# Contract Printing Pricing?



## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

I was recently asked by a middle man type of company that offers offset printing If I would consider offering them Contract Printing prices for my screen printing services as they have many customers who are Interested In tees and such. Now, I was able to figure out my printing prices per item but what I am trying to figure out is Screen Fees and such. They say the company they used to work with gave them free screens for jobs over 72pcs and $15. screens for anything under. Does this sound about right? 

Thank you for any help and or feedback as this "Contract Printing" is all new to me.


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## DonR (May 6, 2011)

I have seen all types of pricing structures. As the number of items being printed goes up the cost per impression generally goes down. So they are getting a quantity discount. If you want to give them an additional discount by not charging for the screens at some point, it should be reflected in how much the run charge drops at that point.

YOU SHOULD ALSO NOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOUR CUSTOMER TELLS YOU. This is especially true when it comes to pricing.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

Why are they asking you for contract pricing when they already have someone? They are not satisfied. Offer them quality, consistency, on time delivery then follow through. 

Pricing can be all over the board. When I was printing I had a retail price list and marked up my garments by 50%. My screens per color was $25. Wholesale pricing was 30% retail and my mark up was 25%, but most of the time they provided the garments. Screens were $20.

In the end you have to figure out what works for you, but don't let their past vendors dictate your pricing, there's a reason they are coming to you.


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## marzatplay (May 25, 2014)

ALWAYS charge for screens. I gave my contract printer a 500 piece order and guess what...HE CHARGED ME FOR SCREENS. Don't do it! Don't leave money on the table. The least I've ever paid for setup (film and screen) was $25.00 per colour. The most was $40.00. It all depends on the contract screen printer. I hope you are charging accordingly per piece as well. 

Want to know what other contract screen printers are charging? It's easy, get your friend or someone else to contact others and ask for their pricing. I have pricing from 7 different contract screen printers in my area.


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

Thank you for all the great feedback everyone! I attached a price sheet of what they told me their old screen printer was charging them. The reason they parted ways was because of turnaround times kept falling further and further behind.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

They obviously value turn around times, so much so, they are willing to change suppliers for it. Charge for your services accordingly.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Do you have automatic equipment?.....

If not, just get out and knock on doors.....Uou can make more money selling 1 order of tees than printing 4 or 5 contract jobs....If this guy is local, you can probably find the sames folks that he is finding....


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## logos unlimited (May 15, 2015)

JeridHill said:


> Why are they asking you for contract pricing when they already have someone? They are not satisfied. Offer them quality, consistency, on time delivery then follow through.
> 
> Pricing can be all over the board. When I was printing I had a retail price list and marked up my garments by 50%. My screens per color was $25. Wholesale pricing was 30% retail and my mark up was 25%, but most of the time they provided the garments. Screens were $20.
> 
> In the end you have to figure out what works for you, but don't let their past vendors dictate your pricing, there's a reason they are coming to you.


I agree with Jerid if you work on what he said you can not go wrong !


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## hoxie (Nov 3, 2012)

The contract printer I use charges $15 per screen with one free screen for each 150 garments ordered. 
so 300 prints = 2 free screens etc.

They also charge a $7.50 screen fee on re-orders.


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

We have 3 manuals, next step would be an auto but we have never had an order over 200pcs.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Basikboy said:


> We have 3 manuals, next step would be an auto but we have never had an order over 200pcs.


Are you using hired help to run those manuals?......If so they are probably costing you 2x or 3x more money the putting an auto in place...


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

royster13 said:


> Are you using hired help to run those manuals?......If so they are probably costing you 2x or 3x more money the putting an auto in place...


Yes, I have a couple printers.


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## fatfish2015seo (Jul 1, 2015)

Hi, You can charge for the T-shirt your Self. Charge for the single piece dependent on the how much time you taken? What type of material you taken? and put some Machine Charge, Design Charge, Ink Charge, Labour Charge. In case you difficult to charge in a single pieces, No problem. Count the T-shirts. Counts the expenditure how much you spend for the all t-shirts including labour and add some profit margin. Finally you have to decide How much profit you want per T-shirt. You can't add too much profit because some competitors in the markets are common.


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

Are there any contract printers that can tell me what they upcharge for Discharge Inks? I was also just contacted about some Nylon Drawstring bags and took the job at $2.80 each for 80 bags and I didn't know there is normally an upcharge for this as well. The whole screen charge is confusing as well as my new contract customer tells me he didn't pay for screens unless he had less then 72pcs. Is this standard? Lastly standard turnaround times. Usually I can get an order out in 3-5 business days but sometimes other jobs come up and it gets pushed back so what is a normal turnaround for contract printing? If he drops shirts off on a Monday and needs them by Friday is that normal? 

This whole contract pricing is a learning process for me and I appreciate any advice and or feedback. Thank you!


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## hoxie (Nov 3, 2012)

My contra printer charges me $50 extra for discharge. This is to cover the cost of the actual ink itself as they don't do a lot of discharge and don't want it sitting on the shelf for long periods without use. AverAge turn around is 7-10 days. This allows the customer a couple days to turn around the order and get it to the customer in time. I would prefer it as soon as I can get it but I understand that things are printed in the order they are received and some orders will take a bit longer than others. That being said I'm buying equipment and moving printing in house because my contract printer was taking too long on turn around especially for 1 color orders. I can do them in 2 days rather than 10...


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## bluemoon (Feb 8, 2009)

There are many pros and cons to contract printing. What you are getting here is just the tip of the iceberg!

Contract means you are getting paid for your work. So if you have to do it, you have to get paid for it! How you get paid for it is a different story. You can pad the prices above 72 pieces so you don't charge for the screens or you can keep your pricing and add the screens. . . your call.

the prices you are showing are pretty low and we would not touch any of it. I have seen lower, but that is by companies that are running 10,000+ shirts per day and have the economies of scale to help them. With three manuals you will not be making money on those jobs!

contract jobs require higher quality than custom (for the most part) as you are dealing with established corporations, schools and similar entities that have precise colors and design requirements. You will be matching Pantone, have lower margin for placement errors, less smudges or underbase showing is allowed. This in turn means printing slower and paying more attention. Retail printing is even more demanding than contract and if your customer is looking to put the garments in the store it brings the quality requirements to a whole new level!

Don't forget that you are now responsible for replacing the damaged garments and that you are not making money on the in the first place. So if you are getting paid $0.87 to print and your margin is 20%, you are making %0.17 per shirt. If you ruin one, it will now take many more prints to recover the cost of just one garment!

Contract printing is attractive as it brings continuous sales, but they come at a cost. If you have your processes in place it can work, but only of you really have your crap together. Otherwise you'll be losing money . . .

pierre


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

Does contract printing have a minimum amount of work companies bring you to warrant that pricing?


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## bluemoon (Feb 8, 2009)

just to be clear, we are a contract ONLY shop!

there are no minimums on total amount of work or qty per order.

We will print as low as one piece and have few customers that places just one order. All that said, we only take customers that are middle men and do not print for the end user under any circumstance. We actually constrict that even more and print ONLY for the companies that sell garments as their primary source of income. In other words we don't print for bars or schools looking to sell the shirts as that is not their primary business. We do sell to promotional product companies and companies with clothing lines. Our average customer does over $10K per year in printing so while there is no set minimum, most of the ppl we work with are pretty serious about what they do.

where are you located? If you are close to Cleveland, you can stop by our place and we can talk. Otherwise, I'll be in Long Beach and Atlantic City Iss/Impressions show teaching classes and will gladly talk to you there. . .

pierre


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

bluemoon said:


> just to be clear, we are a contract ONLY shop!
> 
> there are no minimums on total amount of work or qty per order.
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the great feedback Pierre. We are located in the Chicagoland Suburbs. Little bit aways from you. Maybe an ISS show one day. Thanks again!


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Basik you might want to check into Target Decorated Apparel


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

Setting up my own pricing spreadsheet now. Do you charge for 2 colors when concerning discharge printing on darks? I notice some other contract pricing sheets that specify dark shirts automatically require 2 ink colors but i know discharge lets say White is only 1 color and into the dryer. I have already added $0.50 for specialty ink. Thank you in advance for any feedback!


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## bluemoon (Feb 8, 2009)

Basikboy said:


> Setting up my own pricing spreadsheet now. Do you charge for 2 colors when concerning discharge printing on darks? I notice some other contract pricing sheets that specify dark shirts automatically require 2 ink colors but i know discharge lets say White is only 1 color and into the dryer. I have already added $0.50 for specialty ink. Thank you in advance for any feedback!


we charge for the work we do. So in case of discharge, it is only one color and is charged as such (with additional discharge fee). For plastisol on darks, if we need an underbase, we charge for it which brings the minimum color count to 2.

Ask our customers to pay for the work you do, no more, no less and you will always be able to explain your invoices when questioned.

pierre


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## lvprinting (Sep 23, 2014)

Basikboy said:


> Setting up my own pricing spreadsheet now. Do you charge for 2 colors when concerning discharge printing on darks? I notice some other contract pricing sheets that specify dark shirts automatically require 2 ink colors but i know discharge lets say White is only 1 color and into the dryer. I have already added $0.50 for specialty ink. Thank you in advance for any feedback!


I have a free pricing guide in my signature. Might help you out!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using T-Shirt Forums


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## casperboy77 (May 20, 2009)

I know that this is an old thread but I need some serious help with this contract printing issue. I had lots of request for contract printing pricing about 5 years ago. So I came up with pricing going by other shops pricing. I did charge for screens, etc.. But when you are only charging a few cents a print the setup charges are less and less significant over the amount of items. Here are the problems we ran into:

Contract customers would drop off their contract printing garments and want them the same week, they would demand them before my regular paying customers.

Contract customers don't give us very good artwork to deal with.

And the list went on and on. So 2 years ago we created a new price list with new polices and we mailed and emailed every one of out contract printing customers the new policies and prices. Here is our current pricing structure:

There is no more screen charges. It is $2.50 per print with a minimum of 12 garments and if it is a 2 color then the minimum is 24 garments. Any additional prints or locations need to be quoted. Our policy is also that we do NOT replace any garments that we damaged or ruined due to error or machine malfunction. We recommend that our contract printing customers supply extra garments just in case. Our policy also states that it is 2 weeks but could be longer depending on our volume and that they are to check first.

So here is all of the problems with our current policy: They are having items shipped right from SanMar to us and emailing us what to print and want the stuff the same week still. They are sending 8 piece and 6 piece orders. One guy dropped off a 3 piece order. They are ignoring the 12 piece minimum. They are not paying the $25.00 per hour artwork charges. During Christmas time we told these people three weeks. They were dropping their stuff off and asking about them the same week after I told them all to their faces three weeks!!! I'm done, I've had it with this crap and we're not making money from these people.

Here's the last problem I have: Let's say you are a normal customer that orders from me. We have all inclusive pricing. Let's say you were going to order a black shirt with a front print in white lettering. If you order 12-23 they are: $7.00, 24-99 are $6.75, 100-249 $6.50, etc... So if a business comes to me and wants to do contract pricing currently, they could go to a craft store or Wal-Mart and buy a t-shirt for $3.00, bring it to me and have me print it for $2.50 (per print) and they will only have paid $5.50 a shirt for a minimum of a dozen. This isn't right or fair to my regular customers and I sure they heck aren't making any money.

Sorry this is long, but I really need help. Most screen printing shops in my area have stopped doing contract printing. I heard about one guy that was quite far from me that charges $5.00 a print. Now $5.00 does seem better. What do you guys recommend? I don't want to keep mailing out policies to our customers every year or so because I don't want to look inconsistent or indecisive. I don't want to burn bridges. I also am torn as to just get rid of contract printing or keeping it going. Contract printing is probably the biggest headache in my business. Contract customers want their stuff pretty much the day they drop it off. They also have been dropping off mixes of polyester garments mixed with cotton garments and I have to change temps for the same orders... etc.. What a headache. Does anyone find this profitable? I appreciate any advice or help with this. We are located in Western NY where it is always cold and piles of snow. Our slow season (Jan-Early March) is very slow. But if need be, I'll get rid of contract printing.

Thanks!
-Jim


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## hoxie (Nov 3, 2012)

You should only do contract printing for re-sellers. People that have an actual verifiable re-sellers permit through their state. These are actual businesses that would be ordering blank garments from a large wholesale company. They should have one price list. Then all other clients should have a different more expensive pricing list. A third pricing list should be used for clients that are not contract clients, but want to bring their own garments. 

Specify in your terms for contract clients that it is first come first served for all orders. They're getting preferential treatment by receiving a discounted cost. As long as you're able to do turn around times under 10 biz days you're fine. Also put in your terms that any clients bringing their own shirt must be of the same brand and style, no mixing and matching of styles. That way they will all be the same 100% cotton garments rather that 24 cotton, 32 poly, etc.


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## casperboy77 (May 20, 2009)

hoxie said:


> You should only do contract printing for re-sellers. People that have an actual verifiable re-sellers permit through their state. These are actual businesses that would be ordering blank garments from a large wholesale company. They should have one price list. Then all other clients should have a different more expensive pricing list. A third pricing list should be used for clients that are not contract clients, but want to bring their own garments.
> 
> Specify in your terms for contract clients that it is first come first served for all orders. They're getting preferential treatment by receiving a discounted cost. As long as you're able to do turn around times under 10 biz days you're fine. Also put in your terms that any clients bringing their own shirt must be of the same brand and style, no mixing and matching of styles. That way they will all be the same 100% cotton garments rather that 24 cotton, 32 poly, etc.


My Contract Printing customers are all business (B2B), with supplied NYS Resale Certificates.

I like what you said about the no mixing and matching. That is great advice. This is a continuous problem for us.

However, I do still have problems with this whole contract printing thing. For example, there is a guy that owns an ad agency and he is one of my contract printing customers. We brings in hoodies that he buys from SanMar and has me print them and he sells them for $15.00. I usually sell hoodies around $20.00. I feel that I am underselling my work to these people. They literally sell to the customer and order from some of the same suppliers that I do and then they have me print the items and sell to the end customer cheaper than I do but I'm actually doing the work. 

In my situation, I make enough money to not be troubled with contract printing. The only reason that I haven't got rid of contract printing yet is because I'm one of the few in my area that still does it and it can be nice to fill in during slow times. It is a huge hassle though. My phone rings off the hook and the people that call and bug me the most are contract printing customers. Contract Printing customers are by far my most demanding customers and quite honestly they are a nuisance and they cause many interruptions throughout the day.

I hope that this doesn't sound bad or negative of me, but I'm just being honest with my experience. I've read on this forum that there are actually screen printing companies that only do contract printing. I don't see how it is profitable. I have overhead, supplies, labor. When I sell garments I also make money off from the items that I sell. With contract printing, they supply the garments and only pay for the prints. No matter how I price it, I'm loosing money contract printing. As I mentioned before, the $5.00 a print might be the way to go. But how do I tell those customers that I suddenly doubled the price?


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## hoxie (Nov 3, 2012)

It sounds to me like you've already made up your mind about the direction you want to go and are seeking validation from others here in the forums. Ultimately you need to do what is best for your business and make the decision that will keep your doors open, allow you to sleep at night and enjoy your life with the least amount of stress and headache. If they're undercutting you, raise your prices. If they stop coming to you because of this, it's even more incentive for you to get out of the contract printing game...

Good luck!


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## casperboy77 (May 20, 2009)

hoxie said:


> It sounds to me like you've already made up your mind about the direction you want to go and are seeking validation from others here in the forums. Ultimately you need to do what is best for your business and make the decision that will keep your doors open, allow you to sleep at night and enjoy your life with the least amount of stress and headache. If they're undercutting you, raise your prices. If they stop coming to you because of this, it's even more incentive for you to get out of the contract printing game...
> 
> Good luck!


Yes, you are right and that is very true. While pondering this tonight, I thought of maybe instead of just abruptly stopping contact printing that maybe I should give notification and end it in 3 months time. But, if I could make it profitable then it could be worth it. I see most screen printing companies list all of their charges and fees. In my area, that isn't really possible because everyone has gone to all inclusive pricing. I admit, it is simpler. So in my situation, I'm thinking $5.00 a print up to two color, minimum 24 pieces. I guess why I came to ask for help on here is because I really would like to know what other people are doing and how it is profitable for them. For me it is a waste of our time and resources (at the moment). I don't like turning anyone away that walks through my door. But this contact printing has been ridiculous and it is almost like other companies are trying to tell me how to run my business and flat out ignore our policies and the times that we give them. I'm pretty sturn and stick to my policies and don't let myself get walked on or bullied. But these contact customers just go from bringing stuff in to just having stuff shipped directly to me and later emailing what they want and that they need the stuff right away. Like I said before, they are ignoring my minimum policy and usually there are mixes of garments. I have about 6 of these customers all doing this continually. It is so hard to explain but I'm not making my main money at this, I would rather sell my products in the time that I am wasting with contact printing but I have a lot if continuous volume of contact printing. So, yes I want to get out of contact printing but I feel that I shouldn't turn that much away. If I had another press and another person... But even still.


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## hoxie (Nov 3, 2012)

It's your business not theirs, right? So be firm and stick to your guns, and your policies. Send out an email to all your contract clients, re-stating your terms, turnaround times and your new pricing structure. Make it VERY clear that clients MUST have an order placed with you prior to any garments being delivered. Any items delivered to your store without an active invoice will be denyed and returned to sender, at their cost, and you won't be held liable. Sounds to me like it's time to look at your pricing structure to prevent undercutting by your clients as much as you can, and to stop letting your clients walk all over you. I'd rather have a one good client, than 10 bad ones, but that's me. 

Hopefully some contract printers will speak up and give you some insight into how they run their operation.


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## ultraprintworks (Mar 2, 2015)

We charge more for screens for contract printing. Margins are a lot smaller so it's an easy way to mark up our work. Direct to customer screens - $15 for broker / contract printing - $25 per screen. Print prices are so low it evens it out.


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## TimZ (Jan 20, 2015)

fatfish2015seo said:


> Hi, You can charge for the T-shirt your Self. Charge for the single piece dependent on the how much time you taken? What type of material you taken? and put some Machine Charge, Design Charge, Ink Charge, Labour Charge. In case you difficult to charge in a single pieces, No problem. Count the T-shirts. Counts the expenditure how much you spend for the all t-shirts including labour and add some profit margin. Finally you have to decide How much profit you want per T-shirt. You can't add too much profit because some competitors in the markets are common.


I would not listen to any advise from "fatfish"!! The image they attached "make your mark" was stolen art from deviant art user -nabafied-.


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## Kindred427 (Mar 16, 2013)

I would say it all depends on the volume. We are a 70% contract printer. This is down from 95% as we have worked to increase direct sales. But contract work is extremely profitable if you have the right people,they are motivated, and minimize mistakes.


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## Basikboy (Aug 28, 2007)

How much work would have to be brought in to warrant contract pricing?


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