SHO-CARD PRESS
Harwichport, MA
During my early high school years in Milton, MA (1964), I took classes in printing. In 1965 my family moved to Cape Cod (Harwich). With my limited printing experience, I was able to secure a part-time job at Sho-Card Press. This little company produced primarily posters and bumper stickers with 95% of the business being through mail-order. The majority of that business was mailed to New York and New Jersey. When I finished High School in 1967, I enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard but made an arrangement with the owner that I would take over the business upon my return. I was transferred to reserve duty in 1969 to U.S.C.G. Cape Cod which allowed me to take over Sho-Card Press. I made monthly payments and would continue to do so for some time before I truly obtained ownership. In just over a year I decided to throw in the towel... see more below.
Tom Anusewicz & Jon Page
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Ludlow
The Sho-Card Press catalog did not have its name on or in it. It was blank. Most of the customers were other print shops in the northeastern states. They could put there name on the brochure and place on their counter. I charged the print shops 50 % of what was in the catalog.
They hung a sign in their window (which I provided) that they did posters and sent the orders to me. I worked on volume. I was the local Post Offices best customer.
more videos of vintage printing machines and processes
Brings back memories of my printing days
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I remember that the sport schedule posters were a big seller. I would get numerous school districts throughout Massachusetts and beyond. School always struggled with their budgets, so to reduce the price of these posters Coca Cola as well as other sponsors would provide the poster board with their graphics with space to print the schools sport schedule. I would get a pallet load of sponsor boards and offer the school district an option to cut their cost. By reducing their cost, I increased my production. When doing all the schools in a district, the teams played each other, so I would produce one high school home and away and then just go to the next high school and rearrange home and away. It was an easy and quick production. You would move from basketball, football to baseball and so on.