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Make Your Own Football Trading Cards
How To Make Football Cards
If you’re a graphic designer, illustrator or just love making things, designing football cards can be a profitable hobby. This guide explains how to start designing and printing football trading cards to sell online. You can make high quality trading cards with photos, even if you don’t have design skills.
Read on to discover how our customisation options can make cards stand out. We will also discuss how to select the right paper stock and the best platforms for selling trading card designs. But first, let’s look at a short summary of how to make football cards.
Make Your Own Trading Cards In 3 Steps
1 Select Your Card Size
Choosing your paper size and shape is the first step in the designing your football cards. The standard size for sports trading cards is 64mm x 89mm. Thicker paper stock feels more expensive, while rounded corners look professional.
Our custom print runs let you order individual designs of football cards as well as multiple card decks such as games. This lets you sell football top trumps online, while also advertising custom trading card designs that are made to order.
2 Design Your Trading Cards
There are three ways you can design football trading cards without being a Photoshop wizard or Illustrator expert. In fact, photos of footballers often look better than illustrations anyway.
Use Design Templates
There are many templates available online that will give you inspiration for your designs. Templates are ideal for people without experience in graphic design or designers who want to save time. You can just change the image and text according to your favourite football players.
Photograph Your Art
You can photograph your illustrations to turn them into football cards. We have worked with local artists who have sketched football players and then photographed their work. Check out our article Huddersfield Town Top Trumps to see the illustrations that were created by artist Tom Bradshaw. The black and white illustrations of the players, mascots and managers gave an artisan feel to the card deck.
Use Stock Images Of Footballers
Buying images and illustrations of your favourite football players can add more value to your cards. Football fans love collecting photos and memorabilia of their favourite players, especially if they are photographed during memorable moments. Such as scoring a winning goal to get the team promoted.
Shutterstock and iStock have a large selection of drawings and photos that can be bought and downloaded for your football card designs.
3 Order Your Printed Custom Cards
You can order your football cards online on our custom playing card printing page. Our customisation options such as rounded corners and laminate finishes make your designs stand out and look more professional. Read on to discover our tips for choosing the right card stock, size and laminate finish.
What Kind Of Paper Is Used For Trading Cards?
When choosing cardstock, you have a near unlimited choice of paper types. Football trading cards are usually printed on 350gsm silk paper or higher. 400gsm feels much sturdier and stronger, giving a high quality impression.
If you want something more unusual, check out our specialist papers suc
h as colorplan coloured paper. We also have colour core paper which has a central coloured layer along the edge of the 800gsm card. The central-coloured stripe is ideal for matching to your team colours.
Order our paper sample pack to compare paper types for inspiration. It also includes the laminate finishes that we will discuss below.
What Kind Of Finish Is Chosen For Football Cards?
Usually, football trading cards have 16mm rounded corners with a protective laminate finish. We offer matt, gloss and soft touch laminates. Matt cards are easier to read because they do not reflect the light and cause glare.
For something different, the soft touch laminate feels smooth, almost like the skin of a soft peach. Learn all about our stunning lamination options to see why gloss laminate adds vibrancy to designs.
What Is The Standard Size Of A Trading Card?
Trading cards are 6.4 cm by 8.9cm (64mm x 89mm) as standard. That’s the same for top trumps or trading decks or sports cards for collectors. Pokemon cards are smaller than average, measuring 63mm by 88 mm.
If you’d like a custom size, simply enter the dimensions into our order page. Whichever size you choose, our custom printed cards are posted in as little as 2 working days from proof approval.
Where Is The Best Place To Sell Football Cards?
Ebay is the most used platform for buying and selling football trading cards. However, Etsy is also a great place to advertise your football trading card designs. We recommend advertising your products on various platforms for maximum awareness of your card shop. Join football groups on reddit and Facebook fan pages to sell directly to the customer.
Check out my cards (COMC.com) is an American platform that lets you sell any type of trading card. They also offer a cross-selling option through Ebay. They require you to send them any card that you want to sell. Once your cards sell, you can convert your shop credit into cash.
Promote Your Football Trading Cards On Social Media
You can create a Facebook and Instagram page to show everyone your design work. It’s a great way to quickly spread the word about your new products. Use hashtags at the end of your post to extend the reach of your message. You can capitalise on big games where football fans are actively following certain tags.
If your card contains a footballer or a specific team, use their hashtags. The website Best-hashtags.com will let you find the most popular tags to use. Popular hashtags for football cards include: #footballcards #sportscards #football #tradingcards #whodoyoucollect
Consider Selling Football Prints
Once you have launched your online shop, consider designing and printing other products for your customers. To complement your football card sales, think about selling prints of memorable moments or your favourite players in action. You can either print small photos as flyers that can be framed or large custom posters to stick on bedroom walls.
Custom Card Magnets For Football Supporters
We also offer custom car magnet printing so you can sell team badges or mascots for your customers to put on their vehicle.
Custom Bookmark Printing
We also offer custom bookmark printing so you can sell football or sports themed bookmarks. Our 800gsm colour core paper is a popular choice for football bookmarks. The coloured central stripe on the edge of the cards can be matched to the team colours in your design.
We also offer Nevertear bookmark printing for long lasting tearproof and waterproof football memorabilia. You can add your shop details onto the bookmark to raise awareness about your football trading card sales.
Thank You For Your Order Cards
Once you have launched your online shop, consider sending out thank you for your order cards with each parcel. Read our blog Tips For Using Thank You For Your Order Cards to see how they can encourage more customer reviews.
