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The community card platformwww.9x12tools.comUSPS EDDM · Stripe Connect · 0%
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What does a 9x12 EDDM drop actually cost?

Printing, USPS postage and your break-even point, from published rate cards rather than a guess. A 5,000-piece 9x12 drop costs $2,509 all in, and 6 sold spots at the $477 median cover it.

The sum of the household counts on the routes you picked, not a round number.

Median across 76 live operator sites is $477.

Who bundles and drops it
Printing$1,209
USPS EDDM postage 26¢ A PIECE — YOU CANNOT NEGOTIATE THIS ONE$1,300
The drop, all in$2,509
Cost per home reached50¢
Sold spots needed to break even6
Revenue from spots sold$5,724
What you keep$3,215

Printing interpolates between published rate-card tiers; postage is the flat USPS EDDM Retail rate. Neither is a quote — get one from your printer, and check the postage at usps.com before you budget, because it is the number that changes without anyone telling you. The full line-by-line breakdown is here.

What this does not include

  • Design. Your time, or $200–$400 for a designer. The Canva sizes are here.
  • Card processing. About 2.9% + 30¢ per advertiser payment, paid to Stripe.
  • Software. Whatever you use to build the card and take the money.
  • Your time selling. The largest real cost in this business and the one nothing prices.

The number that actually matters

Not the total. The break-even spot count.

Your print and postage are fixed the moment you choose your routes. Your revenue is not. So the whole business is the gap between the spot that covers your costs and the last one you sell — every square after break-even is almost pure margin, and it costs nothing extra to mail.

It is also why you collect before you print. Sell the break-even number first and the drop funds itself.

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