Here is another consideration....Your art + 1 sublimation printer + paper + ink + good heat press =
Shirts (white or light color poly), Aprons, Mouse pads, Coasters, Puzzles, Photo bags, Name tags, Luggage tags, Door hangers, Wooden plaques, Single tiles, Tile murals, Can coolers, Place mats, Christmas ornaments, etc. Add a mug press and you get multi size ceramic mugs and stainless steel travel mugs. Add a c.a.p. press (really a cap press but it does so much more) and you can produce hats or place your art on shirt sleeves, or poly athletic shorts. Whew...so much demand, so little time.
Sublimation can certainly print all those things too. You have to be prepared for your workspace to begin shrinking once you start adding specialist presses though. I speak from experience...LOL
Avoid trying out the sublimated underwear though. I bought a few pieces to experiment with. Poly underwear is vile to wear! Yuk!
All good advice and great suggestions. But I still can't make a decision. I feel so overwhelmed reading all these things.
I've been reading more about the Hybrid system that allows you to print sublimation or chromablast transfers. I really do like the idea of the sublimation process but am afraid that people are going to want 100% cotton shirts. This is what intrigues me about Chromablast and the idea of having one printer that can do both.
But then what happens is I start thinking, would it make more sense to bite the bullet and buy a DTG that can do both. But what if this business isn't for me, then I would have this very expensive piece of equipment that was useless for me.
I don't have much money but am willing to make the investment. I just can't figure out which route makes more sense. Since I don't have all kinds of $$$ to play with, obviously I want to make the smartest choice.
This stuff makes my head spin. So many choices. What about the hybrid system? Any thoughts? Anyone know if you can print on 100% organic cotton with Chromablast .... what about bamboo? We really would like to be part of an eco-friendly trend. It can't hurt.
Again, thanks everyone for the valuable time and info.
The biggest downside to sublimation, is people do prefer cotton garments. That's why I have to utilise cut vinyl in addition to my sublimation.
Only thing I would suggest to you, is do lots of market research before you buy. Equipment costs, consumables, ancillary equipment, sales avenues, pricing structures, marketing choices. Once you have those figures down on paper, you'll be able to form a better idea of which system to go with.
One solution to your problem might be to buy two printers. The Epson 1400 is a large format, 11X17 and is about half or less than half the cost of the printer with the eight color system Then you could do both at a lower cost and have two good printers to do different processes at the same time." Two, two, two shirts at once."
( A pun referring to the gum commercial in case your not old enough to remember them)
Attend one of the ISS shows. See...touch...try. Attend a class or two or just talk with other attendees. A good number of those attending are repeats and have successful businesses already. You can learn a lot.
But then what happens is I start thinking, would it make more sense to bite the bullet and buy a DTG that can do both.
What do you mean by getting a DTG that can do both?
If you are talking about poly and cotton, it can't, DTG printeres can only print on cotton garments because of the type of ink they use.
If you are talking about both light and dark shirts, then yes it can as long as you buy a maching that does white ink. For example, the Brother DTG printer can only print on light garments becasue it has no white ink for an underbase on a dark garment.
If you only need light garments, and you don't have to have cotton garments, then I would go with sublimation because you can get fantastic results with a minimal investment. Another great thing about sublimation is the ability to expand to other types of items to offer like ceramic tiles, mugs and stuff. You mentioned you are an artist, you can do some great murals on tiles.
If you have to have cotton garments, DTG is great for short run production and offers superior image quality over most screen printing. It also has the same durability as screen printing, and better than most heat transfers. But heat transfer is quickly catching up in the area of durability.
If you are considering dtg, check out the dtg forums on this site. DTG is great, but requires more of an investment. You can also use dtg contract printers who are fairly reasonable.
Re: Is sublimation for me? 
