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Whats a good price to charge for screen printing 500 shirts?

15K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  motser909  
#1 ·
I have someone that wants around 500 shirts screen printed what would be a fair price to charge per shirt?
 
#9 ·
Are you guys quoting just a print or the garment included? I charge $7.50 per black shirt (Gildan 2000), all day long. For 500 shirts the lowest I would go is $6.50 for black. Maybe it is just my area. I'm in Western NY where the snow banks are taller then our houses. People say we have great prices. We often check our competitor's prices and keep ours lower. But $3.50-$5.00 a shirt.... wow.

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#10 ·
if you go to Custom Screen Print T-Shirts and More from Robison Art and use the price quote tool then remove 25% off that quote you can use that free tool to quote just about any quantity and color combination and still be competitive.
the tool will allow you to separate the goods price from the printing to adjust for cost of goods variations. Thats my web site and I use it every day for quoting jobs. Good Luck! We also do contract printing for anyone who needs prints with more colors than they themselves can print just FYI.

David
 
#11 ·
$3.50 for whites is OK, you could get $4 without a problem, but $4 for blacks is way too cheap.
The shirts cost more than .50 between the whites and blacks, and they take way longer to print.
$5 to 6 should win the bid.
Don't sell too cheap, don't loose money, don't do the work for free!
I think the goal should be to make as much money as you can and have a happy customer, and get repeat business and stay in business.
Good luck.
Steve
 
#12 ·
Thanks everyone, honestly I'm just a beginner with a bunch of motivation and appreciation for help from others before me. I invested in a Ranar 6 color 4 station and I'm working on starting my own brand and print shirts for other people too. I have a friend that has been in the screen printing industry for 5 years but he took a break from selling shirts due to some family issues with someone becoming very ill. He was paying someone to print 500 to 1000 shirts every month and selling them all in a month. He is now ready to start up again, but he has offered to start paying me to start printing all his stuff that way he wont have to travel so far anymore and at the same time put some extra cash in my pocket, he was going all the way to Malibu to get his shirts printed, and him and I both live in Pomona so he was driving about 3 hours, there and back, just to get his shirts printed. He told me he was paying around $2 for his people in Malibu to print on his shirts... so that is why I posted my thread because If i do take the job this will be my first time printing for someone and I want to make sure I have the information and requirements I need to do the job and be successful and keep my friend happy!
Again thanks for the information everyone has provided already!!
God bless everyone!
 
#14 ·
As Steve said, what you just referred to is contract printing. I can can tell you what I charge:

$20.00 per screen setup.
$0.55 per hit. (So if it is 2 color back that is $1.10 per shirt or single color front single color back, or a 3 color would be $1.65 per shirt, etc...).

I keep a very simple price structure. I don't usually charge for color changes but most places do. Also my policyis that I do NOT replace customer supplied garments if there is an error or if the machine ruins it. Some people replace garments and some don't, so you will want to make sure your customers know this right from the get go. Also, get deposits! I'll be honest, I try to keep away from contact printing. I don't like being the middle man.

-Jim

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#13 ·
This is a good way to get into the business.
A steady customer is great.

In setting the prices, you kind of left out some important information on your bid.
This is a contract printing job and this will be reprinted every month

Both of these make a difference in the prices.

I have 3 basic price structures for my business.
Regular customers,
Special customers, like schools, I charge less to.
Contract Printing

With the right bidding software, it's easy to setup the different price structures.
Special customers I charge less commission and mark the shirts up less
Contract printing, I don't charge any commission, (they are my salesperson)

Hope this helps and good luck doing great work.
Steve