Ok guys. here goes- i have a friend who has a full size van that he says he got wrapped for 1000$ . i looked at the van and its a few years old and still looks good. i honestly could not touch this job for under 2500$ with top knotch vinyl and laminate. Please take me ouit of the dark ages and enlighten me on how a professional can do a full wrap for 1 grand.
More than likely it wasn't done with an Avery, 3M, or Oracal product. If it was done, it was with something like BusMark or Grimco's Briteline vinyls. This was pre-pandemic, so vinyl was cheaper, so producing it would be cheaper....but at a $1,000? No. Like stated above, whether by someone who was too green to the business, a company looking to screw a competitor, a customer with a bad memory and not recalling what was on the invoice, or he's simply bullsh*tting you.
Either way, it's post-pandemic, with post-pandemic prices and if you have the experience to do a decent job, a van is over 300 sq ft. Without art, design, print ink, and labor, it'll cost you $735-750 in material alone. A contractor charges the same to 2x's that amount to install. Design 2-5 hours at $100/hr and labor or prepping the panels for installation is another 2-3 hours. If you have an installer on hourly, figure about 5-7 hours, depending on vehicle prep. You prep if a contractor is used [i.e. clean vehicle, mirror, light removal, door handles].
Ten years ago, I charged $10/sq ft, but with the prices of 2023 that are $600-800 more than those of 2010, that can't happen.