Cafe press questions

SamtheClam · Post by **SamtheClam** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:40 pm

I don't really (as of now) have an interest in marketing stuff from my site. Mostly because there would be no market

. But I think it would be cool to walk around with a shirt with my characters on it. So i was just wondering if anyone had any experience with Cafepress.com or a similar business that is capable of letting me design merch from my site. Is it a rip off? is it conveinent? safe?

ScrumYummy · Post by **ScrumYummy** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:07 am

My friends and I used cafepress to print up t-shirts for a website that we used to have called Takohouse. The t-shirts were avilable for other people to buy, but we mostly just set up the account to print up our own.

The shirts are really soft, and well-printed. Also, we've been washing them in cold water, and they haven't even shown signs of fading. And since you can set the price as low or as high as you want (above the cafepress printing fee), we set it low and got the t-shirts for about $10 a piece ^____________^

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:24 am

Everything I've heard says "rip off." The merchandise is low quality and expensive. If you want something simple that makes you a shirt you'll wear once and throw in the back of the closet somewhere never to be seen again, it'll probably work fine for you. (I know a guy who wanted something like that actually.)

There are many other (less simple) options for merchandise that you should explore. Cafepress is for people who want merchandise in order to have merchandise. You won't make any money off it. Like ever.

I've been trying out screen printing. It's interesting and fun, but difficult if you want more than one color. It's also very time consuming. (It can take up to three days to make one shirt.) But it's not expensive.

Ink is $7 for an 8 ounce jar. I've used maybe 1/3 the jar in 15 prints - $0.16 per print.

Screens can be bought for $20 at Michaels or Dick Blick OR you can spend $1 at the hardware store for wood and $7 at the fabric store for a screen and make your own. I think it totals about $2 per frame if you make them yourself.

Screen filler is about $7 a bottle. I've used about half the bottle on 5 screens - $0.70 per screen.

I've been using this make your own labels paper I found at Staples that I can't seem to find any information on. It's a regular letter-sized sheet that you can print on and has an adhesive back. Cut out the letters with an exacto knife and you have a custom mask you can use to block the parts of the screen you want to leave open when you brush on the screen filler. It's not 100% perfect, but I'm still working on that. The paper is expensive, though. I think the pack was $14 for like 20 sheets.

I made a board to attach the screens to when I do the prints. I use hinges to attach the screen so the hinge holds down one side of the screen and I hold the other. This cost a couple dollars to make but it's nothing special. You should look into making a real printing press if you want one. The design schematics are online.

Shirts can be bought for between $3 and $5 each. Don't get them at Walmart. Get them wholesale online.

I think my total costs are $4 for the screen which can print hundreds of shirts and then $5 per shirt because I'm still trying things out and getting the stuff from Walmart. If you sell 10 shirts for $8 a piece you've made ~$30. Depending on the quality of the shirt you bought (Hanes Heavyweight is what I'm looking at now.) You can make a shirt that will last forever. I have had a couple shirts go through the wash several times. The ink (Speedball fabric ink) hasn't even begun to fade, but then the light colors aren't very opaque either. Black on white is awesome, though.

So, do it yourself:
Time to setup: a lot.
Effort involved: a lot.
Sale price for shirts: $8 - $10 (which is pretty reasonable)
Cost to make 10 shirts: ~$4 + $3/shirt + $0.16/color/shirt = ~$35
Potential Profit: $45

Compare that with Cafepress.
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/products/apparel
Time to setup: next to nothing.
Effort involved: nexto to nothing.
Sale price for shirts: $19.59 (expensive but gets you the same profit as above)
Cost to make 10 shirts: nothing except the base price ($14.99 for this example)
Potential Profit: $45

Which would you buy?

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:28 am

ScrumYummy, how did you get shirts for $10 a piece from Cafepress? Their prices were minimum of $13.99 for a white tshirt! What am I missing?

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:27 pm

I'd suggest that you do it yourself whenever possible. Companies that make it for you will ALWAYS take at least a cut of the profit, if not most of it. If there's a two-dollar profit, it's far more likely that, as the supplier of everything but the art, they'll take a dollar seventy-five and send you the quarter left over. (and that's probably me being generous. I think the real percentage you get is like 10-15%) If you do it yourself, you will make more money. And there's way too many options for you to do if you invest a little money in doing it.

Oh, and Faub, have you considered printing your designs out on transparencies, like they use for overhead projectors? My older friend, the one who ran a screen printing business, did that and they made fantastic negatives. It might be a little more expensive, but the flexibility she had was amazing. A lot of her shirts had gradients in them, and she could do some pretty complex images (One was a shrimp-boat pulling up to a dock, complete with sea-guls)

CW

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:47 pm

Make me a cool reasoned cognition shirt and I'll pay you $20 for it faub.

That guy · Post by **That guy** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 2:04 pm

CafePress is spendy, it's true - but they're not low quality. Medium quality, sure, but not low. I've got one, mostly just for kicks. I've sold a few things, but more than anything it's nice to be able to wear your own merch and show off something you created. It's not ideal, but it's far from the horrendous rip-off some people make it out to be. And for a below-the-radar comic like mine, it's nice to know family and friends can buy my stuff without my investing a fortune in high quality merch that will never have a solid customer base. CafePress, like ComicGenesis, is free to use.

Gengar003 · Post by **Gengar003** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 3:38 pm

faub wrote: ScrumYummy, how did you get shirts for $10 a piece from Cafepress? Their prices were minimum of $13.99 for a white tshirt! What am I missing?

Has it been a while since you looked at Cafepress's stuff, or did you just miss it?

The "Value T-shirt" is a front-only, thin white shirt with base price 8.99. If you buy one, you can send the $5/off coupon they give to 5 dummy e-mails and get the next five for base price 3.99.

----

For me, my Cafepress experience has been somewhat different. True, their prices are a little on the high side. This is because you're basically paying them to do everything for you. No effort required on your part at ALL, aside from getting the image. You pay for convenience. (Kinda already been said)

I personally have been quite satisfied with all the cafepress shirts I've gotten. I say shirts b/c I haven't bought anything else from 'em... well, a frisbee. It was good, too. But anyway... yeah... my oldest shirt has survived a couple years of frequent use (I really like it) with no more visible signs of aging than other similarly aged shirts.

I've had a premium cafepress shop since they came out, and a cafepress shop since... 2003. I can help you if you need help, but it's really quite simple. Dowload their template, edit it, upload. Click a few times. Enter name/price. Done.

PM me if you want/need anything; my shop is here

Use lulu for books; Cafepress for clothes, says I.

That guy · Post by **That guy** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 5:12 pm

Gengar003 wrote:I personally have been quite satisfied with all the cafepress shirts I've gotten. I say shirts b/c I haven't bought anything else from 'em

Mousepads, journals, and stickers are pretty good quality, too - and not too expensive, either.

faub wrote:Cafepress is for people who want merchandise in order to have merchandise. You won't make any money off it. Like ever.
I've been trying out screen printing.

For the record, this is a totally kickin' point. If you expect to rake in the $$ with a C.P. store, you'll be sorely dissapointed, but if it's for fun, not money, it's a great way to do it. Not as cool and admirable as learning how to make things yourself, but still a great, easy way to do it

.

SamtheClam · Post by **SamtheClam** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:03 pm

So if i were to setup a shop, and made all this merch to be sold on it, but the only customer ever was me and nothing else sold. would i get a bill for the unsold merch? thats my only worry, getting a huge bill a year down the road for unsold merchandise....has that ever happened? can it?

Gengar003 · Post by **Gengar003** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:08 pm

No. Cafepress prints things on demand, which is another reason why they're slightly higher cost -- things aren't done in bulk. They don't print or make ANYTHING until someone orders it from your store.

And, for the record, my store, with no investment, effort, or advertising, or new products for 3 years, has made me $150 in profit. I'm going to start putting some effort into it in an effort to make a significant amount. Of course, my store doesn't sell stuff from my comic -- no one'd buy that, and I'd make crap.

But if your comic gets popular and you have hordes of rabid fans.... You'll be able to make a fair amount.

Of course, if you ever get THERE, donations should enable you to order stuff much cheaper in bulk from a non-cafepress source and sell much cheaper while still making more. Good luck with that.

ChaosBurnFlame · Post by **ChaosBurnFlame** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:38 am

I've made T shirts for myself (4) for only the cost of the shirts and t shirt transfers.

The hard thing about transfers is finding a good quality one.

certain transfers leave behind a glossy film, while others become almost clothlike and near impossible to tell apart from screen printing.

And the good thing about transfers is you can use full color images

BTW, I can make transfers for anyone here, just PM me and I'll give you all details and work out a price.

I'm sure I can easily beat Cafepress's price.

SamtheClam · Post by **SamtheClam** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 3:48 pm

What types of products sell the best? shirts? mousepads? bumper stickers? Pins? what sells best for you?

Gengar003 · Post by **Gengar003** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:09 pm

Shirts and bumper stickers, far and away. Really, that's all of the stuff they have that you've got a guaranteed use/desire (and therefore market) for.

Badges can work, but are really overpriced, and for selling prints you can probably do better via ebay.

Of course, if your comic features some freaky cup, or some special teddy bear or some bag, you can make one that ties in, but if you're going "Cafepress... what can I sell?" instead of "OMG I should sell this... Cafepress?" then stick with t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Tinyghosts · Post by **Tinyghosts** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:58 pm

I don't want to sell merch, but I thought it would be fun to make a few things for around the house.

Cafepress is really easy to use and requires no fuss, no muss, and absolutle minimum effort, which I really like. I made a t-shirt, a mug, and a button. The button and mug was very decent quality and I believe that I could sell them (assuming people were interested in my comic). The t-shirt was kinda iffy, but I think that was mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing. I bet I icould have tweaked the design a bit and it would have looked much better.

If you want to sell things and you are serious about it, CafePress is probably expensive. But if you are looking to make one or two items for personal use with minimum hassle, I think that they are a perfectly fine way to go.

Glarryg · Post by **Glarryg** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 6:32 am

As per your original post, Sam, the easiest way to make one shirt for yourself would probably be to buy a pack of iron-on transfers from a place like Office Depot. Slightly less expensive and time-consuming than building your own home screen printing shop. If you use all the iron-ons, you've saved a good chunk of money versus going through CafePress.

Glarryg

CodeRed · Post by **CodeRed** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:48 pm

I was about to do the same thing and get a cafepress account. Are there any other less expensive sites that offer the same thing that aren't ripoffs?

As far as making your own t-shirts, what about a spray on? Is there a good fabric spray paint out there for stencil art or a logo?