there are some print-on-demand card and game manufacturers that might be less expensive than you think. I’m a hobbyist game designer and I’ve used thegamecrafter.comthegamecrafter.com as well as makeplayingcards.com to have custom cards printed, and it wasn’t particularly costly.

but if those services do charge more than you want to spend, the thing I recommend most strongly is that whatever stock you decide to print on, cut them with one of those sliding-blade paper cutters. don’t try to cut them with scissors. they’ll come out a lot more even.

I wrote up a huge guide on the process until my phone crashed and I lost it all. but honestly? Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. Pay whatever it costs to get it professionally printed. I promise you, it’s not as easy as you think, you’ll spend more money getting the tools and materials to create a good final product than you would have done just getting it professionally printed. I can pretty much guarantee that unless you have professional design-grade printing, cutting and gluing equipment that you will not be able to do this as easily as you’re imagining it would be. Please heed my warning, do not make the same mistakes I did.

Have them printed from a service. A normal deck of cards should run about $30 USD. The paper, laminate, ink and maybe sleeves will probably cost the same or more and will come out with way lower quality especially if this is your first time crafting them.

I’ve done both and unless you want really quick and dirty prototype cards or something that is super handmade that you drew on yourself instead of designed on a computer, the ones from a printing service win hands down.

I’d say either regular paper + 10mm lamination, or 12pt matte paper (what people use for lower-end business cards). Regular 65lb or 110lb cardstock is probably not going to cut it for playing cards.

If you’re going to laminate, remember to cut out the cards first and then laminate (and cut out again once it’s laminated). That way each card will be fully sealed around all edges and waterproof.

The problem with printing on cardstock and cutting them yourself, is the minor differences in the cards will cause the cards to be “marked” and people will be able to tell which card is which by feel.

I’ve found that it’s better to print the cards then put them into card sleeves (like people use for magic the gathering, or pokemon, or other trading card games) because the minor imperfections will be hidden by the protective sleeves. You can even get ones with opaque backs to make it so printing changes won’t impact the card shuffling (but it will make them a little less interesting). But you can find ones with designs on the back too if you want.

https://www.thegamer.com/best-tcg-card-sleeves/

Professional printers can do it cheaper than you can, even for a one off. No personal experience with a job like this, but you can buy quite small batches of printed envelopes a lot cheaper than plain envelopes because they get such massive discounts on their bulk orders. It’s not going to be cost-effective for you to do a good job of it.

I went with card stock at my local Office Depot and then just cut them out by hand, laminating is an option, but I wouldn’t use the ones Office Depot uses because they won’t turn out very good. You need a high quality laminator if you want to go that route.

Depending upon your art style you could get a deck of blank cards and do art on each one.

Edit: https://www.amazon.com/blank-deck-cards/s?k=blank+deck+of+cards

Just to show you what I mean with some examples

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Print on cardstock and laminate it.

Looking around a little I found this that might be helpful to you: https://youtu.be/WyMVRJu5yQ4?si=f1iQjnGPdCVTUJSS