Plate talk - moved from buy it, sell it, give it away

[bms]

Sorry we don't but we will have plates soon that you can press in a normal flat bed press!
http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat ... plates.htm

Are you considering doing the ceramic plates?

[AdamB]

Sorry we don't but we will have plates soon that you can press in a normal flat bed press!
http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat ... plates.htm

Are you considering doing the ceramic plates?

Sorry to jump on the post ............. Martin, those look quite nice and I can see some real potential for them! Have you anything else new coming in?

FAO of Valentine:

I don't know what the quality is like (looks like it's chinese to me) and if the seller is reputable or not but I found one on e-bay below. I don't know if this is too cheap to be good or normal ................. I've never looked before.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-PLATE-HEAT-PR ... 2c56574d9c

and there is LoveCut, some have had problems with them - others have had a perfect transaction ............... I have never used them personally (not for any reason, I just found others before finding them).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PLATE-PRESS-SUBLI ... 415560ec49

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-1-COMBO-PRESS-M ... 4155c54729

BUT PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: As with anything, you'll need to make your own choice if purchasing one of the above or anything else for that matter. I don't recommend any of the above, but I also don't un-recommend (is that a word?) them as I have never dealt with any of them. If you get what you're after then brilliant, I just wanted to help you in your quest.

Adam

[JSR]

Sorry we don't but we will have plates soon that you can press in a normal flat bed press!
http://www.printerowners.co.uk/sublimat ... plates.htm

Are you considering doing the ceramic plates?

Plates with metal inserts? How bizarre.

Reminds me of Home2Gifts's range that consisted of a million and one different glasses and other products - all of which you pressed to a metal bit and stuck it to the outside. I didn't buy any of them because I figured if you could print to a piece of metal and stick it to something, you may as well print to a sticky label (why bother with dye-sublimation?).

If you're not going to do proper ceramic plates, then you may as well offer the snap-in type from this company: https://www.my-accessories.co.uk/item-- ... --PP2.html.

I find it odd to believe that no one will sell sublimation-coated printable ceramic plates due to lack of demand, but that there's somehow a demand for "stick on a bit of metal" metal plates - particularly when the "stick on a bit of metal" type is about twice the price of a sublimation-coated ceramic plate.

It's a bizarre world.

[Paul]

Plates with metal inserts? How bizarre.

Reminds me of Home2Gifts's range that consisted of a million and one different glasses and other products - all of which you pressed to a metal bit and stuck it to the outside. I didn't buy any of them because I figured if you could print to a piece of metal and stick it to something, you may as well print to a sticky label (why bother with dye-sublimation?).

If you're not going to do proper ceramic plates, then you may as well offer the snap-in type from this company: https://www.my-accessories.co.uk/item-- ... --PP2.html.

I find it odd to believe that no one will sell sublimation-coated printable ceramic plates due to lack of demand, but that there's somehow a demand for "stick on a bit of metal" metal plates - particularly when the "stick on a bit of metal" type is about twice the price of a sublimation-coated ceramic plate.

It's a bizarre world.

lol :D
i agree JSR! Is like those compact mirrors, cigarete cases, busines card holders etc... All metal crap with sticked piece of white aluminium.
Is not realy blank is it? or can we still class it as a blank?

[Kaz]

I could be wrong here, but I think the problem with some of the ceramic plates is that the surface isn't even, therefore you don't get a good print transfer to it, you get faded patches.

I seem to recall reading that on here before the changeover, so it should still be on here, somewhere, lol

[JSR]

Is not realy blank is it? or can we still class it as a blank?

Well, they are blanks - they're just "square peg in round hole". Why is someone going to pay us for printing a bit of metal and sticking it to something when they could print a sticky label from their inkjet printer and stick that to it instead?

That was always the problem with acrylic keyrings, fridge magnets, mousemats, and so on. You can even get some of those plastic mugs you were discussing the other week - just print a bit of paper, then slot the inner and outer pieces together, and there's your plastic mug. But no one's going to pay you to do what they can do for themselves in about five minutes.

Dye-sublimation is about printing on usable products without them looking like DIY efforts. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that.

[Paul]

You can even get some of those plastic mugs you were discussing the other week - just print a bit of paper, then slot the inner and outer pieces together, and there's your plastic mug.

I discussed plastic mugs, but they where for sublimation printing

[JSR]

I could be wrong here, but I think the problem with some of the ceramic plates is that the surface isn't even, therefore you don't get a good print transfer to it, you get faded patches.

I seem to recall reading that on here before the changeover, so it should still be on here, somewhere, lol

Ceramic plates have improved on that score - it happened around the time they switched to using Orca-coating (so they're dishwasher safe now, too). The problem with doing plates is the lack of support from suppliers. There are still one or two suppliers around that sell one type of plate, but trying to locate someone who'll sell you a plate press is like asking them to supply you with hens teeth.

It's the old Catch-22 situation. Suppliers won't support plate-printing because there isn't the demand, and there isn't the demand because suppliers won't sell plates. We can't win.

I used to sell plates but, over the last couple of years, I've had to let sales diminish to nothing because of the lack of availability of plates and presses. My press is due a replacement, but there's no point in me paying out for one because there's no supplier out there that has faith enough in the product. The ones that are left soon won't bother either.

[JSR]

I discussed plastic mugs, but they where for sublimation printing

I know that, Paul, but my point is that anyone can make themselves a plastic mug by just buying one for £1.95 and sticking a bit of paper in it. Convincing them to buy a printed plastic mug for £4.99 is likely to be a hard sell.

[Paul]

oo I got you now