Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I'm going to be doing a 100 t-shirt job for a friend of mine. The design is one color, business name/slogan/location, & will be on the back of the shirt. It's about 12"x12" overall.
I have a heat press that I use for transfers, but I don't have a vinyl cutter or screen printing setup.
I've found where I can have transfers of the design made for:
100 transfers = $80 + $30 setup + $10ish S/H
I get my white shirts for $1.90. (Gildan Ultra Cotton)
So that's a total cost of:
$3.10 per shirt
I'm thinking about charging him $5.10 per shirt, so $510 total. That will leave me $200 profit for about 2-3 hours of overall labor.
Does that all sound about right? Could I do it cheaper or easier any other way?
Your plastisol price is not bad (I have a couple that don't use setup fees but the .80 per is good).
You shirt price however is way high. That's the price for a color shirt.
For reference, I just did a 290 shirt job for a town entity and charged them $5.25, and they have at least another 125 shirts to order. You should be able to get more for that job.
I know, it's hard to charge friends the "right" price. I'm still learning that!
Well, we just did a 100 shirt order......2 color front, 2 color back, black t's with white and red printing. And a 2 color print on the shoulder. It was $1200, but long hours on a 6 color, 4 station press, with flashing between whites. We also have an electric Hix curing oven, which makes it a bit easier to cure.
The $1.90 is with shipping. I've been ordering from blankshirts.com. Should I ask for case pricing or buy from somewhere else? So you are saying I should charge more per shirt? I based that price off of customink's website.
The $1.90 is with shipping. I've been ordering from blankshirts.com. Should I ask for case pricing or buy from somewhere else? So you are saying I should charge more per shirt? I based that price off of customink's website.
There ya go. I did the same when I first started.
Get ye a tax number, become legal and reap the benefits of buying from real wholesalers!
See if you can get case pricing from them, I am really not sure, it's been many years since I ordered from them.
Well, black t's are going to cost you more than whites, unless you get them on sale. I was able to buy 1000 white cotton t's for $1.41 each on Friday. I believe they were Haynes. If you use a regular supplier, they usually have specials on t's. A lot of suppliers also offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount....say $300. I can't compare transfers, because we don't do much of it. It depends where you are located. What State??
The per T-shirt price does sound like bulk "retail", with a business license including shipping its more like 1.50, depending on the sales you find out there. As far as selling price per shirt it feels a bit low too (I am a total noob at this) My first bulk sale I charged 5.50 per shirt for 50 of them. It was to family:/ I saw another thread on T pricing, it seems for what you are doing, $7 is the going rate. Like you I just need to come up with pricing and stick to it. That is the only way we will be successful Our time and effort is worth every penny.
I'm in South Dakota. Shipping from blankshirts works out to be $.25 per shirt. I'm not quite ready to buy 1000 t-shirts, but I can see the saving would be nice. Maybe I can talk them into free shipping on a large order.
The per T-shirt price does sound like bulk "retail", with a business license including shipping its more like 1.50, depending on the sales you find out there. As far as selling price per shirt it feels a bit low too (I am a total noob at this) My first bulk sale I charged 5.50 per shirt for 50 of them. It was to family:/ I saw another thread on T pricing, it seems for what you are doing, $7 is the going rate. Like you I just need to come up with pricing and stick to it. That is the only way we will be successful Our time and effort is worth every penny.
Yeah, I'm just use to getting paid $10.60/hr at my full-time job. So making anything more than what I'm use to for something I enjoy doing is weird. It will take some adjusting to get my prices right.
Here's a link where you can get wholesale pricing from wholesalers who do not require the license. I use Alphashirts.com, and some of their Hanes are 1.20-1.25 this week. Alot of folks like the Beefy T and that's only $1.53 this week. Alpha is owned by Broder, so try Broder brothers, too. Check out this thread for others, try to find someone close. If you do, you may be able to "pick up" and save the shipping. My shipping is one day transit. Here's the link: No Licensing Needed Wholesale T-Shirt Suppliers?
Best regards, and don't undersell yourself. If you friend needs shirts, they are going to have to pay someone anyway. If you don't make enough profits, your business cannot grow. Best wishes.
I just signed up for Alphashirt.com, it looks like I can save a little bit depending how & what I order.
Prices from alphashirt.com :
100 White Gildan Ultra Cotton T-shirts = $156 + $46.81 S/H = $202.81 or $2.03/shirt
They have a case sale right now, so if I got 2 cases, or 144 shirts the pricing would be :
144 White Gildan Ultra Cotton T-shirts = $190.08 + $54.05 S/H = $244.13 or $1.70/shirt
Now lets compare blankshirts.com pricing :
100 White Gildan Ultra Cotton T-shirts = $165 + $25.54 S/H = $190.54 or $1.91/shirt
That's surprisingly cheaper. Now for the 144 shirt comparison...
144 White Gildan Ultra Cotton T-Shirts = $237.60 + $33.08 S/H = $270.68 or $1.88/shirt
I guess the best price just depends on what you need & how many you need. One place isn't always going to be the cheapest in every situation. Blankshirts.com seems to be almost half the price on shipping, but charge more per shirt, so it's a close one either way.
Wow, that shipping seems high, is that b/c you are in SD? Did you look in that thread link? There are at least a half a dozen or more suppliers in there to check their rates for shipping.
The big wholesalers run regular sales, it's the shipping that seems to be such a variable. It would be worth the time to sign up and plug the order in for 100 shirts of the same style number, just to get the best pricing overall. It is a huge part of your costs, it's worth shopping it out.
Best regards and I hope you find a better deal than that, Shawn. Try to find the one's closest to you, okay? The shipping looks crazy. Okay, see you later. Good luck.
100 t-shirt job, I've got questions. 
