# pricing DTG orders



## etched in stone (Apr 10, 2007)

Hi! I was wondering how you price shirts printed on a dtg machine? Would you charge the same as screen printed items? I know the image size has alot to do with the ink usage, but how do I figure this out??? Do you charge different prices for smaller orders than for larger orders? The usage, etc. is the same. Not sure how to do this. Thanks!


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

This is a question that only you can answer. We do not know what your overhead is. We do not know what type of wage you are willing to work for. Retail, wholesale, contract??? So much more goes into pricing a shirt than just cost of goods.


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## etched in stone (Apr 10, 2007)

Good point. Hm.........


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## Vtec44 (Apr 24, 2006)

Generally speaking...

Per shirt cost + ink cost/pretreatment cost + labor + overhead.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Labor and overhead can come in 2 flavors, fixed and variable. Fixed costs are weekly/monthly salaries, direct labor, insurance, rent, etc. Variables are hourly wages (non-direct labor), utilities, marketing/advertising.

Given all of this you could pre-allocate those costs to the job.

The Gross is going to be selling price - materials/direct labor = gross profit. 

If you want to however, you can establish an indirect % for each job and price it out that way. Each job can get a % of the overhead or each piece can get it. With the first way, your smaller orders subsidize your larger orders and with the per piece pricing your larger orders will subsidize your smaller orders. If you average 20 jobs a month then each job could get 5% of your indirect expenses. If you monthly indirect is $2000 then each job would get a $100 'surcharge' added to it. You can pass this along to the customer or not. If you did it by each, and you had 2000 items ordered per month then each item would get a $1 'surcharge'. 

Make sense?

If it seems like too much work, just figure the overhead per month and know that you need enough profit to cover it and also to make your target margins.


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## Printzilla (Mar 22, 2007)

Or you could just figure all of your fixed expenses (including your salary, equipment upgrade costs, fixed repair budget, etc...), closely estimate non fixed expenses, and then divide that number by monthly hours your shop is open. that gives you what you must make per hour. Take that number and divide it by how long it takes you to complete job and you will have the number you need in profit per item. Add the profit to actual cost of goods. This is how we price everything.

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE ONLY TO SHOW FUNCTION!! NOT REAL NUMBERS!!

10,000 fixed expenses
2,000 variable expenses

12,000/200 hrs per month = 60 per hour.

Say we can do 12 white shirts per hour. The MINIMUM we need is $5.00 profit per shirt. So we have 1.65 in cost plus $5.00 in profit...

$6.65 would be worst case scenario, and that is assuming you are busy all 200 hours, and that you are not working on something else at the same time, to offset the hourly rate.

This a a very simplified analysis. Costing and pricing are always fluid and changing. Some people would never survive at that price, some shops would thrive.


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## etched in stone (Apr 10, 2007)

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it!


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## moxiesparadox (Apr 4, 2007)

Another thing to consider is to price based on what the market will bear. 

If you have really unique designs or can market your product as a designer item (desirable to celebs) you can price your product far above a formula of (costs + % profit margin).

Good luck


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## TexasXpress (Jun 18, 2007)

So, anyone willing to offer what you price your white dtg t-shirts at, on average? Do you sell the majority of yours at the same rate? Say, $15 per shirt? Do you give quantity discounts or not? Of course custom design will incur a fee.....

Thanks for your input!


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## etched in stone (Apr 10, 2007)

That's just it. I'm not sure what to price for one, 12, 24, etc. Should I price these shirts the same as screen printed (number of colors and shirts, etc.)? I also do alot of contract work so I'm not sure what to charge for that. Proably more than I am!!! Thanks for your input! I appreciate it.


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## dodank (May 4, 2007)

etched in stone said:


> That's just it. I'm not sure what to price for one, 12, 24, etc. Should I price these shirts the same as screen printed (number of colors and shirts, etc.)? I also do alot of contract work so I'm not sure what to charge for that. Proably more than I am!!! Thanks for your input! I appreciate it.


here's dodank

this is what i did. first i research other printers on line doing dtg.
then i average the lowest price with the highest price and jump in between.
my work is local so i also calculated their shipping cost to get my median.
just look at their price table. compare your cost to theirs and balance it within your markets meaning if u sell on line u will have to come strong. a little cheaper by pennies. if u sell local u it's a win win situation all u have to do is go ten percent less than the online's shipping cost. example 40 shirts 348.00 14.00 to ship. total= 362.00. u would do urs at 352.00 if local and match thier price by a few dollars less on shipping cost if u have too.
let me know how this works. it has never fell me yet. i have been in the printing business over 15 years and this sysem has not fell me yet. 
thanx and good luck.

ps. don't cheat your self but make a dollar more than u had.


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## TexasXpress (Jun 18, 2007)

Very good, sounds like sound advice. Thanks for the guidelines, that definitely helps with somewhere for me to start. Good luck Etched in Stone!


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## dodank (May 4, 2007)

TexasXpress said:


> Very good, sounds like sound advice. Thanks for the guidelines, that definitely helps with somewhere for me to start. Good luck Etched in Stone!


 
it will help i promised. people don't like to really talk prices but i don't mind there's enough business for everybody.

good luck and if u need anymore help.
just holla.


ps. no offense to anyone just lending a helping hand every body got help from some body.


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## thegzone (May 6, 2007)

Hi etched in stone, we all wrestle the that question when we 1st start to print, and for the most, we 1st take a look at who is printing with one of these DTH printers and try to see what they are pricing their shirt at, 2nd, we try to see the different in pricing with DTG printers and screen printers, this should help boil down most of you pricing questions, after that, you start playing the pricing game and see how high you can price you work before you have to lower you prices some, Trust me, it won't take you long to get your prices set. There are some of us who has posted our prices on our website and this also could help once you know what your local area can support.
Good luck and have a good print day, Richard


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## etched in stone (Apr 10, 2007)

Very helpful! Thanks!


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