Flash drives...

[SilentJay]

Everyone has been to a wedding where they've been given something as a souvenir of the day, only to either throw it out or have it sit in a box of junk somewhere in the basement, so I thought of giving something away at our wedding that our invitees would actually want and use on a semi-regular basis, a usb flash drive.

That all being said, does anyone have any ideas or leads as to where I might be able to source 130-150 drives (either retail or already-inscribed) at my price-point of $2-$3CDN for a 1 or 2gb?

I've looked on Alibaba and kijiji and have been inundated with Chinese manufacturers, however the prospect of those flash drives not working or being misreported (16MB modified to read 8gb for example) is quite high. Ebay has more Chinese manufacturers that at least offer to use PayPal (some measure of protection) however they adjust the price accordingly, heading towards the $4-$5 USD mark.

Suggestions?

[S.F.W.]

I think you will have a tough time getting inscribed drives at that price point. Run cost is likely $2-$4 minimum per item, plus a set up fee.

[SilentJay]

Non-inscribed drives are fine as I can always put labels on 'em and I'm not putting any data/files on the drives so there shouldn't be a staging fee :)

[S.F.W.]

A small size, non inscribed drive, with nothing of significance on it, is just as likely to get tossed as other wedding favours. You need to make it unique, and that costs $$.

[ryan2.3]

Instead of inscribe, you may want to do stickers... and maybe instead of giving them out at the wedding, you can mail them out in envelopes to include wedding pictures. Most of the time, if a favour is given out at a wedding, they will be left behind. A friend did shot glasses.. about 25% remembered theirs so she's got like 160 shot glasses sitting in her basement.

We ended up doing a photo booth. It would print 2 sets of the 4 pics, one for our guest book so they can leave a message with it and the other they took home. I think it was like $400 for the night and people took as many as they felt like and had fun. Thats about the cost you've budgeted for your favours, but the pics are more personal. Everyone i've seen since then still have them on their mirror or their fridge or somewhere with their other pictures on display. They all loved it

check on amazon. first result when i searched for 2GB was these. About $3 a piece which is 3.27 CAD right now. PM me if you do something like this. if you want to save shipping, you can send them to my address in the US and i can bring them back to Toronto. I've helped a few people here save some shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/10Pcs-Memory-Storage-Swivel-Design/dp/B00E3R0S12/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406731124&sr=8-1&keywords=2gb+usb+drive

EDIT
Ebay has larger lots.. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Lot50-2GB-2-GB-2G-USB-2-0-High-Speed-Flash-Memory-Jump-Drive-Fold-Pen-White-/191257142847?pt=US_USB_Flash_Drives&hash=item2c87d0663f
3.14 a piece, but if you get 3 sets for your 150, you may get a deal

[XTOTHEL]

Personally, I can't recall when the last time I used a USB drive to transfer files. The times I've needed it, they were usually very large files. 2GB these days aren't really enough. That being said, it also depends on the demographic/age group of your guests.

I've made lots of purchases through eBay from Chinese sellers, they've all been very good with refunds/exchanges/communication. eBay also protects you from any fraudulent purchases as well. As long as you pick a seller with a good number of ratings, I don't think you'll run into a problem with the USB devices purchased.

If you don't trust the ebay sellers, you can look at some of the "Canadian" options like Vistaprint, http://www.usbcanada.ca/ <- I really just googled "custom usb canada". You probably already know, the drives they use are from China anyways.

Another option, you might already have it planned, is to setup a photobooth, that will upload in realtime to facebook. This can be setup as a DIY or be rented from a company.

[ds2chan]

Nobody really cares about the wedding favors so I just took the money and donated it to the Canada Cancer Society. They sent me a card which I put up at the reception table. You could always donate the money to a charity if you can't find anything.

[SilentJay]

Nobody really cares about the wedding favors so I just took the money and donated it to the Canada Cancer Society. They sent me a card which I put up at the reception table. You could always donate the money to a charity if you can't find anything.

That's a pretty good idea!

[Fobio]

Go to some tech convention and get the swag! LOL

Alibaba is where I'd look, but yeah unit costs are going to be a bit higher than you expect.

I gave out Chinese tea cups...since I didn't drink with everyone that night.