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New to bulk orders and pricing questions

2769 Views 13 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  binki
I am used to selling t-shirts in orders of 1-8 that are bought on my website, yesterday I was approached with an order of 300+ shirts from a major company.
What I am using: DTG
What the customer wants: A simple 6x6 design on white cotton shirts. The cost to me should be around 1.25 a shirt.

Knowing I cant charge my usual premium what is the forums idea on a fair price I can charge or should I find a local screen printer?

Thanks
Chris
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
How many colors in the design?
How long does to take to print 10 shirts. What would be a good hourly wage after expenses. For me If I made $3.00 a shirt I would be happy.. $900 for about 2 days work after expenses. You are into a new market and this could be doorway to many more jobs like this
I can do about 100 shirts an hour(with the small logo they requested) but I prefer to go at a slower pace so I dont mess things up
100 an hour!??!
Wow what machine do you have? What resolution are you using and how many passes?
that does sound a bit high.... I am using a fast t-jet2 and I can prob do 85 prints in high gear but really why work that hard I am thinking I will do around 45 an hour so I am not in such a hurry. The design is 6x6 at 720 resolution and one pass. But again these are just my estimates... does that sound about right to you Adam
Well I'm pretty slow so it takes me at least 1 min to hit the eject button, pull the platen out, unhoop the shirt, lay the shirt on the press and close it (luckily I have the Phoenix Phire so I dont have to baby sit it), then grab the next platen with the shirt already hooped, drop it in the bed, line it up, give it a once over with the measuring jig, hit load, then hit print again.

If the printer is too fast, I can't pre-load my next shirt onto the platen so the whole process slows down.

I usually add 1-2 minutes to every shirt I need to print and guage it that way.
You said your cost was $1.25. That doesn't include the price of the shirt, does it?

Most of the local screen printers around here charge cost plus 110%. So if your cost was $3 then you would charge $6.30 per shirt. That would be around $1900 for 300 shirts.

You might also want to get a quote from a local screen printing to see what they would charge.
Comparing prices to local printings might be a good bet, and aim for something in that area. Be sure not to shoot yourself in the foot though; it's not usually worth printing tons of shirts if you're only making 50 cents or a dollar profit for shirt. I don't think I'd ever sell for less than double my cost (shirt+ink+etc.), personally.
Thank you all for your help this forum is such a great resource for anyone starting out or even a seasoned veteran in the t-shirt biz. Binki yes my cost includes shirt. I have found white Hanes ts on sale for around $1 a shirt and with such a small print my ink cost will be around 25 to 50 cents a shirt.
csquared said:
I have found white Hanes ts on sale for around $1 a shirt and with such a small print my ink cost will be around 25 to 50 cents a shirt.
Don't forget labour, machine maintenance, electricity, rent, web hosting, etc. etc. - it all needs to be factored in, or you could still end up making a loss without even really realising it.
csquared said:
I am used to selling t-shirts in orders of 1-8 that are bought on my website, yesterday I was approached with an order of 300+ shirts from a major company.
What I am using: DTG
What the customer wants: A simple 6x6 design on white cotton shirts. The cost to me should be around 1.25 a shirt.

Knowing I cant charge my usual premium what is the forums idea on a fair price I can charge or should I find a local screen printer?

Thanks
Chris
Hi Chris Do you mean you are looking for white t-shirt with 3 color prints on front chest 6" x 6" at cost US$1.25/pc. Wow, the price is wonderful. Do you mind to tell whenever you get it:) :) :)
csquared said:
Thank you all for your help this forum is such a great resource for anyone starting out or even a seasoned veteran in the t-shirt biz. Binki yes my cost includes shirt. I have found white Hanes ts on sale for around $1 a shirt and with such a small print my ink cost will be around 25 to 50 cents a shirt.
I think you should sell them for $2 and I will buy 1000:rolleyes:

Seriously, $4-$6 would be reasonable. We have gotten some 4 color, 2 sided prints for less than $8 from our local printer.
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