Tone

I'm confused.
I'm in Australia, basically a good t-shirt (made by volcom, billabong, toy machine, etc) costs $40 as a general rule, lesser but passable shirts might be $25, or the good ones might be $25 on a good day.
You go lower than that, and the shirts are invariably very bad quality, and even if they aren't, having shirts under $25 will give a brand a very negative public image.

Currently the australian dollar is worth about 94 american cents.

I set up a printfection store, and the base price for t-shirts ranges from about $14 to $18. With the value of the american dollar in mind this seemed reasonable.

But is it? Well, my confusion arose when I decided to look up some "buy me now" prices on ebay (thinking that would be vaguely indicative of t-shirt retail prices in america), brand new toy machine shirts with fantastic designs (love toy machine shirts) seem to cost $9.99.

What the hell?

That's considerably less than the base price on "budget special" bad quality shirts you can use at fullfillment sites, and I know some of the actual shirts I'm looking at on ebay and they are excellent quality in every way, and cost about $40 in australia.

So how does anyone compete with ebay using a fullfillment service? I want to ask how much do good t-shirts cost in stores in america, but it doesn't really matter*, people who can buy things online can buy things on ebay and great shirts cost 10 bucks on ebay, at the buy me now price, some smart bidding and you could get them for even less.

*still curious. I want to know what the american equivalent to Australia's "$40" is, sounds like it isn't the "$37.60" it theoretically should be.
You walk into a normal store (not a factory outlet or anything, and there's no sale on), how much does a volcom shirt (for example) cost?

 

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Rodney

Quote: I set up a printfection store, and the base price for t-shirts ranges from about $14 to $18. With the value of the american dollar in mind this seemed reasonable.

That sounds about right. You could probably even go a couple dollars higher with no problem.

Quote: (thinking that would be vaguely indicative of t-shirt retail prices in america), brand new toy machine shirts with fantastic designs (love toy machine shirts) seem to cost $9.99.

That may the biggest issue. eBay is definitely NOT an indicator of retail prices in the US. Here in the US, eBay is for people who are looking for the lowest price, the bargains, etc. It would be very hard to sell a $20-$40 t-shirt on eBay here in the US.

Quote: So how does anyone compete with ebay using a fullfillment service?

You don't compete with eBay. Not unless someone else is selling your EXACT same designs on eBay.

If they aren't, then you don't have to worry about eBay. I should actually say, that type of worrying is fruitless.

eBay buyers will always shop on eBay. Walmart shoppers will always shop at Walmart. Those are NOT your customers.

You'll NEVER be able to compete on PRICE with any major company using a fulfillment company. You probably wouldn't be able to compete on price doing it all yourself. At least it wouldn't make good business since to try. Why try to compete with a corporate behemoth that can sell t-shirts (and all other products) so cheap. You want to set your self APART from them.

Your customers are the people who are looking online for something unique, something that no one else has. Your job is to market in a way that the customer is drawn to buy YOUR designs when they see them, because they can't get them anywhere else in the world.

People are selling LOADS of t-shirts through all the fulfillment places and eBay and Walmart and all the discount stores have existed for years. It hasn't stopped the success of fulfillment places or the t-shirt sellers that use them. Just 2 different types of customers.

Quote: *still curious. I want to know what the american equivalent to Australia's "$40" is, sounds like it isn't the "$37.60" it theoretically should be.

I think things may cost more in general in Australia because things have to be shipped there from further destinations. I don't live in AU, but a similar thing happens in Hawaii because it's an island and it's a bit harder to get things there.

A Volcom, Billabong type t-shirt in the US would cost $15-$20 USD. See here: Volcom T-Shirts

Hope this helps

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Tone

It does help, thanks.
Gives some good perspective. I still think I might drop my prices a little, I had basic designs at $24.99 and fancier more elaborate designs at $29.99, I now realise that might be a bit much to swallow for american customers.
Seems like $19.99 to $24.99 might be more reasonable.

 

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