Buying Mailing Lists (Marketing)

[Wavy]

I'm starting a new photography business. Part of my marketing will be sending out postcard mailers (with an offer) to promote the business to area residences that have children (my main targets are babies, children, and pets).

What are some reputable, yet inexpensive for a start-up, mailing list companies to buy targeted lists from?

Thanks!

[SmartWombat]

reputable, yet inexpensive

Ah, to me those are mutually exclusive.
Both are a sliding scale, not absolutes, and usually inexpensive tends towards disreputable.

Over here, membership of the Direct Marketing Association in the UK is a good sign.
I don't know what the US equivalent is, but membership of a recognised organisation is a good start for weeding out the cowboys.

We also have a Mailing Preference Service (http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/) which like the Telephone Preference Service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/) serves as a data gatherer for direct marketing companies to check their contact information to prevent annoying people who don't want to be contacted.
Again if you have similar organisations in the US then that might be a good place to start, if you want to look for reputable companies and then decide on price.

[Wavy]

Thanks, I'll look for such an organization.

In the U.S. we have the National Do Not Call list, which is for phone numbers and companies who call somebody on the list can get in trouble (exempt are charities and companies the person has done business with within a reasonable amount of time, I think six months). We don't have anything like that for postal mail.