Pricing for Contract Printing | Are You Getting Ripped Off?

How do you know if a contract screen printer is ripping you off? Pricing is subjective, which means that you have to make sense of your costs and relate those back to the price you're paying. Here's the harsh truth: "If you paid it, then it's a fair price."

Luke from Printavo chatted with a successful print shop owner. He's pivoted to print brokering. They discussed the ins and outs of contract printing.

Think about contracted screen printing this way: are you a value customer, a cheap customer, or a premium customer? A value customer is looking for the most overall value – they want the best service at a fair price and will pay more for that service. A cheap customer just wants to pay the least – even if that means service and quality are worse. A premium customer doesn't just want the best service – they will pay for highest-tier garments and printing styles.

The goal of using a contract printer is to sell products for more than you paid for them. That's true of virtually any business! But that does NOT mean you should just pay the lowest price at all costs – there is much more to custom printed products than price. "The lowest cost shop is not always going to give you the best value."

Why pay more for a great contract printer? They'll call you when there's a problem, they'll print your jobs correctly, and they'll make sure your prints actually look good. "I'd rather pay $0.20 to $0.30 more for a shirt to make sure my job comes out right. [...] What other services are you getting

Find the price you're paying, calculate the margin you need to make, and evaluate the overally package of service you're getting from your contract screen printer. That's how you know if you're getting ripped off: the price doesn't make sense financially or logistically.

If you're a print broker, you have the luxury of controlling your costs and pricing carefully. Not every print shop has that ability, so it's hard (but not impossible, obviously) for print brokers to lose money because of pricing issues.

So, the short answer: you're not getting ripped off by your contract screen printer (unless you're not doing the math and understanding your profit margin).

Learn more about how to set your screen printing prices here:

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