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Wholesale printing, charging for waste?

Spencer McMurtry

New Member
Is it common practice to charge for waste on a wholesale printing? Just curious, i was a little surprised when i was charged for waste on a wholesale print.

Happy Graphics Making!
Spencer
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
If you don't, then your printed price will be higher. Someone has to pay for these costs.... somewhere..... somehow.
 

Bigdawg

Just Me
What size was your print? I've never been charged for waste... but I haven't bought a whole lot of wholesale printing...
 

Bly

New Member
As long as they included it in their original estimate. Or did they decide to stick that to you afterwards?
 

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
We have always done it in the 12 years we've been Edge printing for the trade. We tell our clients they have 11.8 inches of image height and that our prices are based on linear footage used. We don't, however, add on a separate charge. It is simply part of our quote.

So, for example, if you want a label that is 3" high, then it will nest 3 up. Cut it back to 2.875" high and it will nest 4 up. Our price per foot remains the same but the cost per label will be much different if you choose a wasteful size versus an economical size.
 

Spencer McMurtry

New Member
i had never got a exact estimate, i am not saying this is wrong. i had just never been charged for it before on wholesale printing. i understand wholesaler's have to cover there wastes but seems like it should be a lower cost on waste.
 

Pat Whatley

New Member
I don't think anybody has ever specifically charged me for waste but I'm sure it's built into the price somewhere.
 

ProWraps

New Member
hey sorry i didnt get back to you about wholesale printing, but yeah i would charge for it. if its going through the printer, its being charged for. like fred said, thats the job of the designer to maximize the use of the materials.

as a wrap shop, i have to price my projects assuming there will be waste. you need to as well.
 

ericmitchell29

New Member
How do you charge for waste if you have a 2 foot banner width and your banner width is 54''? I mean. Banner material does come in smaller widths, so it doesn't seem to make sense that you could charge someone for that extra cost. I know that this isn't always the case but, this must be an exception right?
 

Letterbox Mike

New Member
How do you charge for waste if you have a 2 foot banner width and your banner width is 54''? I mean. Banner material does come in smaller widths, so it doesn't seem to make sense that you could charge someone for that extra cost. I know that this isn't always the case but, this must be an exception right?

Run the job on the appropriately sized media, or nest it with other jobs to maximize media. It's wasteful for you and especially for your customer to run a 24" banner on 54" material. If you don't have the work to nest it with other jobs, and you don't stock other sized rolls to accommodate different widths, in my opinion, you should eat the cost of the waste, not the customer, it's not their fault your workflow isn't efficient.
 

gabagoo

New Member
Run the job on the appropriately sized media, or nest it with other jobs to maximize media. It's wasteful for you and especially for your customer to run a 24" banner on 54" material. If you don't have the work to nest it with other jobs, and you don't stock other sized rolls to accommodate different widths, in my opinion, you should eat the cost of the waste, not the customer, it's not their fault your workflow isn't efficient.


I know if someone wants Ij180 3M and they have an image 20" x 12', then they have to eat the raw cost of the waste. I dont think you can get small rolls of that to keep in stock nor would you want to.
 

ProWraps

New Member
a true wholesaler should have all the sizes appropriate to maximize usage and minimize waste. that said, the choices are still limited and there will be waste, just as if you were to print it yourself.

you would incur the waste, and pay for it, so why should the wholesaler pay for it for you?

the problem is when using a wholesaler that isnt set up correctly or fully.
 
when i dealt with very large pop and banner orders (some orders were well in excess of 200,000 pieces) all of our contracts specified that the order could be as much as 4% under the ordered amount or 4% over, in the event that we were under they paid for it and in the event that we were over they paid for it..if they needed an exact amount they were encouraged to order 4% more than they needed but this was predigital. as long as it was specified in your agreement then it is what it is..if you didn't have an agreement you most definitely should.
 

Letterbox Mike

New Member
I know if someone wants Ij180 3M and they have an image 20" x 12', then they have to eat the raw cost of the waste. I dont think you can get small rolls of that to keep in stock nor would you want to.

There are definitely some medias where keeping every conceivable roll size in stock is unrealistic, IJ180C is a perfect example. With something like wrap material, the only real universal common width is 52" roughly, so it's unrealistic to expect a wholesaler to have 24", 36", 48", 54", 60" etc. in stock when those sizes are never used. But with something like banners, a good wholesaler should at least have the volume to be able to nest various jobs to maximize medua usage and mimize waste, or stock roll sizes for common job sizes, i.e. 2', 3', 4' etc.. If you aren't able to do this, you're probably not really ready to consider yourself a wholesaler.

It's realistic to expect a wholesale client to pay for a few inches of waste material (say a 4' banner with 3" for hems... 51" on a 54" roll, 3" of waste). It's not fair to expect a client to pay for 27" of waste for a 24" banner (plus 3" for hems) printed on a 54" roll.
 

jasonx

New Member
I guess it depends but it should be communicated before quoting the job or in their pricing model.

If I goto Mc Donalds I don't have to pay for the whole cow to have a meat paddy in my burger.
 
S

scarface

Guest
I use 30" media so i always charge 2.5' x however much media in SF i use with a minimum of 1 running foot. So if you wanted something 24"x10" you would be charged for 2.5 sq ft. That's the only way i would do it really.
 

jasonx

New Member
Yeh it would be included in the price upfront not, hey we only sold one burger today so for you your going to have to pay for the whole cow.

So if this wholesaler had another job they could of fit on the waste would of it got charged or not? Would the other person have to pay for their 'waste' as well?

We supply to the trade and we don't add the waste ontop. It's calculated in our pricing model.

Chris imagine telling your wrap clients the cost to wrap is $2000. Then throw in at the end its another $400 for all that vinyl in the bin?

Seems unprofessional that a charge is beinng communicated as waste or just a pricing tatic to appear cheaper.
 
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