I charge a little more for customers who bring in their own shirts.
You would probably have to buy the screen from the printer....you don't own the screens, they do. My guess is, you would come out cheaper having a new printer remake the screens at $25.00 a pop.
__________________ 350tees.com Talk Is Cheap, Especially On Our Shirts
Contract
Custom
Customer supply goods (different from contract)
If the customer is a constant repeat customer supplying their own goods they are considered a contract client. Not just 2-5 orders per year, but 2-5 orders per month.
We charge $20 per screen and $10 on re orders for custom jobs. $10 initial and $5 reorders for contract customers
Customer supply goods get $20 per screen
This is the business. Some hid the fees in their pricing and some do not.
To embellish on the screen charge, it covers the cost of the chemicals required to burn, clean, and reclaim the screen, and the time spent doing this as well as preparing the screen for press (clamp, tape, register, etc.). The actual frame and mesh of the screen is not factored in to the screen charge as it can be reused again and again.
We do not silk screen, we heat press vinyl and have tried sublimation, so things may be different for silk screeners, however... We allowed someone to supply their own shirts ONCE. The problem that arose with that fiasco was a learning experience. Through which we discovered the following:
1) you never know where your client may be getting their shirts from...it could be walmart or factory2you, etc
2) not all shirts are "print ready"
3) shirts that are not print ready can have some sort of fabric treatment on them that you are unaware of
4) shirts with unknown fabric treatment can scorch in the heat press application process
5) scorched shirts are fairly undesireable in the t-shirt market
6) undesireable scorched shirts can be difficult to replace with identcal shirts that are "print ready" and guaranteed to not have some sort of unknown fabric treatment
7) both you and your client will be disappointed should any of the above happen
all the shirts i'm getting are form the distributors...gildan/bella/etc....
maybe i'm over-reacting a bit...not sure..... but after i found out the prices they were charging me for the shirts after the fact..... i sort of got a little pissed off..... especially when they knew that i was reselling these in my line and didnt seem to take that in mind for future business
I have found that what you are experiencing is normal.
If you don't like it, I would suggest you find a printer that doesn't charge extra for bringing your own items.
The question then is "Is the quality and service just as good?". Only you can answer that.
Lots of printers mark up the price on the garments, and if you bring in your own, they mark up the price of the printing in order to make up the loss of profit on the garments.
Luckily for me, I have a printer that lets me bring in my own garments, and I come out better than if I purchased garments & printing from them.
i think that prices should be based from printing and they shouldnt be based from selling a shirt....
it's like me saying, hey i'll design and build you a house for xx,xxx but if i only design it then the rate is higher because i wont make the money from the build...
these are 2 separate issues
1.resell a shirt
2. print a shirt
what if i just wanted to buy a shirt without printing...am i getting a higher price per shirt since they wont print.....
it's one thing if the order is a one-off or a rare customer....
but when a customer states he has a clothing line that he just dropped 5,000 on then wouldnt you think differently
this is why i'm buying my own shirts...i cant afford the high markup on quantities
We didn't charge a higher rate for printing due to a client bringing in their own shirts. It couldn't be justified ethically. I'm just saying that it can present hassles in producing a product that satisfies the producer, the client and the end wearer. No matter what venture you take on in life, you will have to weed out the folks with questionable ethics as you go along. You can't blame a pig for acting like a pig, but you can choose not to mire with them.
Problems can arise by a printer printing on supplied garments, but they can be worked through. I normally purchase a few extra than I need, just in case there is a problem.
It's as though they want to be in the shirt printing business AND the shirt selling business. I really can't fault them for that, but I do see how it can be a question of ethics. The problem is that not all people have the same ethics.
You and I can say it is questionable, but that doesn't necessarily make it so.
I think the only solution is that if one deems it questionable, then one should find a printer that doesn't do business that way.
We didn't charge a higher rate for printing due to a client bringing in their own shirts. It couldn't be justified ethically. I'm just saying that it can present hassles in producing a product that satisfies the producer, the client and the end wearer. No matter what venture you take on in life, you will have to weed out the folks with questionable ethics as you go along. You can't blame a pig for acting like a pig, but you can choose not to mire with them.
Some of you are looking at this totally backward. I do not charge more to print customer supplied shirts. I charge less to print shirts I sell. The price for printing customer supplied shirts is the REGULAR PRICE. If I sell the shirts I charge less for the printing. What is unethical about that??????
__________________ 350tees.com Talk Is Cheap, Especially On Our Shirts
it's one thing if the order is a one-off or a rare customer....
but when a customer states he has a clothing line that he just dropped 5,000 on then wouldnt you think differently
b
I hear the promise of "Big Orders Will Follow" ALL THE TIME. You know what? It rarely happens. I charge a price for the job I'm doing, not the promise of something bigger in the future.
Sounds like you need to start your own printing operation.
__________________ 350tees.com Talk Is Cheap, Especially On Our Shirts
you make that extra cash by reselling the shirt...say by 90-100% markup.... so off a t-shirt you make $2-4 per shirt....then add printing...my printing cost $3 plus setups.......
so
say $3 wholesale for shirt
plus $3 for markup
plus $3 for printing
plus setups costs
now i'm at $9 plus some change (for setups)..... then you think i can wholesale them for $18 to retail....considering i'm a new line?....
if i can get my shirts in the range of $6-$8.00 per then my wholesale would be alot better.......
so with that said.... if i cut out the markup and supply the shirts.... is it right for the printer to raise the cost of printing from $3 to say $4-$5 per
i can understand everyones views...... it's just a concern i had and needed some feedback
screen print prices...wtf 
