Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Just a quick question about stock transfers. I was thinking about going to a local flee market to sell stock transfer shirts. Hoping it will help increase my sales. I went to check things out and see what people are selling for. It seems that people there are selling them for like $5 a shirts. How is this possible? It costs about $4 or more just to make the shirt, including electrizity used, time to press the shirt, commuting time to and from the market, table fees and materials. Are these people happy making $1 a shirts or is there like a super secret company that sells shirts dirt cheap. I checked out a number of different shirt distributors and found that, while some are cheaper they nail you with the shipping. 99% of the time I try to match orders on 3 different distributors and always come up with in $5 of the entire order cost. Which would average around $.05 or less per shirt. If any one has any idea how to get the costs of making shirts down and is willing to share the info please let me know. i would greatly appreciate it. I am getting a little flustered at seeing how cheap people are selling stuff and keep wondering what I am doing wrong.
THis subject has been brought up many times here on the forum. You need to understand that the suppliers buy thousands of shirts at a time and get the heavy discounts you never see. The simple answer is high volume.. There is shirt store near me that sells 4 for 410. A lot of the shirts are Gilden 2000. I talked to the owner and he showed me his stock room. Yipes.. there must have been 100 cases of shirts in there. he said his brother has 7 stores in california.
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As Lou said volume is one way they keep prices down. Sometimes they're selling seconds, overstocks, deleted items, etc. etc. which is another. Occasionally there'll be a smaller dealer who just hasn't realised they're not making a profit yet because they didn't calculate all their costs.
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I think alot of these flea market sellers get shirts from place like dollar days also. They buy out old inventory that is sold thru these type of sites for almost nothing, and then resell it at the flea markets. You might want to look more into selling at craft and street fairs, farmers markets, that type of place where you can get a better price for your product.
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Thanx aot for the replies . I appreciate them. As for the topic already being discussed. I figured it was probably talked about a number of times before but, I could not find the thread I was looking for. Figured it was better to ask then to keep wondering how those people were doing it. I was discussing this with a friend the other day and he came up with the assumption much like what salmu and sunnydayz had mention, that they were possibly buying seconds and the like. I will try to look into items that are being clearanced or liquidated. I do not want to sell seconds tho. The whole thing for me is I am trying to get myself a name locally where people know if they come to me they get quality goods because after all if you are in business it is your name attached to the product that people will ultimately remember. And I am striving to make my name synonomis with quality.
Thanx again for the replies. I am constantly seeking for opinions and suggestions, so if any one has anything further to add to this thread I would greatly appreciate it .
The bottom line is blanks are bought in bulk lots( truck loads in most cases), printed with cheap(non american) labor, and sold at a low mark up in large quantities. .... JB
question on pricing on stock transfer shirts 
