Comic Genesis Forums

Is this provider good for merchandising...Or is there a better place to got to for such service?

I've heard it's terrible. But I'm afraid I haven't really looked into anything in the first place, so I don't know any of the better places.

I don't know any better places but from first hand experience it is terrible... Basically... they charge way too much... and the only way you can hope to sway demand in your favor to turn a profit you have to keep the profit you make off each thing low... but mind you if your pot of profit doesn't hit 25 before the deadline.. the company absorbs it into their money and calls it hosting expenses... but if you break the 25 dollar barrier they send you the check... a t-shirt without any profit goes for like.. 14 bucks there? It's really ridiculous... My opinion...

I wish there were more choices out there...

They are only good if you are lazy. The base price is so freaking high that it doesn't leave you much room to make a profit. You're best off if you can get your own T-shirts printed and handle everything yourself. Plus the quality is lacking (they're just those iron on transfers printed with an inkjet).

Cafepress is only for the very lazy, or people who will likely never sell more than a couple of T-shirts.

Ghastly wrote:Cafepress is only for the very lazy, or people who will likely never sell more than a couple of T-shirts.

Ah, so they sound perfect for me! I'm to lazy to produce even original art for sale in my shop. I take my cheesy logo and drop it on some shirts.
I don't even take my cafe press shop seriously. I just wanted one of those stainless steel coffee mugs with my comic's logo on it. Oh, and the frisbee too.

http://www.cafepress.com/racomicshop , this link is not added to encourage people to buy things, but rather to verify my point that I am lazy.

Aw damn.. I'm with Cafepress =/
I was thinking of 99dogs...you can get black shirts - of course they're also RAISED in price because it's black.

But yeah... too lazy to research any further than that.
Cafepress isn't that bad. I mean, they sell thongs! And license plate covers. w00t.

Thongs! Thongs! Lift up your voices in song!
Twenty nine million feet can't be wrong,
Everyone's wearing 'em, thongs!

Sorry...I will leave now...

they have some nifty products, but both cafepress shirts I have have faded rather badly after a few washes..

Ghastly wrote: You're best off if you can get your own T-shirts printed and handle everything yourself.

Any advice on how I might do that? Like, say I want to sell from a local provider. Should I set up an order form and have them pay through paypal... Then snail mail them (charging postage fees)?

Or is there a place where they provide the service to mail for you?

I've been considering using CafePress, but mostly because they would handle the shipping, not the production. Whatever I manage to save on production costs will be eaten up by international shipping costs, and I would need some sort of export permit to send t-shirts and other stuff out of my country's borders...

I will never use Cafe Press because I've found places that will print mini-comics for $1.25 and I could sell them for $3 at a con without breathing hard. AND they would be good quality. Compare that to Cafe Press where the same book would cost $5.26 if I wanted to BREAK EVEN! For comics, try http://www.comixpress.com though offset printing is the way to go.

As far as other merchandise, I would suggest looking around and finding real places that do these types of things for a living. You should be able to get some reasonable prices on things you could sell yourself for huge profits. You just have to deal with inventory and shipping.

Cafe Press sucks. Their T shirts are terrible, and they tried to charge me if I made some money, but didn't meet a quota. I've heard that they've started charging people who try to leave their service now. May I suggest Zazzle?. They're t shirts still aren't that great of quality, but they aren't evil. And yeah, I've always wanted to try out Comixpress for printing comics.

Coffe in coffe press is awfull. I don't even know why they're called coffee press.

Cafepress shirts are boring. It's only a drawing on the front and one on the back. No way in hell they woud print my shirt ideas...

RPin wrote:Cafepress shirts are boring. It's only a drawing on the front and one on the back. No way in hell they woud print my shirt ideas...

But would someone really want to print Lila naked on a bearskin rug? or was that just my fantasy?

No, you goof! This is more like what I have in mind. (they are just half-assed doodles of the original plan)

I don't know, but I highly doubt Cafepress would print such a thing.

faub wrote:As far as other merchandise, I would suggest looking around and finding real places that do these types of things for a living. You should be able to get some reasonable prices on things you could sell yourself for huge profits. You just have to deal with inventory and shipping.

This is my biggest problem. I have a friend who's printing and selling her own shirts, and I asked her how much it would cost to print ones with my own designs (haven't told her I have a webcomic), and she just told me we would just split the profits, which is cool. And her Tshies are really good. Not those lame silk screen ones, they're silicon prints that won't wash away even with acid.

I was just talk with another person who sells her own hand-made fridge magnets, and her too would be willing to make custom ones for me (not the round ones Cafepress makes, but custom shaped ones).

Problem is: who'd be willing to pay for something that would only be delivered months after?

RPin wrote:No, you goof! This is more like what I have in mind. (they are just half-assed doodles of the original plan)

I don't know, but I highly doubt Cafepress would print such a thing.

Those are really unique and inventive designs. Have you ever thought about doing your own printing? There are sites online on how to create your own silkscreens and such. Right now I'm working on doing a design with stencils and spraypaint which has a unique look and it doesn't really fade when I wash and I think if I soak the shirts in vinegar the art would be definitely permanent.

The problem with RPin's designs as that they wouldn't be easy to make. The easiest way would also require tshirts that would be hardest to obtain. Ye'd want a light blue tshirt with blue sleeves and a white tshirt with the green sleeves, not easy to find. But just putting the stripes on the sleeves would be hard enough, there's a reason everyone just prints on front and back .

I was expecting some infinite canwas spinning around the shirt.