Costco Is Selling a Sweet Gem You’ll Use All the Time (They Look 5x the Price!)

Whether you’re penning a heartfelt thank-you note or a congratulatory message for a recent graduate, buying greeting cards can quickly add up, especially when you’re spending between $5 to $10 a pop. However, Costco, aka the go-to budget shopping destination for bulk everything, is selling a 40-count set of greeting cards for less than $1.50 apiece — $25.99 total — and each handmade card looks so expensive.

Trader Joe’s 99-cent greeting cards might be more well-known, but Costco has quietly sold its own affordable bulk card collection, which comes in sets of 30 or 40 cards, for years. Laura Jayne Lamb, the person behind Costco influencer account, @costcohotfinds, shared the game-changing bulk greeting card hack with her followers in a Feb. 16 post, including the most recent collection’s handcrafted designs for all-occasion cards. 

Rather than heading to the store and paying $5 each time you need a card for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and other special occasions, you can grab a Costco design of your choosing that comes out to approximately $1.50 cents per greeting card — a complete steal for the one-of-a-kind designs and high-quality materials used for the designs.

“One of my all-time favorites!” @CostcoHotFinds captioned the Reel, which highlighted what they called “one of the best deals that Costco has.” 

The All-Occasion Greeting Card set, which retails for $25.99 online (though prices may vary at your local Costco Warehouse) and includes a keepsake box, features a mix of cards themed around Birthday, Congratulations, Thank You, Get Well, Thinking of You, and blank cards, according to Costco’s website. Plus, there are some styles that can work for other occasions, like Mother’s or Father’s Day.

Apartment Therapy’s shopping director, Jada Wong, has bought different sets of these cards over a few seasons, and pointed out that Costco also sells sets with holiday-specific cards like these more wintry styles. For $26.99 on Costco’s website, you get 30 all-occasion designs and then 10 holiday-specific ones that you can send to your loved ones once December comes around. There’s also a 30-count set for just $14.97 online that seems to have a lot of unique birthday card options as well as cute styles.

Costco shoppers are big fans of the cards, with one happy customer writing that they’ve seen “similar cards for $10.00+ per card at boutiques.” Many raved about the “truly stunning” cards, saying, “it’s inconceivable the low price you’re paying for this box of cards because they’re so beautiful and well-made.” Meanwhile, another wrote, “They are the kind of cards that when you get one you don't want to throw away as they look handmade & hand cut out.”

However, numerous people noted that due to the weight of the cards and the three-dimensional designs, many need extra postage if you plan to send them (“two stamps to be exact,” one Instagram user commented). Wong also pointed out that there’s also the possibility that if you need a lot of a specific kind of card, you might be out of luck, as she discovered when she ran out of wedding cards. So depending on your needs, you might want to double-check the designs online to decide which collection makes the most sense for you. 

Unfortunately, this deal is for Costco members only, but Amazon has a similarly priced set of 48 Hallmark all-occasion cards that come down to 58 cents a piece. Each design comes with its own envelope, and there’s also a keepsake box to store your cards until you use them. The cards are not handmade and look more generic than the Costco ones, but these are easier to mail with standard postage if a hassle-free experience is important to you. 
Of course, paying $18.99 outright for a set of cards is more expensive than snagging a 99-cent Trader Joe’s design during your next grocery run, but you’ll save about 50% per card in the long run with this Costco hidden gem. Plus, if you don’t have a Costco membership and decide to sign up through Stack Social, you can use the $20 shop card that you get back with your $65 membership fee to get the card set for free.