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Cheap Bulk Stickers - 100 Stickers for $7 ??

G

GC Decor

Super Printer
Hey Guys,
Been seeing this alot on Amazon, Facebook, Etsy - Packages of 2.5" - 3" Stickers Ranging in package sizes of 100 - 800 for under $12 on Amazon Prime Most are $6-7 Per Package.

One Company offers 300 Stickers at $11.89 per pack - Minus Amazon Fees They net $7.11 / 300 = $.0237 Per Sticker

What Equipment is China running to make this possible. I know they make stuff cheap but this just seems like they are losing money.
I did a few test buys and they were stickers, waterproof & decent, not amazing but It was hard to complain for the price.

Ive had a few local customer's bring this up & not order because there is a huge variety of cheap stickers & decals on Amazon with Same day shipping.
Seems like China is just slowly eating away at another one of our revenue sources.
 
James Burke

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
GC Decor said:
What Equipment is China running to make this possible. I know they make stuff cheap but this just seems like they are losing money.
Click to expand...
The short answer: Vertical Integration and Automation

When you automate and own the resources for every input, and have the ability to make the equipment, you can rule the world.

Take heed....it's already happening with giants like WalMart. Do a google search of "WalMart brands", and you'll be gobsmacked. And like Amazon, those house brands are mercilessly squeezing out national brands.


JB
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Labor in China is like $1 an hour. They use aftermarket inks, and $500 solvent printers - it costs them next to nothing for material as well.

They also don't care about copyright, every design they sell isnt unique - you can get like 1000 batman stickers for $5.... Do you think DC is getting a penny, or has approved that?

Anyone that can pay slave labor, use the cheapest materials, and not care about copyright could make.money at those prices.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Well we use $500 printers and get charged $15k for them. We use $50 rolls of vinyl and pay $600. $20 ink, $200 here. Application tables are $20k+ when you can buy one there for under $5k. Labor costs are not the big factor when things are automated. We are just getting hosed, it's like corporate communism. 3m sets their retail prices, not the retailers. How is that legal? We pay some of the highest prices in the world for the same goods that others get for way less.
 
G

GC Decor

Super Printer
All Good Input - I just find it crazy they can crash so many markets so quickly without anyone saying anything.

Haha I was hoping I didn't see the latest Sticker machine 1000, that way at least my company could buy it & stay competitive. Wishful Thinking
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Notarealsignguy said:
Well we use $500 printers and get charged $15k for them. We use $50 rolls of vinyl and pay $600. $20 ink, $200 here. Application tables are $20k+ when you can buy one there for under $5k. Labor costs are not the big factor when things are automated. We are just getting hosed, it's like corporate communism. 3m sets their retail prices, not the retailers. How is that legal? We pay some of the highest prices in the world for the same goods that others get for way less.
Click to expand...
Our printers may cost $500 in parts to make (probably a bit low!) But what we pay for is the RND. The cheap $500 chinese printers are throwaway printers - something goes wrong and they just buy a new one and discard the old one. Of course not everyone is that way... But look at the lack of support for them. Everytime someone mentioned a Chinese printer - the consensus is you won't be able to get parts or repairs, or even help to repair them.

So our 15k printers are also to pay for the network of repair guys, the stocking of parts, and the support you get. We also get the latest and greatest - no $500 printer is going to be running the latest Epson heads... They're usually a few gens behind.

The material - we pay for quality control. Most of 3m material is made in USA / Canada as well... So there is a premium. The $100 brand name rolls Grimco and everyone sells... Those are straight from China, and while I have used them .. I'd never trust them on a project I wanted to last more than a year. I do feel like we overpay for vinyl, but there is a trade off - pay more and be ensured quality / support... Or pay pennies and have to redo a bunch of jobs.


Were a consumer driven country! Nothing stops the Chinese companies from coming here and selling their $500 printers / $50 rolls... But they know that business model wouldnt work here. Over here we demand support and quality - something that doesn't quite work with their business model.

I've been to China a few times, landed in Shanghai and I was there for 45 mins.. so naturally I checked out all the signage. It was garbage... One of their biggest airports and it looks like they hired a guy working out of his garage to do everything :roflmao: everything was peeling off, colors were all over the place, lotsmof banding on even the high end store fronts... Not everything was like that, but over there they don't seem to care about quality.

Personally I'd rather pay the premium and make sure it's a good product
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
most chinese printers that I see have epson heads. Most of the parts and even many of the printers are 100% made in China. Just like any foreign made good, you are going to have a hard time getting parts if they do not have a presence in the country where you are using it. The mimaki is made in China, right down to their shitty translations in the menus and service manuals. I don't disagree that there is a cost to product support but we still get boned on pricing even when you compare large markets with equal support. With construction equipment, you can get better pricing on machines that go to different areas like some African countries, same machine, made in the USA and shipped there. The manufacturers try hard to not let it happen and you can lose your dealer franchise over selling out of market but it happens. You see these gray market machines, brand new, at just about every major auction. It's big business.
 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
I get my cheap stickers from India. Chinese think they are overpriced because they hear United States is the home of the Free.
 
G

GC Decor

Super Printer
Z SIGNS said:
I would quit trying to be the lowest bidder on 2.5" stickers.
and try something else. Find another use for the printer.
Like one you make money with.
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Certainly, Not gonna try to compete with those prices. We make good margins with Stickers, just after hearing from Customers thought I would investigate a little bit, see if I was missing something.
 
Saturn

Saturn

Your Ad Here!
We're not really comparing apples to apples if we're talking bulk packs versus custom printed. I'd only get concerned if StickerMule or StickerApp were to suddenly halve their pricing.

Personally I try to weed out those types of customers in the first couple seconds, and wouldn't be the least bit sad to see them go.
 
Texas_Signmaker

Texas_Signmaker

Very Active Signmaker
GAC05 said:
Sounds like the real money to be made is in parts, service, and repair of cheap Chinese printers.
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Problem is, if you can buy a new one for $500... they wouldn't want to spend $200 fixing it.

I was one of the first that fixed LCD and Plasma TVs. Made good $$ for a while then the prices kept falling to where you could just replace it for nothing. Now you can get a 60" 4K name brand or $300.
 
N

netsol

Active Member
Texas_Signmaker said:
Problem is, if you can buy a new one for $500... they wouldn't want to spend $200 fixing it.

I was one of the first that fixed LCD and Plasma TVs. Made good $$ for a while then the prices kept falling to where you could just replace it for nothing. Now you can get a 60" 4K name brand or $300.
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But that is the nature of tech.
At one time we paid $500 for a Texas Instruments calculator. 20 years later you get it at a 99 cent store


I n 1978 we had people coming from Ohio to NJ to get vcr's projection TV's and the camcorders serviced. (the ones ABC used to cover the 19760olympics)

1987 I had video store chains I was repairing vcrs for $35 so they had margin to resell the repair.

By 1992 I was a computer networking consultant and that has run its course.
We did data recovery for several years (YOUR DATA HAS VALUE, NOT THE PC IT IS ON)

10 years ago Epson lectured you about Chinese garbage (our product is commercial equipment, MADE IN JAPAN) but those days are over.

Sadly, the sun is setting on GERBER SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTS being on top of the world.
Many of my Gerber products are becoming museum pieces
 
ChicagoGraphics

ChicagoGraphics

New Member
Out of all the Chinese sign compaines I have visted only 2 of them we're using Chinese printers all the rest use Mimaki's, Mutoh's, Epson's, Vuteks and they never have just a few of them it's more like 20+ printers. It's crazy the amount of printing they do in a day plus when they ship to the US it cost them hardly nothing
 
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