# Need help pricing an order.



## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

I have a client who wants to start an account with us.

He has his own productions company and he would be looking to buying an initial 100 t-shirt with a look to ordering in 500 quantities at a go.

He has very specific requests. Mainly being that he 100% wants it as a vinyl transfer going onto a polo tee.

Now, I have absolutely no idea how to price this. I have mainly been doing 1 offs, with 90% of my work coming from the childrens/babies sector.

For such big orders I know that screen printing would be best but he is adamant that he wants a transfer. Negative experience with screen printing maybe...?

I could really do with some help here.

white polo tee, black vinyl.

Oh I must add, he would be selling them on at charity events, promotional events and movie premiers etc along with other merchandise.

Kind regards
Thomas.


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## bpfohler (Jun 7, 2009)

Price it as 100pcs. Until he actually places the order for 500 I wouldn't give any additional discounts


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

In that situation I would add $2 to your cost of production/shirt. It's simple for you to calculate and affordable for the client. 

We normally add $5 to our cost of production for everything bulk, but we offer all kinds of complimentary stuff to go with it to make it seem like it's a good deal. If you can get away with that, then increase by $5.


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## jennGO (Mar 11, 2014)

[MEDIA][/MEDIA]


Quartier said:


> In that situation I would add $2 to your cost of production/shirt. It's simple for you to calculate and affordable for the client.
> 
> We normally add $5 to our cost of production for everything bulk, but we offer all kinds of complimentary stuff to go with it to make it seem like it's a good deal. If you can get away with that, then increase by $5.


You include labor in your cost I presume?
Weeding the vinyl for these 100 polos sounds like torture. Good luck to the OP


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## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

Thank you all for your answers.

Yeah the weeding will definitely be torture but what can you do....lol

Pay 1/2 up front or get all the cash first?


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

Very difficult one to price. Most of us wouldn't offer 100 pieces by cut vinyl, so our pricing scale doesn't go down that far. There is a limit to how much quantity discount you can offer - each shirt will take as long as the previous one. The only scope you have is that the unit cost of 100 shirts will be less than the cost of singles.

Unless the design is a very simple one, then 100 shirts will take you the best part of a day to weed and press. My 'best price' for cut vinyl kicks in at 10 pieces - anything over 20 pieces I usually screen print. If the customer insists on vinyl the only further discount I offer is based on the volume price of the blank garment.

If the customer is happy with white polo shirts, why not push him towards sublimation? There are some nice 100% poly polo's around, and you could probably 'sell' him on the ability to have multi coloured prints.
The profit made on a 100 shirt order will buy you a nice sublimation set-up. A new Epson 1500w is less than £200, and a ciss full of sublimation ink is about £100.


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## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

Pat, 

What kind of price would I be looking to charge per piece for a 100 piece sublimation order if I were able to push him in that direction?


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

MetroMan said:


> Pat,
> 
> What kind of price would I be looking to charge per piece for a 100 piece sublimation order if I were able to push him in that direction?


If the customer still only wanted a black print, it would be difficult to justify much more than you would charge for a vinyl print, but without the weeding. The sublimation would primarily be for your convenience.

If you could sell him up to a multi colour print, then the world is your oyster. Maybe an _extra _£1-£2 for a pocket size logo, an extra £2-£3 for an A4, more for larger prints. That is on top of what you would have charged for vinyl, with less work.

Don't forget that you will be limited to white polyester garments.


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## bpfohler (Jun 7, 2009)

MetroMan said:


> Pat,
> 
> What kind of price would I be looking to charge per piece for a 100 piece sublimation order if I were able to push him in that direction?


When we have large orders of sublimation we buy the $0.99 prints from Dave at skmfg.com, he's a member here and we've bought plenty from him. At $0.99 per print you can off full color soft hand very durable prints.


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

jennGO said:


> You include labor in your cost I presume?
> Weeding the vinyl for these 100 polos sounds like torture. Good luck to the OP


Yeah, all the physical things are included in that cost. We put the complimentary services in the $2-5 add on, so we might actually make $.3-3.5/shirt, but we only sell in bulk, so it's not so bad.


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

MetroMan said:


> Pay 1/2 up front or get all the cash first?


If you don't fully trust each other, get half up-front.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

We don't like it when the client tells us how to do our job. Get a price from stahls and double it. Get all of the money up front. 

The 500 order is just a carrot. Until you get that order it is a lie. 

Polos will be a pita. You will need .piow to do them without breaking the buttons 

Good.luck


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## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

Ok good news, I managed to convince him to go for sublimation. 

I am slightly concerned about the costs of production, in terms of ink. 

Could I make enough money to cover the costs of setting up a sublimation side of the business?

Kind Regards
MetroMan


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## PatWibble (Mar 7, 2014)

MetroMan said:


> Ok good news, I managed to convince him to go for sublimation.
> 
> I am slightly concerned about the costs of production, in terms of ink.
> 
> ...



The cheapest I have found a new Epson 1500w for is £175 online (your-i-t.com). There are several others under £200. Alternatively, Ink Express in Wolverhampton will sell you an Epson 1500w + empty Ciss for £240. They can sell you the Ink for £75 ( 6 x 100ml Inktec sublinova smart).
City Ink Express charge £115 for ciss and 600ml of ink. They will include a free custom ICC profile.

You are looking for about £300 total for the printer and Ink. You should be able to make most of that on a 100 polo order.

Ink is only expensive if you go down the Ricoh/Virtuoso route, and get tied into sawgrass inks.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

Are these 100% poly shirts? If not you may not like the results.


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## alrozac (Dec 20, 2012)

I know I'm a little late into this conversation, but when we have a customer that dangles a 500 shirt order in front of our face and only starts with 100, no matter what the print type, we offer them what we call a tab system. First order 100 shirts, we charge 100 shirt price. Then every shirt over that number ordered gets added to the first order. Must all be done within 12 months or goes back to zero quantity pricing. 

For example: first order 100 shirts = 100 shirt price, second order 100 shirt = 200 shirt price on second order and so on. If he passes first order date by 12 months or more price quantity starts over. 

Just tell him before starting any order and make sure it is clear. We have customers that try that high quantity stunt on a regular basis. Very few actually make it to the quantity that they promised.


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## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

Little update on the situation.

He has brought me a new logo that his "graphic designer friend" ahem, has produced for him. I must say that this is a terrible logo.

It looks at though he has written some text, cropped a small section of an image and enlarged it to his required size. This is now heavily over pixelated. It does not look pretty.

There is so much wrong with it yet he wants a sample. 

He wants to go with the vinyl now. 

Stuck for words to be honest.


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## Quartier (Apr 29, 2014)

MetroMan said:


> Little update on the situation.
> 
> He has brought me a new logo that his "graphic designer friend" ahem, has produced for him. I must say that this is a terrible logo.
> 
> ...


Does he want an exact replica or are you allowed to make it look good?


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## MetroMan (Sep 7, 2014)

Well I am no expect with graphics but i guess all i can do is vectorise it and see how it comes out. 

Ah what the heck, he is the logo.

He would like it pocket sized.


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## Biverson (Oct 20, 2014)

MetroMan said:


> Well I am no expect with graphics but i guess all i can do is vectorise it and see how it comes out.
> 
> Ah what the heck, he is the logo.
> 
> He would like it pocket sized.


If you have that be 3.5" - 4" wide you should be fine except for the shadow on the smaller text will give you trouble though. I'd tell the client it needs to be taken out for vinyl. Weeding that design should be easy too. You can probably cut, weed, and press 100 in around 3 - 4 hours. Just make sure your markup covers your hourly overhead and then some. You could also charge them an art fee if you have to vectorize it. Those clippers are definitely a copy and paste. 

Crazy he doesn't want it screen printed, especially if it's on a white shirt. Remember, you can reject jobs if its their way or the highway.

Attached is a shirt I did last Friday with Stahl's fashion film. It did really well with the detail. Had to recut about 2 letters per cut. Was for a friend tho.


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## ScreenplayBRF (Nov 17, 2015)

We do these every day. We price them by the size of the image and then by the quantity. If the image is 4x4 the price is $1.30/transfer, if it is 6x6 it is $1.87/transfer.


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