… I think both actually… I think someone beat you to the punch, and I doubt they’re getting very rich off of it. I personally would rather just get a gift card with an outdoorsman theme… the greeting card is less important. Keep thinking Owl. I’m sure you’ll come up with a winner soon. In the meantime, have another RC and a Moon Pie to keep the creative juices flowing.
yeah, i think i was saying in there somewhere that someone has already thought of it, somewhere. Maybe I just thought about typing it and didn’t!? 🙂 LOL
You’re friend is almost correct. Not many want anything that has anything fishing or hunting related on them. Unless it’s those dumbed down ones generally about largemouth bass. If you hit it right, good outdoor photos might sell a few. I have stuff, fishing related too, on a site called Zazzle. I have beer related stuff on a site called CafePress. Skreened is another one where I have some shirt designs.
http://skreened.com/wadauwant
Don’t sell much of anything. But then, I suck at promoting them.
You should look into them. There are others. Since they are all print on demand, no cost to you.
Geez Jay just laid the hammer down 😉
I think you should stick to greeting cards with you in a tu tu…
I definitely would buy one, and I would love to receive one.
Didn’t mean to “lay the hammer down”… I was just trying to let you know I think the crad thing has been done. I think you should put your energy toward Appalachian tenkara… tenkara rods of 7 feet or less. Find a manufacturer and go for it. It could become the unofficial fly fishing method for southern Appalachia. I’d buy one.
May as well do both. The card thing doesn’t take up much time. With the print on demand sites, there may be other ideas that sell. Even if just a few. I like the 7 foot Tenkara idea. Anything over that on the small smallie creeks I fish is wasted. Wasted by getting stuck in the trees.
Men don’t send greeting cards to other men. It’s against the code. If we must communicate in ways other than grunts and single finger hand gestures, pen to stationary is how Teddy Roosevelt would have rolled…not Hallmark. Chicks would probably eat it up though…especially if the outdoor pictures were in black and white and featured babies, kittens, or puppies in some form.
This from a guy who features cute little wisks and asian tea on his blog! PFFT! 😉 lol
Yeah but you forget that I don’t advocate or sell the stuff. Quite the opposite, if I sold the things I put on my website, I’d probably get arrested.
hhahaha!
i agree with mike. mongo only pawn in game of life and mongo no buy card for other man.
oh no, attack of my wordpress account.
i agree with mike. mongo only pawn in game of life and mongo no buy card for other man.
Ok…this Damsel is different than most…I wish someone would give me a brown trout card rather than some flowery, sentimental card. But, put the picture on the outside and the words on the inside…that way, I can frame it afterwards… : )
Dad’s get cards. They won’t admit they like them, but they all have secret stashes of them from their kids, sons and daughters. Real men like cards. Just not flowery cards. With kittens on them. Or puppies. Fart jokes work. Any bodily function, that rhymes. With fish on them.
Hmmm, I’ve got to think about this one…
Its a great idea, go for it, those darn dog cards my wife buys are getting
annoying. Better a dog card than cat card ( sorry cat people ) or is that cat calls!!!
Just curious are ya Mac or PC?
Who me? Sony Vaio PC’s at our house.
I think the typical Hallmark Greeting Card store clientele would be put off by serious outdoors cards. My wife doesn’t even like to talk about “the specifics.”
Also, this is a valuable lesson I’m about to hand down…pay attention. When you have a good idea, I mean a really good idea…don’t tell the world. The first they hear about it should immediately be followed by plunking down the dough to buy the idea.
Now that I’ve cleared the air…i’m off to make some greeting cards.
Clif, if I ever have a really good idea, I’ll act on it – not post it for you guys. 🙂 LOL
Searched “fishing cards” on Zazzle. It says there are 8,500+
http://www.zazzle.com/fishing+cards
On Cafepress there are over 12,000.
http://www.cafepress.com/+fishing+greeting_cards
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It’s all in how you promote and market them.
You can skip the trout skins though. 🙂
http://www.zazzle.com/brook_trout_d4_card-137218854666599146
I expect any day now to see whole fly rods wrapped in brook trout spots.
*roll eyes…
Just my opinion (as all my posts are) but I HATE cards! I’ve told everyone I know – parents, friends – don’t send me cards. With Hallmark junk going for $4 each (and up) there’s just something that galls me about getting a card, reading it, and putting it in a drawer. One of my personal “tics”.
My $ .02
Hey, that’s ok man. I know alot of folks that think they’re a waste. i think the same thing about flowers. funny thing – so does my wife!! hahah
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