Why we chose a custom card size, survived D2C chaos, and still keep prices low.
Namaste,
When we began, we didn’t even know the right card size. Printers told us poker and tarot are “standard.” But with 80–120 words on the cards, poker was too small; tarot pushed costs up. We finally chose a custom in-between size that reduced paper wastage, kept costs low, and could be produced in small batches—without compromising readability.
Our first run (Ramayana in English) was a trial by fire:
- Outer covers failed—glue issues from the machine; boxes opened in transit.
- Hand-collation errors—some packs had missing/duplicate cards even though everything was numbered.
- Sudden demand—we spent nights sorting good sets before shipping.
- And the biggest leap: moving from B2B (IoT for factories) to D2C. The complexity—production, QA, packing, shipping, customer care—was overwhelming.
As an author-publisher and trustee trying to keep this non-profit and affordable, my wife and I put in our retirement savings and absorbed early losses. We improved materials, QC, packing flows, and logistics one problem at a time. We’re still improving every week.
Three things we decided upfront:
- Keeping the flashcards affordable.
- Making them easy to gift in multiples and making them perfect for return gifts and classrooms.
- Putting back any surplus from sales into creating new themes and making the flashcards better
Thank you for your blessings and support. Truly, by Bhagavan’s grace and your encouragement, we could bounce back and build more themes.
Ships across India.
Itihasapurana is a not-for-profit initiative to preserve and promote our heritage through flashcards.