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Cheap material

J

JCinNY

New Member
i have a cheap a@@ customer who wants decals for dirt cheap.
I am admittedly new at this and I’m trying to get a handle on costs.
I am using Oracal 3551, no lam and the decals are 3”x5”. I read on here people are pricing between $5.50-$8 sq ft for printed material.
I’m thinking I’ve got to get minimum $1.50 ea for 50 pcs. He wants cheaper, am I close in my pricing and is there a cheaper material I can use for standard decals?
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
So, how long will it take you to print 4' × 1.5' ?? Then, go back and cut them all ?? About 10 minutes would be my guess and our machine is slow. Tell him to get them any cheaper, he hasta buy a minimum of 120. Then, your price would be $125. Now, that aint too bad for 1/2 of work, where you don't even work, the machine does it all.

Learn to work with minimums and post a policy sign on your wall.

When someone approaches you with some small order, you hafta do the math in your head REAL fast as to how many up and over you're gonna need and divide it by $100 or $150. Then, your little order will pay off.
 
J

JCinNY

New Member
I know it’s anal but I have a a log book I’ve been keeping on how long it takes to print x# of square ft. and I’m trying to figure what I need per/hr.
I see here some say they charge $0.09sq./in printed so with waste I get $2.21 ea. Other post say $7.50 sq/ft so with that math I get $0.90 ea.
Until I get enough work under my belt to figure prices accurately to cover cost and profit I’m working with what I read
 
wildside

wildside

New Member
Why are you letting the client tell you what your price should be?

If they want cheap, they have to do volume, simple as that.

I wouldn't try to find the cheapest material for one client. Use what you usually stock and go from there.
 
Bradley Signs

Bradley Signs

Bradley Signs
If you know what you need to do the job, why settle for less. Don't be like me 40 years ago and take every job that comes to you.
It's a tough row to hoe.
Stick to your guns and let the guy go get what he wants to pay for, somewhere else.
You will find, over time, it's worth it to let those kind move along, or you will also learn, set your price, let them go fishing, and they may just come back to you and pay what you want. Then you've lost nothing.
Patience became my friend....
 
Marlene

Marlene

New Member
I'd check into signs2trade. Figure out the overall size needed to print 50 3" x 5" decals, find a single decal price within that range and have them contour cut the 3" x 5" within that size.
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
in this case your material costs are really not that critical, on a small run of 50 pcs, the big cost is setup time, setting up files, loading the machine, loading the cutter, weeding, cutting the decals out etc. all of those operations take the same amount of time really if he orders 50 or 5000.

We would be around 4x the price you quoted for a small order of 50, and I wouldn't care less if they went somewhere else.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
I had a friend of a friend want cheap decals. 4" x4"... Charged her 50 cents each, cause she only.ordered 100. Her artwork was bad... But she approved a photo over a cell because she needed them quick. Sure enough after they're all printed... She doesn't like them.

I redo her artwork and vectorized it since it was such low quality... Reprint it and she loves them. It was a friend of a friend, who works at my last place of employment, so I didn't mind.

Then I find out she's telling everyone at my old place the prices were too high and she got ripped off. Pissed me off... Few months later, she has a new design she wants printed .I open it... Tell her it's bad quality and needs fixing. I'd do it for $20 she got mad and said no.

Few months later... Another new design... Done by an artist .it's mixed vector with mixed raster. I tell her same thing.. it'll need to be fixed, the rasters really bad. Her artist friend assured her its be fine thought so she She asks how many to get them at 25 cents each, I just say 250 because i hate dealing with her. So she says ok, print me a sample, I do... And it's bad. She didn't like it.

I told her my printer must be broken, it's printing at bad quality and started to dodge any sales from her. Wasted hours and hours of my time for little to zero proffit.


Point is... Don't do stuff for cheap .even if you say to yourself you'll at least be making a few bucks... Odds are you won't. Cheap clients aren't worth the headache.

Try walking into any store and saying their food is too expensive, and you want it at half the price... I guarantee you not one goes hunting to get you a better deal .
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Since the OP mentioned he's new to this, but inquired about printed decals with no lam, he owned a digital printer. Upon checking out his profile, I don't know, so perhaps farming out would be a better idea. Otherwise, for something so small, I'd keep it in-house and rely on the minimum price structure. There are also less expensive RA vinyls out there, then the one you are referring to.
 
E

equippaint

Active Member
I wouldn't use 3551 for small decals because the adhesive isn't very aggressive. $2-4 ea if its a one off job but laminated. For something this small material cost is negligible, its more about the time involved. Oracal 3165 with 215 is my preference because its thicker so its easier for the general person to apply.
 
E

equippaint

Active Member
ikarasu said:
I had a friend of a friend want cheap decals. 4" x4"... Charged her 50 cents each, cause she only.ordered 100. Her artwork was bad... But she approved a photo over a cell because she needed them quick. Sure enough after they're all printed... She doesn't like them.

I redo her artwork and vectorized it since it was such low quality... Reprint it and she loves them. It was a friend of a friend, who works at my last place of employment, so I didn't mind.

Then I find out she's telling everyone at my old place the prices were too high and she got ripped off. Pissed me off... Few months later, she has a new design she wants printed .I open it... Tell her it's bad quality and needs fixing. I'd do it for $20 she got mad and said no.

Few months later... Another new design... Done by an artist .it's mixed vector with mixed raster. I tell her same thing.. it'll need to be fixed, the rasters really bad. Her artist friend assured her its be fine thought so she She asks how many to get them at 25 cents each, I just say 250 because i hate dealing with her. So she says ok, print me a sample, I do... And it's bad. She didn't like it.

I told her my printer must be broken, it's printing at bad quality and started to dodge any sales from her. Wasted hours and hours of my time for little to zero proffit.


Point is... Don't do stuff for cheap .even if you say to yourself you'll at least be making a few bucks... Odds are you won't. Cheap clients aren't worth the headache.

Try walking into any store and saying their food is too expensive, and you want it at half the price... I guarantee you not one goes hunting to get you a better deal .
Click to expand...
Favors for friends and generally working for friends is a pita and a gigantic time waster. Not that I won't do it but I'll avoid it as much as I can.
 
Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?

New Member
We would be at $2.40 each for 50 pcs. 3" x 5" on unlaminated calendered media. I would estimate an average of 7 decals per square foot. Rounded up to the nearest square footage, that's 8 square feet of media at $9.25 per sq. ft. (our price for 1-11 sq. ft.), which comes to $74.00. I would then add $46.00 for contour cutting, which is a $30 setup charge, plus $2 per square foot for cutting. This totals $120.00. $120.00 divided by 50 decals is $2.40 each. That's the formula we use in combination with our digital print pricing and I think it works pretty well.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Print it on some Oracal 3641 and laminate with a spray lam and then when the decal falls off after 6 months and he comes back complaining tell him that you can make a professional decal for the price quoted prior.
 
TomK

TomK

New Member
Order them from Stickermule, they come laminated, no worry about stocking a roll of cheap material, and you can get 100 3x5 for under 100 bucks.

Heck, they'll even clean up the artwork. So for no real effort on your side, you can turn a 40 or 50% margin.
 
A

AKwrapguy

New Member
JCinNY said:
i have a cheap a@@ customer who wants decals for dirt cheap.
I am admittedly new at this and I’m trying to get a handle on costs.
I am using Oracal 3551, no lam and the decals are 3”x5”. I read on here people are pricing between $5.50-$8 sq ft for printed material.
I’m thinking I’ve got to get minimum $1.50 ea for 50 pcs. He wants cheaper, am I close in my pricing and is there a cheaper material I can use for standard decals?
Click to expand...

I would use 3MIJ35...
But I would look at setting up a shop minimum. If you're just starting out I understand what your going through and you excited to just get the work, but don't undercut the market or yourself. What happens when they come back in a year or so and expect the same price, but the cost of material has gone up $50 a roll, or that cheap material is no longer available, or your rent has gone up.

If this customer is that cheap than they're probably not worth it in the long run unless they have the potential for a lot more work.
 
ams

ams

New Member
Not worth the headache, being cheap he will be a horrible customer and expect cheap every time. Don't give in, let another sign shop have the headache.
 
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