recommendations

[Kaz]

Nice one Paul

[Greensleeves]

I dont know why but i am getting cold feet about this buisness regards cost over profit. The lack of plate suppliers also limits the business. Here in Ireland mugs are making 10 euros each finished, but you must carry a good deal of stock not to run out during a busy season. The plate suppliers issue, worries me as i did not want to get into stocking tshirts as a result of making up for lost revenue. i do not want to run this as a hobby,

[Paul]

you can import plates from china. after paying a import tax you can still get them for cheaper...
check them out here:
[url="http://www.bestsublimation.co.uk/index. ... lates.html]http://www.bestsublimation.co.uk/index. ... lates.html[/url]

[url="http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/Sublima ... Plate.html]http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/Sublima ... Plate.html[/url]

[jennywren]

I trade 6 days aweek and can say hand on heart not having a plate press will make no difference to your profit only to your loss as I am only asked one or twice a year if I print on these, but what I do is use a decal paper that I use on candles and use that on a plate then I use the floor cleaning klear which puts a clear layer on the image. A model decal does the same but you still need the klear to seal it, this way you don't need to stock plates or buy the press. All you need is the decal, image normal printer ect. I use this on quite a few one ofs. Hope you can undrstand this, if not pm and I'll do stage by stage.

[bms]

you can import plates from china. after paying a import tax you can still get them for cheaper...
check them out here:

Check out that main picture of the plate - see the blue turning to a purple haze on the outside of the image? That's because the plate is not perfectly flat. The plate will be higher in the centre and then fall away (if you poured gravy on the plate it would go to the edges). That means your plate press will touch the centre of the plate and have problems touching the outer part - the resulting image will appear faded at the edges. Exactly like it looks on their website!

Water decal paper with the stuff jennywren suggests would be a far better approach - results much more guaranteed.

[accdave]

I trade 6 days aweek and can say hand on heart not having a plate press will make no difference to your profit only to your loss as I am only asked one or twice a year if I print on these, but what I do is use a decal paper that I use on candles and use that on a plate then I use the floor cleaning klear which puts a clear layer on the image. A model decal does the same but you still need the klear to seal it, this way you don't need to stock plates or buy the press. All you need is the decal, image normal printer ect. I use this on quite a few one ofs. Hope you can undrstand this, if not pm and I'll do stage by stage.

I trade 6 days a week too, in 15 months of trading I've been asked for a plate once. I assume they are not a great seller or people only go and look for people advertising them. Considering the various things we do get asked for I would have expected to be asked a lot more.

[Paul]

r u dispaly the sample plate in your shop? iam bit suprised as i sold quite few of them in short period of time...

[Greensleeves]

I have to say thankyou to all who responded to my questions. i have not lost heart in this buisness only i know i can sell alot of plates by marketing them right. I am persuing a job lot of equiptment at the moment and will let you all know how i get on.

[jennywren]

r u dispaly the sample plate in your shop? iam bit suprised as i sold quite few of them in short period of time...

I do and and it just gathers dust, at the moment I find people have less money to spend there is less footfall and the traffic to the website has slowed down, But I find this is everywhere in most retail sectors we have been there before and we just have to keep going on

[Greensleeves]

Got contact in the trade here in Ireland and €1500 setup with printer with inks 100 mugs and 100 8"plates mug press and plate press plus paper and what ever alse i will need. What do you all think?