Category: Screen Printing

No Big Deal

Just the other day I was giving a potential customer pricing over the phone. This customer was really nice and I was excited for the opportunity to do some work for her organization. Plus it was a really good order that any screen printing company would drool over.

I gave her pricing and here’s what she said:

“Oh great! This pricing is perfect. It’s a few cents more than than company X’s and they’re friends of mine so I really wanted to go with them, I just needed to make sure they were the cheapest. But you guys came highly recommended, several people told me you do great work and you’re fun to work with.”

My response was:

“Sounds great. We’re not the cheapest but we are the best. Good luck with your event Hope we can work together on a future project.”

So we didn’t get the order. NO BIG DEAL! It’s not the end of the world, there’s always next time. Maybe if I got fifty calls like that, then I would be really disappointed and need to eat some cookie dough to console my sadness – but then if I really got fifty calls like that, there would obviously be a reason why!

I was just happy to get some positive feedback. I’m really glad to hear people are recommending our organization, that means we’re doing right by people – that’s what matters most to me. We’re not in business to be the cheapest. Once you’re the cheapest, where do you go from there? Who wants to be known for being the cheapest? Last I checked, the only way to be the cheapest is to cut corners…or be SUPER efficient! In our industry, a business can’t afford the high costs of superior efficiency by having the cheapest prices. Therefore, if you take the cheapest price on t-shirts, expect to receive junky tees with a cheesy clip-art design, and don’t expect to ever see folks wearing them again.

I have to thank our competition, they do an excellent job at increasing our revenues. Because they are all so short-sighted and focused on only the transaction and not the relationship, they often burn some really great people. So we’re Ok not being the cheapest, we’d prefer to price high enough to cover our costs and make a little profit so we can afford to sponsor some little league teams. And besides, we prefer to do business with people who value service and quality.

Screen Print Pricing

There are so many variables that go into getting an accurate quote on an order of screen-printed t-shirts, we thought it would be helpful to go over these items to help you out in placing your next order.

The cost of a screen-printed order is separated into two parts:

1. The individual price per shirt, and
2. The set-up cost to make and register the screens

The price of a t-shirt depends on:

• The quantity of shirts you need (our price breaks are @ 12, 24, 50, 100, 200, 300 etc).
• The color of the shirt (white shirts are about $0.60 less than colored shirts).
• The number of locations printed (costs $1.00 for each additional location).
• The number of colors in each design and location (each color printed requires a $12 screen set-up. More colors = a more expensive set-up and price per shirt).
• Finally, whether the ink colors need flashing or not (this means multiple layers. For a white print to look good on a black shirt multiple passes of ink must be applied).

Other items that will affect the individual price per shirt are:

• Is it a women’s form fitted shirt? If so, add $2-4.00 depending on the brand.
• Will you want a pocket? If so, add $2.00.
• What about long sleeves? If you need them, add $3.00.
• Would you like the shirts to be 100% cotton, 50/50 poly/cotton, or a tri-blend poly/cotton/rayon? Additional costs may apply depending on the brand and the market.
• Will you need any 2XL or 3XL+ sizes? Add $1.00 for each additional size over XL.

As mentioned earlier, each color in a design requires a screen. Screens cost:

• $12.00 each on initial orders, and drop to
• $5.00 for reorders. Also, it’s
• $6.00 for an ink change.

It’s not a reorder unless the print is exactly the same. A screen is 18×22″ so we can fit a front and back print on one screen. For example, a t-shirt with a 3-color front, 3-color back print would only require 3 screens to set-up, not 6.

Changing out the ink in a screen is messy and labor intensive. Ink changes are the result of changing from dark to light colored shirts in a single run. So if you’re printing a black design on white shirts and want a navy blue shirt too, then we’ll need to change the ink to a lighter color because there is not enough contrast when printing black on navy or any other dark color for that matter.

Having an idea of what you want and what it can cost will make the ordering process much easier to plan around your budget. We can design and print as simple or as extravagant as you’d like.

Now, if you’re itchin’ for some custom shirts, call us for a quote today! 435-635-9296.