Printed banner vs applying vinyl

[Hog Wild graphics]

I do a fair amount of banners. I currently have a 30" Roland but a lot f my multi color banners are 3 or 4 ft. I know a lot of you have crunched the numbers. What's the pricing benefit to printing a 3 by 8 vs applying vinyl and all that comes with it. Not to mention I can press print and work on another project.

Thanks in advice

 

[cdiesel]

We haven't applied vinyl to a banner in years.

 

[sghobbies]

I can't remember the last time I layed vinyl on a banner. I still have pre grommeted rolls that are probably 4 years old... Maybe I need to make a few just to clear those rolls out.

 

[MR. Graphics]

Your immediate benefit is less labor. Your second benefit is your client can receive a full digital color printed banner for the same cost or less. Our cost per sqft for a printed banner is far less than what it would be for a multi color vinyl installed banner. If you are trying to justify buying a printer, a printer will open up more capabilities, you need to be able to keep that printer busy to offset the cost of running/maintaining that printer. IE INK, heads, calibration, printer payment/cost, electricity, space and if you start printing on regular vinyl the cost of a laminator and the materials associated.
If you can run a paid print job every other day atleast, you won't regret getting a printer. do your research before you buy a used printer, I learned the hard way. Get someone who has had experiance with printers to help you out with the purchase / inspection of the used printer.

 

[cdiesel]

Ha! We sold a bunch of pre hemmed banners that we had sitting around forever awhile back. Figured we were better off selling them than fighting putting vinyl on them.

 

[HulkSmash]

i have a customer who has a massive BBQ stand. She wants ALL her banners to be BRIGHT yellow, with cut vinyl. Needless to say she pays almost triple for them. and order 6 at a time.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

I can't remember the last time I layed vinyl on a banner. I still have pre grommeted rolls that are probably 4 years old... Maybe I need to make a few just to clear those rolls out.

I read here not long ago that there is a gold mine to be made in renting out those babies. Put on "happy birthday" and the such and off you go.

50% commission please for my suggestion.

I should be able to get a soft serve in a year or two if you market yourself right with all my royalties

 

[boxerbay]

Depends on the banner.

If like Colorado say they want a solid yellow with simple large text in red that says OPEN then cut vinyl mounted to yellow banner is going to last longer and probably be cheaper to produce BUT you charge it as a premium "NO FADE" banner.

If they have 10 lines of 1" text then print it as the weeding and mounting time will kill you.

PS: get a bigger printer.

 

[SightLine]

Only time we still do cut vinyl on a banner is if it's something like single color large text or if the customer wants some solid color banner with a a single color text. If solid color we just call a local supplier here in town and order the prefinished color blank to size. Anything else we totally run in house of digital print roll stocks.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Your direct cost in manufacturing the banner is significantly less than cut vinyl once you factor in labor. And because it's full color, you can sell it at a bit of a premium because of it's perceived higher value. Plus, printing frees you up to do other things. We can print 10 banners in the time it takes to make one with cut vinyl, and sell them for more money. And while we're printing those 10 banners, we're figuring out other ways to make money.

Really, the same thing applies to just about anything, not just banners. Yard signs, vehicle magnets, traditional signs, etc.. Printing reduces your labor and direct overhead in a job, frees you up for more things, and produces a higher valued product (most of the time anyway).

 

[Mosh]

I read here not long ago that there is a gold mine to be made in renting out those babies. Put on "happy birthday" and the such and off you go.

50% commission please for my suggestion.

I should be able to get a soft serve in a year or two if you market yourself right with all my royalties

I friend of mine tryed that at his shop. BIG HASSLE! At first no deposit and every banner came back either ripped up, folded up or just in a wadded up mess. Then he started getting a deposit and that was the end of that, no one want to mess with a $50 deposit on a happy B-Day banner.

So THERE IS NOT big money in renting banners.