# What are the Most Popular/Best Selling Dye Sub Items/Products that Customers/Clients order? Who are the big customers?



## engraver99 (Jul 27, 2009)

I currently have a number of product lines due to the type of work I do and they all kind of follow similar methods. I do High Speed Hand Engraving for Guns, Knives, Glass, etc. Sand Carving for Tombstones, Pet Memorials, Rock Carvings, etc. I also do Vinyl Signs, Decals for Sporting Goods and Auto Shops, Store fronts, etc. I recently added screen printing for signs and shirts, as well as heat pressing vinyl for garments.

Anyway....I have an Epson 1400 I bought to do screen printing but find that my current used 1400 with Claria Inks is dark enough to make my film positives. Therefore, the new one is sitting idle in the box. I was gonna add a CIS to it to use for all the positives/negatives I need. Now I'm wondering if I should offer sublimation as part of my lines.

I'm having a hard time justifying the ink conversion to do mugs, mouse pads (i havent used them in years), tiles, and photo type shirts.

I know I nust be missing something, but what are your guys biggest markets? Is this more geared for Personal type gifts (kids photo on something for grandma), or is there a big market out there geared to business's (Citicorp buy 1,000,000 mugs with there logo on it?).

I don't know if I'm asking it right or not, but trying to find what the core business is Novelty Items?..Business Items? How are profit Margins?
What type of designs are mostly used photo's or business type artwork (logos & Text)?

Maybe a better way to ask is...who is the core customer for sub xfer items?

thx

Kevin


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## greyhorsewoman (Jul 19, 2007)

For me, my best sublimated sellers are keytags, bagtags, cutting boards, garden flags and funny aluminum signs (for dog owners). Since I travel, I look for things that pack down without taking too much space. We did carry stainless steel coffee mugs and water bottles for awhile and they sold decently ... just took too much space for me. 

License plates and plate holders often do well. Tiles are popular and can made in several sizes and used in a variety of items. There are quite a list of items besides shirts that can be done with sublimation.


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

My suggestion for anyone considering starting out is to concentrate on what they know and have a a passion for including hobbies. You need a foundation to grow. Simply creating products and a website will get you nothing but a black hole to drop money into. For us it was paintball. Knew the industry, had professional contacts and had a passion for the sport. Now paintball makes up less then 1/2 our business but without that foundation we would have never succeeded.


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## Red Leaf (Feb 2, 2011)

Riderz Ready, good advice!


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## EddieM (Jun 29, 2009)

I would be careful with a lot of dye sub items we picked up a lot of items at first and i still have most of it all still packed in boxs we never sold.

Many do to the fact that the blanks cost to much to make much money on.

Here in the town i now live it we have lots of stores and so called art or craft centers selling custom and pre-set items and most everything is selling for less then what it would cost me to even buy a dye sub blank for so i would have no chance in selling any.

People are selling t-shirts for the same cost of a dye sub blank shirt some places sell T shirts for 3 for $9 now they are one colors basic shirts but that is what is selling here.

Seems like every place in town here can make custom mugs down to the point of no money being made on them.

Metal signs we must have 20 places in town that all sell the metal or tin signs for as low as $7.99 around a 12x24 or so sign size.. I can not buy a dye sub sign blank for the low.

So i would advise before you buy a bunch of stuff make sure you can sell it fist and make something on it.

If you even get a chance go to a gift show the place store buy all the items they sell all year and you will be amazing at how low of a price you can buy stuff for by just buying a 12 at a time.
I was thinking we would sell a lot of tiles with artwork or images on them but even that at a gift show you can buy it all ready made with some of the best artwork or images all ready on it for much less then you can make it for in house.

The only thing we sold and made some money on was metal photos i had a photography business for 15 years and i was selling metal prints to my customers of them self and their family that did sell. We sold the photography business and now i still have unopened boxes of metal blanks i am slowly using for art for around the house.

All this being done i am investing a large amount of money back into dye sub to go larger with larger printer and heat press for some new products i have developed not relying on buying blanks that cost a lot. This is a risk i am taking and i am hoping for the best but i am giving it two years to get going and fully up and running i am not in a rush i have other income but hope over time this takes off doing well.
Have a lot of websites to work on and designs to make and other stuff to work out. We will start buy selling in some of the local stores in my area you can rent booth space and sell your goods.


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