Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
I am just getting started and have a few customers lined up. The problem I have come across is that it is hard to compete against the screen printed shirts. How do you sell a heat transfer shirt compared to screen printed? Screen printed sell for about $6.00 a shirt! I would appreciate your advice. Thank you!
Leslie
Do you mean stock heat transfers, plastisols, or inkjet heat transfer paper?
From what I've seen of $6 screen printed shirts, the quality isn't very good. Plastisol heat transfers are the same quality as a well made screen printed shirt (if you buy good quality plastisols.). Stock transfers can compete (if good quality). Lastly, if one used Jetprosofstretch inkjet paper for lights, a very nice tee can hold it's own against a screen printed shirt at $6. JPSS (jetprosofstretch @ tshirtsupplies.com) has the ability to stretch with the shirt, no cracking, it doesn't fade (I've used bleach, warm water and high heat dryer = no problem), and it has a soft hand that gets softer with each wash. After a few washes, no hand, great color, and the flexibilty to do one off's, as many colors as you can imagine, and it can be made as fast as you can print and transfer.
Hope this helps. Best regards.
__________________ Have a nice day...
Last edited by Girlzndollz; April 3rd, 2008 at 08:37 AM.
Reason: removed extra sentence not edited 1st time, add where to get JPSS.
Hi Kelly,
I was refering to inkjet transfers. One possible client buys a lot of screen printed shirts with his logo- I have seen them and they look really good. He wanted to give me some business if I could do it for a better price...
I am playing with the JPSS and also Chromablast. Maybe I should check out the Plastisol- it just seems most people want screen printed T's, guess I need to show them some really great samples!
Thanks for your help!
I think you'll find that you will have a need for both inkjet and plastisol. Eventually, you might want to add custom cut t-shirt vinyl.
If your customer is buying shirts in large quantities, then you'd do well to offer plastisol. Even if you could accomplish the look you want with an inkjet transfer, for large orders, you'll save a good deal of time with plastisol.
I use Transfer Express for plastisol transfers. There are many other good sources as well that you can find by searching this board.
Hi Kelly,
I was refering to inkjet transfers. One possible client buys a lot of screen printed shirts with his logo- I have seen them and they look really good. He wanted to give me some business if I could do it for a better price...
I am playing with the JPSS and also Chromablast. Maybe I should check out the Plastisol- it just seems most people want screen printed T's, guess I need to show them some really great samples!
Thanks for your help!
You're welcome, Leslie. I have a concern that's itching at me, and that is trying to beat the $6. I am wondering what the volume of shirts he orders to get the $6.00 a shirt? Sometimes I think customers bounce numbers off us to widdle down the prices, and the numbers they give aren't always accurate. Then to get the work, some of us work for far less than we should. Sometimes screen printers price far lower than they should to get all the jobs in town, but in the end, they don't last because one can't go on forever like that. But in the meantime, trying to compete with someone like that will put you in trouble fast.
Just watch out for you. As long as you crunch your numbers, and find the profit in the job to warrant taking the job, then you are fine. Price the job without the $6 in mind, and if your price is lower, than you have a job worth taking. What do you think?
You're welcome, Leslie. I have a concern that's itching at me, and that is trying to beat the $6. I am wondering what the volume of shirts he orders to get the $6.00 a shirt? Sometimes I think customers bounce numbers off us to widdle down the prices, and the numbers they give aren't always accurate. Then to get the work, some of us work for far less than we should. Sometimes screen printers price far lower than they should to get all the jobs in town, but in the end, they don't last because one can't go on forever like that. But in the meantime, trying to compete with someone like that will put you in trouble fast.
Just watch out for you. As long as you crunch your numbers, and find the profit in the job to warrant taking the job, then you are fine. Price the job without the $6 in mind, and if your price is lower, than you have a job worth taking. What do you think?
I totally agree that we sometimes let customers talk us into lower prices then we should give.
I have found that at least in my situation it is best to have a set price and stick with it. Then if you gain a good repeat customer think about the possiblity of giving them a better price break. But only after they have become established as a customer worthy of getting such discounts (i.e. buying over 100 shirts over a certain period of time, etc.)
Don't quote lower prices just because someone tells you the compition will do it for cheaper price. Everyone like to try and get a better price and some will automaticaly tell you your competitors will sell them the same for $X.xx just to try and get a better price from you. I've had several people who said they could get a better price from someone else buy from me instead. Why? Because they either couldn't get a better price or I provided a better quality service.
Don't quote lower prices just because someone tells you the compition will do it for cheaper price.
A shopper tells me that and it automatically ensures that I will not alter my price one penny (I can be pretty stuborn sometimes). If they go buy from the other folks, so be it. I'm not too interested in shoppers that only want the cheapest price they can find. I have found that those are the same people that cause me the most headaches if they do become a customer.
I had a phone shopper a couple of years ago that I quoted a job for. He called me back in 20 minutes and said that another printer had quoted him 25 cents per shirt more, but didn't charge a screen charge. He asked if I would drop the screen charge. I told him "no, that isn't negotiable". He got mad and asked if I wanted his business or not. I said "I want business that is fair to me as well as you". I didn't get the job.
The moral to this story is, if I had agreed to drop the screen charge, he would have called the other printer back and asked him to drop his printing price 25 cents or more. He would have played us off one another as long as we let him. I'm not going to play that game and hurt myself and the other printer just so the shopper gets a better than fair deal.
__________________ 350tees.com Talk Is Cheap, Especially On Our Shirts
A shopper tells me that and it automatically ensures that I will not alter my price one penny (I can be pretty stuborn sometimes). If they go buy from the other folks, so be it. I'm not too interested in shoppers that only want the cheapest price they can find. I have found that those are the same people that cause me the most headaches if they do become a customer.
I had a phone shopper a couple of years ago that I quoted a job for. He called me back in 20 minutes and said that another printer had quoted him 25 cents per shirt more, but didn't charge a screen charge. He asked if I would drop the screen charge. I told him "no, that isn't negotiable". He got mad and asked if I wanted his business or not. I said "I want business that is fair to me as well as you". I didn't get the job.
The moral to this story is, if I had agreed to drop the screen charge, he would have called the other printer back and asked him to drop his printing price 25 cents or more. He would have played us off one another as long as we let him. I'm not going to play that game and hurt myself and the other printer just so the shopper gets a better than fair deal.
Good for you, and thanks for operating that way! You're right, that's exactly the customer who will keep trying to grind down the price, and then complain about the product in the end to get more of a discount. I don't need those people.In fact, if I suspect that a customer is going to cause me to spend more time than normal on an order, I build in a "pain in the A$% fee" to the quote. This is one reason why I never offer coupons or run sales. Those customers don't come back anyhow, no matter how good a job you do.
The moral to this story is, if I had agreed to drop the screen charge, he would have called the other printer back and asked him to drop his printing price 25 cents or more.
While this is many people's gut reaction, in ten years of quoting and winning millions of dollars of printing jobs I've found that it's actually extremely rare for customers to actually play one off against another. The truth is they are looking for a reason to choose you over the other guy but feel guilty about paying more; what they really want is to be sold on you because there is something about the other guy that didn't click with them. I have been successful by asking the customer questions about why they might choose me over the competition and often they will give me all the information I need to close the deal.
I had a phone shopper a couple of years ago that I quoted a job for. He called me back in 20 minutes and said that another printer had quoted him 25 cents per shirt more, but didn't charge a screen charge. He asked if I would drop the screen charge. I told him "no, that isn't negotiable". He got mad and asked if I wanted his business or not. I said "I want business that is fair to me as well as you". I didn't get the job.
The moral to this story is, if I had agreed to drop the screen charge, he would have called the other printer back and asked him to drop his printing price 25 cents or more. He would have played us off one another as long as we let him. I'm not going to play that game and hurt myself and the other printer just so the shopper gets a better than fair deal.
Thank you all for such good information!
I was wondering... how much should I mark up the shirts- If I take the cost of the shirt and the cost of ink and transfer, how much more do you add for time etc...? I would like to offer a fair price- any suggestions? Thank you!
Leslie
Heat Transfer vs. screen printed 
