# Is a POD right for me?



## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

So, I tried to post this before - idk what happened to it since it took me a while to write it, oh well.

I am a poor college student who just created a very fast growing website and am finally making good ad revenue (thank god) and I always had the idea of expanding and adding an online store to the site.

My thought was to use a POD to do this, since I do not have very much up-front money to work with, and then eventually break off if revenue is good enough and start doing it the hard (but more profitable) way.

With that said I have already looked at reviews and all of that lovely stuff about the major PODs (CafePress, Zazzle and Printfection - the rest I know little about).

The problem is, none have what I really want in a POD - which is sad. I have the following list I am trying to fullfill - can anyone point me in the right direction, or what should I even do?

* I like Zazzle because of the number of products they have available, the control quality of the shirt is better than CafePress (on average, so it has been said) and it is free. I heard Printfection has good quality too. Quality is a must, as everyone will agree for any brand to actually live.

* I dislike CafePress because of the monthly fees and stuff of that sort - so they are out as I can easily replace them with another provider, they don't have anything special to offer.

* I dislike Printfection because of their prices! My demographic is college students, students who can't spend $22+ on a SIMPLE colored t-shirt!

* I want a FULL API. I do not want to just do some CSS / HTML editing. I am a web designer, I want to showcase that ability and make the shop shine. So, what I would love to do is just drop the whole front-end of the POD, and create my own front-end system and then just drop in the payment processing and have the POD take control of that (if that makes sense to everyone else). I know that Zazzle doesn't do this, neither would CafePress. I did not go in depth with Printfection but it does look like they allow this?

I did like that Printfection was also a White Label - makes it seem like my store is more professional.

Though anyways, anyone have any recommendations? All help is appreciated!


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## Skinbus (Jul 2, 2007)

Don't expect to make much money with any of them. Many products are too expensive, leaving little room for your royalty markup. Also, with one of them, their guaranteed payment to you is 10%, which isn't much for the time & effort spent on doing the design. If all you want is 10%, you're in business.


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## saucewear (Mar 2, 2009)

PODs are tough, as you are pretty limited. Have you looked into skreened, spreadshirt or redbubble? 

If you're making pretty good ad revenue, I suggest building your shop yourself (you can always use big cartel or storenvy) and using your ad revenue to print up some inventory. You don't HAVE to print up 100s of each design. Then launch your shop when you have all that together. 

Otherwise use the POD and just suck up the fact that there are limits. 

That's just my 2 cents


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## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

Yea u guys are right it is hard and limited and not that much profit can be made. When I am to start buying my own shirts, like should I open the online store and start out.with back orders? What is my best route were, even with the ad revenue, I do not have a lot of up front money to spend.

I have heard a few of those PODs I listed, just never loomed into them so ill read up more. In regards to storenvy and the big cartel, what are those? Can u give me more information on them?


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## saucewear (Mar 2, 2009)

Best bet is to just look into them, they're not PODs but it's an easy way to set up your shop. 

I wouldn't do your shirts on backorder. If I were shopping for shirts and found a new brand online just taking pre-orders, I'd be turned off a bit. 

I'd just try and save up (if you don't want to use a POD) and launch when you have inventory.

Otherwise, like I said, use a POD.


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## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

I took a look at all three providers (as well as the management tools. Big Cartel looks great, but I am contemplating that once I get started big time to do Big Cartel or Shopify).

In regards to the POD's, I have choose Spreadshirt - anyone have any info on the quality of the shirts? I choose them because their pricing is very fare (which allows me to mark up one of my designs close to 1/3 the price! I heard the quality was good (online search) as well as their API looks exactly like what I want. Thank you for pointing them out to me!


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## saucewear (Mar 2, 2009)

You're welcome, best of luck! I have a few tees from spreadshirt that are American Apparel. You must be able to select tees when you set it up.


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## Tshirtgang (Dec 28, 2010)

You may not make as high $ margins with using a POD company but it lets you get started without a financial investment.

In what other industry can you have the chance to open up a business and offer your products without having to invest anything?

I woud think for anyone starting a t shirt business going with a POD service at first would be a no brainer. If that goes well you can then look into other options such as silkscreening and carrying inventory.


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## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

Agreed, also this will test your design abilities - since that is what always sells the shirt anyways. This could also test your marketing abilities as well. Lets hope this goes well for me, I have a few shirts that are pretty funny and very targeted towards my demographic.

Now all I need to do is uploads and finish building the store based off of their API.


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## NPope13 (Jan 28, 2012)

If you still aren't sold on the POD and need a way to get start up costs, you can always try Kickstarter. If you have a good following online and they are willing to help you out it could cover the costs of your store pretty easily. (kickstarter.com)


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## JamesD31 (Jan 14, 2012)

I'll be sure to look up Kickstarter.com and see if the route I am going is a smart one or not - thanks for pointing that out!


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