How to make $$ using Transfer Express (or other plastisol suppliers)....

14153 Views 40 Replies 11 Participants Last post by HT67, Jan 31, 2009

treadhead

Discussion Starter · Nov 4, 2008

I was hoping I could get some ideas from folks who use Transfer Express for a good part of their business.

I've used plastisol transfers in the past (Ace, First-Edition, Dowling) and like them but since I've learned to do screenprinting in-house, find that it is very difficult for me to justify using them now except in various circumstances such as more then 4 colors (I'm currently limited to 4 colors), 4-color process, or perhaps if I'm backed up on my manual press. Also, given my current setup (1 station / 4 color manual press w/ flash cure) I believe that using plastisol transfers would be faster and increase my productivity so that is an advantage but not a big enough one (I don't think at least...) to offset the huge price difference.

My main question is, given how expensive Transfer Express is, how do those of you who use them make any money doing so? How do you compete against those who do screenprinting in-house?

I love their dealer program and hear that they have a great product and support but can't seem to figure out how I would make any money using them.

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T-BOT

· #2 · Nov 4, 2008

John,

Printing directly on shirts is less expensive.

The idea of Plastisol Transfers is to serve other puposes, like quick economical re-fill orders on your catalog items, on demand printing small orders etc.

if you get an order for 100 t-shirts and you screen print yourself, why would you want to order plastisol transfers? ....and add the printing work of the shirts to it too?

:

:

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treadhead

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 4, 2008 (Edited)

T-BOT said:
The idea of Plastisol Transfers is to serve other puposes, like quick economical re-fill orders on your catalog items, on demand printing small orders etc.
:

Hi Lucy...thanks for jumping in...

That's just my point...I wouldn't order plastisol for 100 shirts since I can print them myself much cheaper but probably not faster. But there are many folks who do just that and seem to do just fine.

I don't know if I agree with the on demand printing for small orders as they get REALLY expensive for smaller order quantities however I do agree with the simplicity of doing so.

But, what I can't understand I guess is how some people, who don't do in-house screenprinting, can compete with those who do by using sources such as Transfer Express. I don't mean to pick on them as I like their program & product. I just can't get my mind around how one survives given their pricing. This discussion can also be applied to somebody such as Ace as well.

I feel like I'm missing something. I know there are folks here on the forum that work perhaps from their home and don't have screenprint equipment but still somehow manage to do quite well using plastisol transfers competing against screenprinters in their area. Lou is a perfect example (forgive me Lou for using you as an example) of this.

I currently have a shop / store but have often considered closing those down and working from home and spending more time trying to market the business and less time behind the press. Plastisol seems to be a much cleaner and simpler method if one were to do that but the cost seems prohibitive.

It is much easier to just send the artwork and order the transfers and press the shirts when they arrive. Of course you expect to pay for this convenience and you also avoid the "mess" and time involved with setting up and running a screenprint job but you still have to compete in the marketplace.

What's the secret??

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ino

· #4 · Nov 4, 2008

This would be just my opinion, however if I had a shop, and selling retail,
plastisol transfers would be the only option for me for the following reasons.

1. Not easy to deal with customers while I'm busy printing a run.
2. lower inventory with a much bigger variety of designs and shirts.
3. better utilization of the space saved for more products to offer for sale.
4. less employees needed, meaning less wages to payout.
5. more time to sweet talk customers to part with their money.
6. no messy cleanups.

treadhead

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 5, 2008

ino said:
This would be just my opinion, however if I had a shop, and selling retail,
plastisol transfers would be the only option for me for the following reasons.

1. Not easy to deal with customers while I'm busy printing a run.
2. lower inventory with a much bigger variety of designs and shirts.
3. better utilization of the space saved for more products to offer for sale.
4. less employees needed, meaning less wages to payout.
5. more time to sweet talk customers to part with their money.
6. no messy cleanups.

Hey Ino...

Great feedback...all very good points and ones I totally believe. #1 really hits home!! LOL

Intuitively, there are many advantages BUT how does that transfer into $$$?

Of course, lower inventory, lower wages, less space needed, less mess, more time with customers and / or marketing all should transfer into $$$$. But is it enough?

For example, if I use pricing for Ace Transfer (cheaper than Transfer Express) for a typical job for us (2 locations, 3 color on 50 colored shirts) I would have to pay $5.20 (plus shipping) per shirt for a ganged design from Ace. Lets just call it $6.00 with shipping. Add to that $2.50 for the shirt and my material cost is already $8.50 per shirt vs. maybe $3.50 if I were to screenprint? I would quote that job at $6.75 per shirt screenprinting it which would be comparable to others in my market.

So, I have to be able to save $5.00 per shirt in lower inventory costs, lower payroll, less space and more sales in order to stay competitive?

How does one do that??

Again, this doesn't even consider the higher cost of Transfer Express AND I know there are people out there that are doing it.

How do thay do it???

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wormil

· #6 · Nov 5, 2008

The short answer is that if you are buying expensive transfers you have to charge more money and work off the lower volume, higher margin theory. Unfortunately that model tends to suffer first and the most during economic downturns.

Nothing wrong with supplementing your screenprinting with transfers, just use a less expensive company. Howard has a similar pricing structure as Ace except with better quality (based on their samples) and lower pricing. First Edition and Dowling are cheap but slow. F&M is inexpensive and fairly quick. Universal is a good source for digital transfers.

splathead

· #7 · Nov 5, 2008 (Edited)

treadhead said:
For example, if I use pricing for Ace Transfer (cheaper than Transfer Express) for a typical job for us (2 locations, 3 color on 50 colored shirts) I would have to pay $5.20 (plus shipping) per shirt for a ganged design from Ace. Lets just call it $6.00 with shipping. Add to that $2.50 for the shirt and my material cost is already $8.50 per shirt vs. maybe $3.50 if I were to screenprint? I would quote that job at $6.75 per shirt screenprinting it which would be comparable to others in my market.

Your $3.50 per shirt cost seems low to me. If $2.50 of that is the shirt, then you are only spending $1 more for 6 screens, ink, supplies and overhead?

Transfers have their place as does direct screening. For me, I use direct for volume jobs. I use transfers for designs that we sell where we can provide the customer basically any choice of product (tee, hoodie, long sleeve, etc.), any color, and any size-always in stock.

That's the beauty of transfers.

wormil

· #8 · Nov 5, 2008

treadhead said:
For example, if I use pricing for Ace Transfer (cheaper than Transfer Express) for a typical job for us (2 locations, 3 color on 50 colored shirts) I would have to pay $5.20 (plus shipping) per shirt for a ganged design from Ace. Lets just call it $6.00 with shipping. Add to that $2.50 for the shirt and my material cost is already $8.50 per shirt vs. maybe $3.50 if I were to screenprint? I would quote that job at $6.75 per shirt screenprinting it which would be comparable to others in my market.

So, I have to be able to save $5.00 per shirt in lower inventory costs, lower payroll, less space and more sales in order to stay competitive?

They may not be selling to the same customers as you.

In your example above, using a $2.50 shirt, I would quote it slightly higher; be competitive with others in my market and make money. To sell for $6.75 you need to get the shirt down to $2.00 shipped. You can't use TE or Ace and compete at that price level, you have to go with one of the other three I previously named.

brentonchad

· #9 · Nov 5, 2008

The pricing on that shirt in my area is much more expensive. I only use plastisol and I am able to offer shirts much cheaper than the screenprinters. The locals around here would charge a screen setup at least 15-20 per screen - so that's an additional 2 bucks per shirt of their advertised price. With First Edition - 3.25 per sheet (ganged) + 2 dollar shirt = 5.25 is my cost. I sell that shirt at around 9-10 dollars. That allows me to clear 150 bucks and it took me about 1.5 hours to do the whole thing. I can drop to $8 bucks a shirt and I am cheaper than everyone and still make $100 for an 1.5 hours of work.
I do this part time from a 10X10 room (laptop and heatpress) but if you can build up enough business that your busy 8 hours a day at that rate then your doing pretty good. Now some designs I can fit on one sheet so I get to cut the cost of the transfer in half. I would bet it would take you at least an hour to set up your screens - so you have to consider your time as money. (there's a whole other thread on this)

My guess is your market is pretty saturated and the pricing there is better than my area if you are doing (50) 3 color shirts at 6.75 with no screen charge. If you do have a screen charge/setup charge then we are about even at 8-9 bucks.

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bulldog

· #10 · Nov 10, 2008

I use Transfer Express all the time and love them. I deal with mostly local schools and sports teams. they love to look at TE book and pick out a design, pick a screen print color, T-shirt color and by the end of the week have their shirts. Yes, you can make money using TE. If you don't have the equipment or the know how- this is the next best thing to be able to offer your customers screen printing. Because they don't know the diffrence between a screen print and a transfer.( most). But from what I have seen most don't care(it looks good). 90% of the time my orders are for 1 color and for 100 ($1.27) plus shirt $2.00=$3.27 +SH. I get anywhere from $5.75-$8.00 a shirt. I can spend more time getting orders and expanding my embroidery but still offer screenprint to customers. And for small orders(1-20) I offer them vinyl to keep the cost down. Since I started using them March of this year, I have not had to use my printers for making t-shirt transfers, nor do I want to anymore. I have read TE is evpensive but I look at my experience with them and read about everyone's stories about long shipping,orders lost ect...
I'll stick with them 1 day away and no problems yet.

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Seamonster

· #11 · Dec 11, 2008

I'll chain my own designs on a plastisol sheet if I get an order that's too big for my vinyl cutter but not enough to go through the trouble of making a screen for screen printing. I just consider that a cheap way to make extra transfers for myself on someone else's dime.

Binary01

· #12 · Dec 21, 2008

i'm going to do transfers once i launch my 'official' line

i can't afford the high costs of minumums of screen printing and then trying to gauge what sizes/colors to print on.

1 thing i might do though is get my shirts wholesale...print the inside logo/tag and the logo on the outside back....then just use a transfer when i get an order. this way all my shirts are 'branded' already and all i need to do is toss the graphic on the front

b

Reactions: 1

treadhead

Discussion Starter · #13 · Dec 21, 2008

Seamonster said:
I'll chain my own designs on a plastisol sheet if I get an order that's too big for my vinyl cutter but not enough to go through the trouble of making a screen for screen printing. I just consider that a cheap way to make extra transfers for myself on someone else's dime.

Agreed...

That's the smart way to approach it.

In my situation, 90% of our designs involve a back design..typically a 10"x10" design with a front pocket. This configuration typically takes up the entire sheet leaving little opportunity to take advantage of ganging other designs.

I like the concept of plastisol transfers and used them quite a bit before getting our screenprint press. There are certainly many advantages I see in using now...I just have a hard time justifying the additional cost vs. doing them myself.

treadhead

Discussion Starter · #14 · Dec 21, 2008

237am said:
i'm going to do transfers once i launch my 'official' line

i can't afford the high costs of minumums of screen printing and then trying to gauge what sizes/colors to print on.

1 thing i might do though is get my shirts wholesale...print the inside logo/tag and the logo on the outside back....then just use a transfer when i get an order. this way all my shirts are 'branded' already and all i need to do is toss the graphic on the front

b

Yes...excellent way to utilize transfers.

Binary01

· #15 · Dec 22, 2008

i'm trying to figure out a system that will create a good line but still be flexable when needed.

when i ran my first set of shirts in 2007, i ran out of certain sizes real quick but couldnt press up more so i had random sizes laying around that i ended up giving out.

i think the transfer idea is good especially if you can gang up your designs and do it that way.... i managed to have about 9 designs on 2 gang sheets and that will cost me about 8-900 for 100 sheets each...so 100 sets of 9 designs.... not bad..thats about $1 per design....and no mess

b

treadhead

Discussion Starter · #16 · Dec 22, 2008

237am said:
i'm trying to figure out a system that will create a good line but still be flexable when needed.

when i ran my first set of shirts in 2007, i ran out of certain sizes real quick but couldnt press up more so i had random sizes laying around that i ended up giving out.

i think the transfer idea is good especially if you can gang up your designs and do it that way.... i managed to have about 9 designs on 2 gang sheets and that will cost me about 8-900 for 100 sheets each...so 100 sets of 9 designs.... not bad..thats about $1 per design....and no mess

b

b...

I think you are exactly on target with your approach of using the plastisol transfers...

Binary01

· #17 · Dec 22, 2008

i'm trying man.....

there's alot of options out there and for myself, it comes down to the whole time/money/space/options issue.

i figure if a design doen't sell then i just lose out on the transfer cost and not the overall cost of shirt/print.

we'll see.... have to order a heat press and get testing on some scrap shirts first before i really get going...... i have to also take into account the larger sizes also like 2xl-4xl so i might do a specific 2/set transfer for that..... basically press one graphic then move the shirt then press the other. this might help to fill up the shirt. i was also thinking about belt printing but i think doing th multiple transfers for the larger shirts will be a good way to test the market for now.

stay safe
b

treadhead

Discussion Starter · #18 · Dec 25, 2008

I just updated my spreadsheet with the latest pricing from Transfer Express, VersaTranz and Ace Transfer (Ace still much cheaper than the others) so I could compare side-by-side to my screenprinting pricing / costs and just have a hard time justifiying anything less than 48 shirts with anything more than 2 colors.

The lower quantities at 3 or more colors are just very expensive.

I really like the idea of using the plastisol as I'm hoping to be tying my slow single station / 4 head manual press up with our new line of shirts. I'm wanting to be able to shift a large portion of our custom work (where it makes sense) to plastisol transfers but when you are looking at $2 & $3 per shirt price difference at the lower quantities / multiple colors it is hard to get my mind around.

Maybe there are some other suppliers I need to be looking at who are just as good but cheaper?? I just like (love Transfer Express) the programs with the premade layouts with these guys. I could advertise 1 week or less turnaround if you select from one of there layouts which would justify a bit more $$ vs. a standard 2 week turnaround but that only goes so far....

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wormil

· #19 · Dec 25, 2008

Almost all transfer makers are less expensive than Transfer Express but their dealer kits aren't as fancy. Quite a few of them have templates. Ace is inexpensive if you don't gang images, if you do gang their price skyrockets.

Binary01

· #20 · Dec 26, 2008

i would think that gangin' designs would be best as in pricing... less screens to be made i guess...not sure

b

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