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Guest manwayvan

How are you all making money with shirts? I have been looking at getting into tshirts as a hobby and hoping to go full time and maybe make my own line some time...But besides that I have been pricing vinyl,shirts, and presses. Well lets say for a hobby type heat press(This is just for instructional purposes) 15 x 15 Clamshell Heat Press from UScutter for $299.99, then you buy the siser easyweed 15" x 5 yards for $35.13 for 1 color(also from uscutter), then you buy the shirts (Price from Jiffy) Gildan 5.3oz 100 cotton white for $1.76. Then you have shipping and taxes on all of this so lets say $30 i.e. Alright so now your at $366.68 and Im sure since I am really new to this that I have forgotten some supplies. Well if your selling your shirts for 10 to 20 dollars I just dont see how the profit is large enough to deal with..I know that the shirts are bought in bulk but the price of vinyl is crazy high when I can get 4 rolls of 24" 10' vinyl for 39.00 shipped. I guess its just my unknowing but can you really get enough transfers from 5 yards to offset the cost and make some money? Any info would be greatly appreciated

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Guest manwayvan

I had this same thought when it came to buyin my cutter and lord knows I have more than paid for it 10 fold with the help of everyone on this forum..I guess I have buyers remorse when it comes to the unknown on this stuff..I want to get into doin shirts and possibly koozies and stuff that appeals to fourwheeling coalmining communities since thats my primary market.

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Heatpress vinyl IS expensive, but 5 yds will go a decent ways, depending on the design you are using.  It will make tons of front breast logos. 

Having said that, you can use it to create some sample designs, then when you either find a design that is popular or get a larger order, you can just sub them out to be screenprinted.  It's also very nice to do numbers/names on the backs of shirts.  Rhinestones, etc.

You can do much more with the heatpress than just shirts, I have done Ez-up tents, flags for school gymnasiums, fold-up camp chairs, and more.

You might want to also look into plastisol transfers, I like them better than heatpress vinyl, but it's a decision you have to make balancing quantity vs. time vs. profit.

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Guest manwayvan

Thanks for the response midwaste. I just want to be able to expand my business to offer a multitude of products so I can have more income coming in so I am trying to stay away from outsourcing jobs if possible. All of those items are things I would like to offer along with caps and such but I am on a limited budget with getting laid off and having a 3 month old as I am sure most people are. I guess Im just looking at what I can get into to make as much profit as possible between working from my home office and doing trade shows and flea markets. I am currently looking into a sunie 15 x 15 due to its 3 year warranty and price..sorry uscutter. I just have to make sure that I understand everything from all angles before I make a purchase of this nature. Sorry if I have confused anyone

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      Using the sizes and dollar amounts you provided, you should be able to break even at around 24 shirts.

    Assume a sale price of $20.00 per shirt.

    5yds x 15" of Siser would make 24 pcs at 7 1/2 x 15 (roughly the size of a sheet of paper) = $35.13

    24 shirts at $1.76 ea = $42.24

    Total cost of consumables = $77.37

    Cost of press = $300.00

    Cost of press divided by 24 shirts = $12.50 ea.

    Cost of Siser per shirt ($1.46) + Cost of shirts ($1.76) + Cost of Press/24 Shirts ($12.50) = Cost per shirt ($15.72)

    Sale price per shirt ($20.00) - Cost per shirt ($15.72) = $4.28 Profit (minus shipping)

    If you calculate in shipping, you should break even (optimally) at this point.

    After recouping the cost of the press itself, your cost per shirt drops to approximately $3.22 plus shipping.

   

    If you increase the time to recoup the cost of your Press over a longer period of time, your profit would go up (ie: 48 shirts instead of 24 would yeild a profit of $10.53 per shirt.

Charlie

(who just ordered a 15x15 press; a mug press and a hat/cap press and is waiting on UPS)

   

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Guest manwayvan

Wow thanks alot cyberchuck I was trying to break down the profit margin last night but it was late and I was drinkin so bad combination all around.. THanks again and guess ill to be ordering a sunie 15 x 15 to join my pcut

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    No problem You just happened to ask right after I had done the same calculations for myself. My wife is the one who keeps me in check with my spending. So, whenever I want a new toy (cutter, press, etc), I crunch the numbers first to see if it could be a profitable item.

I'm the creative / dreamer half and she's the realist / accountant half. Makes for a good combination.

Charlie

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Guest manwayvan

lol I know what ya mean..I am always going off on tangent's to make money and she is always checkin me. It works though, I make money and have a great hobby and she spends it all

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I'm the creative / dreamer half and she's the realist / accountant half. Makes for a good combination.

Charlie

+1 for me too  ( and don't you hate that!)

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    Nah, if she wasn't keeping me in check, I'd own every gadget out there and be eating balogna sandwiches and Ramen noodles every day.

Charlie

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Guest manwayvan
:thumbsup: I am making a bowl of chicken flavor right now..

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I own 2 heat presses and 1 vinyl cutter. Trust me the heat press will pay itself off in no time. There are so many things you can do with them. I started 2 years ago just doing plastisol designs and am now just getting into the vinyl on shirts. Its a great buy in my opinion. Just remember bigger is better on heat press size.

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so you do make your money back? and you said bigger was better? it just that im kinda starting to get interested in a heat press from all this talk. is it a wise move?

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Guest manwayvan

I know that siser seems to be the common heat vinyl but I like comparable versus price so I use shinerite as I can get it cheap and it has basically the same specs as oracal..Does anyone know any alternatives to siser that is cheaper but still has the quality..Are there major difference between heat vinyl?

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There are alternatives; Thermoflex Plus, Imprintables Eco-film (identical to Siser), Joto, but I have never heard anything really bad about any one or the other.  I have used all of the above except Joto, and haven't had a problem with any of them.  I do, however, like Thermoflex's backer better (it pretty much releases itself, you don't even have to peel it), so that's mainly what I have used (around 100 yds of Tflex Xtra white so far).

In terms of pricing, there isn't really a "cheap" heatpress vinyl that I have seen.  Tflex, Siser, Eco-film, and Joto are all in the same ballpark of pricing, give or take a few bucks.

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Guest manwayvan

Thanks midwaste. I appreciate your input and hopefully I can put in a purchase for a press in the weeks to come..Im waiting for a call back for a job app before I make any major purchases but I will keep you all posted.

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I did a ton of research before I jumped in, but I dove in pretty hard and in the first year spent over 3 times the $2000 that I had planned.  15 months later, I had my equipment paid for while paying myself and helpers for our time along the way.  That wasn't working every day or anything close to that either.  I did lots of little jobs on the weekend and things like that, but the bulk of my work came from helping groups with fundraising.  It took a little longer than I had planned thanks to a snow storm that ruined one of our events, but overall I knew it was a safe investment as long as I was willing to put the work in.

There are a ton of good screen shops in my area, but I still have a all the work I want because I work to find the best method to fit the needs of my customers.  Sometimes that is a fundraising group that we can do 700 shirts for and sometimes that is someone that wants one or two shirts along with many in between.  I do embroidery, plastisol transfers, heat press vinyl, JPSS with pigment inks, rhinestones & now testing some new ColorJet III paper that promising.  I've also done some tents, folding chairs, seat belt cruisers, signs, license plates, banners, & car decals.  Basically the niche I've found is serving the customer's needs instead of finding customers that fit a certain type of service that I choose to provide. 

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Guest manwayvan

Wow renegade thats alot of start up capital but great to hear you are doing well and have made it back...I would love to be able to meet the needs of my customers no matter what they require..For a first time tshirt purchase what would you all recommend? I was thinking 10 shirts of small,med,large and extra large in white. I cant really afford to offer multiple colors just yet.also what about these transfer papers I keep reading about..Do I really need those using heat vinyl?..I really dont have much money and the press will be takin much of my profit to pay for. Thanks

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I don't recommend purchasing a stock of shirts at first, unless you are going to make some samples (which is a good idea) or some promo shirts for yourself.  When I first started, I just found a supplier that is next day shipping (several, Jiffyshirts.com is who I used for a long time) and ordered what I needed.  Occasionally, if I was close to a full case, I would just buy the extras if they were a common color.  I have some sport gray XL's, some white XL's and a few odds and ends, that's all.  Keeping a stock of shirts pretty much guarantees you are going to have the wrong size/color combo, at least until you can afford it.

You can get Gildan, etc swatch books from suppliers to show customers. 

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Keeping a stock of shirts pretty much guarantees you are going to have the wrong size/color combo, at least until you can afford it.

You can get Gildan, etc swatch books from suppliers to show customers. 

I'll second that - basically I keep the Gildan Sports gray on hand and order the rest from Jiffyshirts

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Me too.  If you want some shirts to play with then order shirts for you and your family, but I generally order as needed for orders.  Then often you'll hopefully have orders that maybe need a little extra to meet the free shipping minimums and then you can start working on building up your inventory.

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