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The problem with doing this is that all the places like this still have a much larger base price than the cost of me doing it myself. If I used any of these places, and ordered the shirts as they were ordered from me, customers would have to wait up to three weeks for their shirts, which is unacceptable.
My only two options that seem plausable are to make the shirts as ordered, which still requires that I buy all the equipment and materials, or to order a minimum amount of each of them before going live with the catalog.
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most places i've ever seen with mail order say that delivery takes 4 to 6 weeks. that is standard. you can see that time in comic books, and in magazines.
btw, i was talking to my friend, rick. he always does stuff like buys cheap vending machines or sews moccasins from magazines. he says he got one of those cheap shirt printers - he paid around $500 with delivery - and he said it did a very bad job. have you actually seen the machine you're going to buy in action?
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4-6 weeks? That seems like a HUGE wait, wouldn't that result in a lot of chargebacks? I plan to ship all orders within 5 business days. Any longer is unacceptable in my opinion.
What I am going to use is not a printer, but a heat press. The designs are printed and then transfered to the fabric using heat and pressure. You may be thinking "Iron-ons? Ewww" but the quality of heat transfers varies greatly, and I have already tested numerous types and brands, and figured out which ones are of highly acceptable quality. Using a heat press makes a world of difference too, it achieves a level of heat and pressure that you cannot get with an iron, and a totally different final product. The product is of better quality than that of cafepress in my opinion, and is the same type of printing used on many shirts available from Polo, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, etc.
When it comes down to it, all I really need is this damn heat press, without it the quality of the shirts wouldn't be up to my standards. The shirts and transfers are available locally in any quanitity, so your "buy as ordered" idea works fine once I get the press.
