Community Card Playbook review: what it costs, what's inside, and how its $150 slot model compares to the 9x12 Method's $250 community card, tools, and support.
If you've been researching community cards, you've probably run into the Community Card Playbook. It's a paid course and membership built around the same shared postcard model we teach here: sell ad slots to local businesses, print one card, and mail it to every home on a route. So which one should you learn from? Full transparency: I'm Mitchell Tebo, I built the 9x12 Method, and I obviously have a bias. So I'm going to stick to what's actually on their site, give them credit where they've earned it, and put the real numbers side by side. Then you decide.
Here's the thing. Both teach a real business. Community cards work, and I've watched a lot of our members prove it.
The Community Card Playbook is a low-cost, community-card-only course run by two operators who also run a marketing agency. The 9x12 Method is the original 9x12 community. We teach both the 9x12 postcard and the community card, we run our own print and mail service, and members get a set of tools included free.
The biggest difference isn't the course, though. It's the price per slot, and what that does to your profit. Their model is built around $150 slots. Ours is built around $250 slots. On the same 2,500 homes, that's the difference between keeping about $1,100 and keeping $2,551 per card. I'll show you the math below.
The Community Card Playbook is run by Rachel and Dalton, a Montana-based duo who run a small marketing agency and use community cards as a foot-in-the-door offer for agency clients. They've been open about running cards themselves, and I respect that.
Here's what their site lists as of September 2026:
The headline promise: your first $1,000 a month with direct mail in 45 days or less
Price: $34 a month, or $340 a year
What's included: outreach scripts, Canva design templates, pricing strategies, a USPS Every Door Direct Mail walkthrough, a list of 70+ businesses to pitch, group coaching calls, and a private member area
The card: 6.5" x 12", with 10 to 16 non-competing businesses, mailed to 2,500+ homes
Slot price: $150 per business
Free offer: a short free mini course
Second product: a separate Community Board course (dry-erase ad boards placed inside local businesses)
Their site says members fill their first card in about four weeks on average, and that most members profit $700 to $1,100 per card. Like every honest program in this space, they include an earnings disclaimer saying results aren't typical or guaranteed. We say the same thing about ours.
In-house All Inclusive print and mail, postage included
QR code tracking
Not listed
ScanLab, free for members
Ad design
Canva templates
AI Ad Designer, free for members, plus Canva templates
Credibility for you
Not listed
Free pin on the Our Local Spotlight partner map
Community size
Not stated
2,800+ members in all 50 states
Live coaching
Group coaching calls
Weekly live coaching calls
Free way to start
Free mini course
Free masterclass plus 100+ free guides on this blog
"Not listed" means I couldn't find it on their site. If they add it later, good for them.
The "about $1,100" figure is 16 slots at $150, minus the roughly $1,300 in print, postage, and fulfillment they've described publicly. The 9x12 Method figures are 16 slots at our taught price, minus our All Inclusive print and mail package.
Let me break it down. Same 2,500 homes. Same 16 slots. Different price per slot.
16
Slots on the card
$250
Price per slot
$4,000
Revenue
$1,449
All Inclusive print and mail
$2,551
Profit per card
2,500
Homes reached
At $150 a slot, a full card brings in $2,400. After about $1,300 in costs, you keep about $1,100.
At $250 a slot, a full card brings in $4,000. After the $1,449 All Inclusive package, you keep $2,551.
That's $1,451 more per card for the same amount of outreach. Run two cards a month and that's about $2,900 extra every month. Over a year, it's close to $35,000. Same work. Same homes.
It also changes when you start getting paid. At $150 a slot, you need to sell 9 slots just to cover a $1,300 card. At $250 a slot, 6 slots covers the $1,449 package, and the other 10 slots are profit.
Some will. That's sales. But think about what they're getting. $250 to reach 2,500 homes is 10 cents a door. If that same business mailed its own postcard to those 2,500 homes, postage alone would run about $650 at roughly 26 cents a piece, before they print a single card. Your slot is a no-brainer next to that.
You upload one file. We print it on 14pt UV gloss cardstock, pack it, pay the postage, and deliver it to USPS for Every Door Direct Mail. A community card to 2,500 homes is $1,449 All Inclusive, and you get tracking, photos of your print run, and extra samples to prospect with. No hunting for a printer, no EDDM paperwork, no trips to the post office.
ScanLab gives every advertiser their own trackable QR code and shows them how many neighbors scanned it. Here's why this matters so much: when a business renews, it's because you showed them proof. Scan data is the proof. (More on QR code tracking for postcards here.)
Designing 16 ads is where a lot of new operators stall out. With the AI Ad Designer, you enter the business and what they're promoting and get a print-ready ad back in about 30 seconds. No design skills, no blank Canva file staring at you.
When a business owner Googles you before handing over $250, you want them to find something real. Our Local Spotlight is our public partner directory with 400+ operators on the map, and every member gets a free pin.
Lead Scout, the 9x12 Method CRM, and 9x12 Sites are paid add-ons. You don't need any of them to start. Honestly, I'd skip them until you've filled a card or two. You can see everything on our tools page.
This is where I'll brag a little, because it's our members' work and not mine.
2,800+ members in all 50 states
1,000+ wins posted, so whatever objection you hit, someone has already handled it
$1.4M+ generated by members
Weekly live coaching calls
5.0 rating on Skool
We're the original 9x12 community and the largest community in this space. That matters more than it sounds. When you're stuck on slot 11 at 9pm on a Tuesday, you want a room full of people who've been there.
Real examples from community card operators:
Lucy ran her first community card and her Amish butcher advertiser got six phone calls the day the cards landed. They sold half a beef, half a hog, and 100 lbs of ground beef that day.
Ryan had a full-time job and a family, had never sold anything in his life, and sold out a community card in a single Saturday morning going door to door.
The card doesn't fail. You stop. Find the people who won't let you stop.
You might see a testimonial like that on their site. Honestly? I believe it. A $500 slot on a 9x12 is a bigger ask than a $250 slot on a community card, and some people need the smaller card first.
That's exactly why we teach both. My advice to brand-new operators is to start with the community card, stack a few wins, then add a 9x12 when you're ready. I wrote up the full 9x12 postcard vs community card comparison if you're deciding which to run first.
So if the 9x12 felt like too much, you don't need a whole different program. You might just need a different card.
The lowest monthly price matters more than anything else
You're interested in community boards
Pick the 9x12 Method if:
You want to charge $250 a slot and keep $2,551 on a full card
You want the option to move up to a 9x12 and $5,001 per card later
You want printing and mailing handled for you
You want ScanLab, the AI Ad Designer, and a free Our Local Spotlight pin included
You want 2,800+ operators and 1,000+ wins to learn from
And if you're still not sure? Don't join anything yet. I mean that. Watch the free masterclass and read the free guides first. Don't join the community until you really know.
Yes. Honestly, yes. Here's the whole business in five steps:
Pick a town and about 2,500 homes of residential routes on the USPS EDDM map.
Build a card mockup with 16 slots so businesses can see what they're buying.
Pitch local service businesses at $250 a slot and collect payment up front.
Design the ads, send the file to print, and drop the cards at the post office (or let All Inclusive do it).
Show every advertiser their results and pitch them the next card.
Everything you need is in our free guide to starting a community card business, including the numbers, the timeline, and the scripts. Full transparency: the community is for people who want the shortcut, meaning scripts, coaching, and the tools. You don't need it to get started.
Yes. It's a real paid course run by operators who run community cards themselves, with written terms, earnings disclaimers, and a refund policy on the monthly plan. Whether it's the right fit for you mostly comes down to the slot price you want to charge and whether you want printing and tools included.
As of September 2026, their checkout lists $34 a month or $340 a year for the community card membership. The Community Board course is sold separately and has its own setup fee. Prices change, so check their site for current pricing.
The Community Card Playbook teaches community cards at about $150 per slot. The 9x12 Method teaches community cards at $250 per slot ($2,551 profit on a full card) and full 9x12 postcards at $500 per slot ($5,001 profit), with in-house printing and member tools like ScanLab, the AI Ad Designer, and a free Our Local Spotlight pin.
With 16 slots at $250 and the $1,449 All Inclusive print package, a full community card to 2,500 homes nets $2,551. At $150 a slot, the same card nets about $1,100. What you actually make depends on how many slots you sell and how many cards you run.
Yes. The Community Card Playbook has a free mini course. On our side, there's a free masterclass at guide.9x12method.com plus 100+ free guides on this blog, including a complete community card business guide.
Absolutely. Nothing you learned is wasted. Your outreach, your scripts, and your advertiser relationships all carry over. The two biggest changes are usually raising your slot price to $250 and letting All Inclusive handle printing and mailing.
Whichever program you pick, or if you pick neither, I hope you go absolutely crush it. As always, I'm rooting for you.
Ready to run your own card?
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Mitchell Tebo
