I was asked to quote 24 tie dye shirt2 with one color front and one color back. The shirt itself costs me $6.72 (w/o shipping) and the front was $2.47 and the back $2.47, so my cost was $11.66 w/out shipping. I quoted them $18. A local screen printing company quoted them $13. Is it that much cheaper to screen print? I feel like I can't be competitive sometimes.
Pricing - Tie Dye
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I just checked my pricing for the job you described and I would be at just about the same cost as you...about $11.60 if I had used transfers. But, if I quoted that job screenprinting I would have quoted between $13 and $14 because of the tie dye shirts. Depending on the size of the designs, you might have saved a little if you were able to gang the transfers on one sheet but at low quantities you don't usually save alot because the pricing is so expensive at the lower quantites. Ganging would mean you had to use the 12 sheet pricing.
This is the struggle I've had for a long time.....you just can't compete with direct screenprinting in most cases. However, somewhere on here I read something that made alot of sense and that is to not try to compete on price but on quality and delivery. Many transfer houses such as Transfer Express, Versatranz, etc. can turnaround transfers within days which allows you to offer quick turnaround times as a competitive advantage. However, I've started to see alot of screenrprint shops offering 7 days or less turnarounds.
I offer both services and basically use transfers for larger runs where my manual setup is less efficient. I can turnaround smaller jobs pretty quick and especially 1 color jobs. Or, if I am backed up with orders, I'll offer transfers and have somebody press them onto the shirts while I am busy screenprinting.
This is the struggle I've had for a long time.....you just can't compete with direct screenprinting in most cases. However, somewhere on here I read something that made alot of sense and that is to not try to compete on price but on quality and delivery. Many transfer houses such as Transfer Express, Versatranz, etc. can turnaround transfers within days which allows you to offer quick turnaround times as a competitive advantage. However, I've started to see alot of screenrprint shops offering 7 days or less turnarounds.
I offer both services and basically use transfers for larger runs where my manual setup is less efficient. I can turnaround smaller jobs pretty quick and especially 1 color jobs. Or, if I am backed up with orders, I'll offer transfers and have somebody press them onto the shirts while I am busy screenprinting.
If the screen printer wants to do the job for nothing then let them have it. I guess screen printing is cheap if you don't take what you're using or your time into consideration. A lot of people don't and so they'll do anything to get business like this. Me, I'd rather not do the job if it's not paying me for time.
You can shave at least a $1 off your one color transfer by going with F&M .15 transfers. I hate pricing more than one color because it's so much more.
You can shave at least a $1 off your one color transfer by going with F&M .15 transfers. I hate pricing more than one color because it's so much more.
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I don't agree with this statement....
I would have made $72 in profit for about 1 hour of work...which would include prepping the screens.....I can eat pretty good on that kind of $$.
But again....direct screen printing will ALMOST always be cheaper than buying transfers. However, if I were starting over, there is a strong possibility that I would change my biz model up a bit and use transfers instead. There are many advantages to using them and there are many people who use them quite successfully for screen printed (indirect) designs.
Duh, nevermind. I wasn't taking into consideration that the SP get's to keep what this guy was paying for transfers. Shipping on these quantities is what eats me up. Shipping for the shirts AND the transfers. Yeah, I'd take the job for $72, even for 2hours worth of work which is about what it would be for me on transfers because I'm not so good on the artwork side. I'm eventually going to have to look into a screen printing setup even a small one just to make my own transfers.
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