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Options other than CafePress?
Nightslyr
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have a couple T-shirt/sweatshirt/bumper sticker ideas I want to create and sell online. They're products tied into a site I'm developing. I know that CafePress is a solution, but are there other alternatives? I'm trying to figure out the best cost/profit ratio.
Nightslyr on
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USA. NH, to be more specific.
www.bigfrog.com/
They're franchise outfits, and there isn't one in NH, but they've got one in PA and I'm sure there's a DTG (direct to garment) printer somewhere in NH. EDIT: Here's one in Derry http://www.left-tees.com/ Mine required me to have a state sales tax ID for wholesale pricing but once I got that (it's free, and you have to pay taxes anyway) I got my shirts for about $10 a piece or less depending on how many I buy and they sell for about $20. They also do coffee mugs and mouse pads and sweatshirts and hoodies and messenger bags.
For the bumper stickers, those are pretty cheap. I'd just look at a fed-ex or staples/depot/max and buy in bulk rather than use cafe press.
If you do DTG, I highly recommend using a place you can walk into, get a sample made, and check out the quality. Make sure they're using either Fruit of the Loom or at least Gildan for their products. I've had the best luck with those two, and I'm not a huge fan of American Apparel.
... man, I'm a PITA, huh?
I am appreciative of your suggestions. They're just sort of the last way I'd go about it, due to my actual living/working conditions at the moment.
Big Frog takes care of all that for me. They set up an online storefront, fullfill and ship orders, and ship the packages. I usually get stuff printed in short runs for conventions and stuff and they take care of the online side.
Although...
I'm probably going to ditch that in favor of doing it all in house in the next year or two when we start (hopefully) selling more merch. I don't mind them running things when it's a pro-am hobby at this point and I'm selling less than 100 products a year, but that number is climbing and I can cut a lot of costs doing it myself.
If you have to have whites in your design you'd be looking more into screenprinting probably to get the most bang for your buck. Shirts usually run about 4-8 dollars a piece depending on how many you buy at a time, but yeah, you're going to have to handle shipping them yourself.
That's easy though dude. Endicia.com can set you up with a label maker and pre paid postage for a low monthly rate, and you can grab a bunch of usps flat rate boxes, do all of it at your house, drop them off at the post office (without waiting in any lines) every week or so and never have to worry about it.
http://www.zazzle.com/