reasons why people sell sublimation businesses

[Simong12]

Just a general question might sound like a stupid question. perhaps it is? im a full time maintenance engineer and do sublimation mugs in spare time as a hobbyist. and because of youtube and Paul's brilliant videos!, it looked practically something i could do and for fun for presents gifts and so on. as i prefer to do things myself if i can, right to my thread,

when looking for equipment on ebay because I'm on a budget or starter, the adverts always say selling because of new business venture, looking at sublimation you can do a lot of stuff, why do people sell up?

Is profit margins not good enough, technical knowledge not enough on process, time, too many people doing it?

I think all these things but before setting up a business people do there homework on these things.

just general thoughts why people would leave completely to start a new business venture?

i would just like to echo what a lot of members say, that the forum is brilliant. Thumbs up justin. And Paul and anyone I've missed who contribute.

[pisquee]

My assumptoins only, not based on research, apart from reading between the lines of many posts on forums like this, and the Ebay ads you talk about...

People think that this is a get rich quick scheme, they watch the videos of people doing it on YouTube, and think it's gonna be easy. They don't do any market research or do a business plan, just buy a load of kit and blanks.
Generally, people also forget that they are going to need to be able to design what they're printing, and design it well if they want good sales, and an understanding of graphics software. So many posts from newbies on here are asking where they can download an image of this celebrity or that cartoon character, or some famous company logo.

Also a technical grounding in how to run and maintain the equipment, along with being able to fault find, and tweak/improve all helps.
They read an Ebay advert saying buy this kit, and you'll make a fortune, but with no business plan or market research, they only know about selling on Ebay, where a beginner is going to struggle.
They get confused by posts on forums, and advice from salesmen, saying that theirs is the "best" kit, or that expensive ink brand x is the only brand they can use with that printer.

Once they've realised that they aren't an artist or graphic designer, don't have the technical grounding to manage the equipment and production process, or the business plan to make any money, the give up as quickly as they decided to get into their new get rich scheme and use those fund to buy into the next one.

The advantage for everyone else is that there's always a good supply of barely used equipment on Ebay to be snapped up at bargain prices.

[Paul]

First, thank you for kind words. This forum wouldn't exist without excellent members and the content they putting in.

Unfortunately i don't know exact answer for your question but i will share with You what I noticed few times...
As you said, many people must do they research? Yes. They do. often on eBay. They see loads of people sell unlicensed mugs and t-shirts and they think "hey ho!!! I can do that!" And they buy all equipment, inks, printers and blanks and off they go on eBay selling stuff bit cheaper then something that is already to cheap to make any money.

All you need to do is to look at their feedbacks. lot of them sell football mugs that not licensed and try to make money on a mug for £3.99 incl stage.

with this business model is obwious that their equipment will be for sale soon.

[Simong12]

I agree, ebay does make sublimation equipment look great for someone to start a business, or hobby, did to me? when I saw the stuff I said to my wife it would be 12 months before she sees the benefit of me doing it, I do enjoy the fact with the mugs of taking the random photos put them on a mug and give them for birthdays and xmas, and people say where I had it from and say did it myself,

the side you don't see is the time to do the templates on photoshop, that takes me the longest,

with the all the sublimation blanks you can buy today, do people allow that in there business plan?

or do people keep to a small selection, because of stock of blanks and the cost, as blanks can be expensive to buy, I stick to buying small amounts on ebay,

[ArferMo]

I'm lucky as I have one of the countries largest clothing/vinyl supplier/stockists 5 minutes drive away and can order up till 9pm and collect as late as 10pm and there is a sublimation/vinyl/ink/toner/imprintables supplier 15 minutes away so I don't need to hold much stock as I can pick it up as and when required. As a bonus one is a UK agent for Conde/Sawgrass/SunAngel and the other is a stockist for Embroidery/Xpress/TheMagicTouch/EZtrans

Both of those businesses are run by the most helpful teams and it is a pleasure to buy from them and recommend them to friends.

I never buy stock from eBay...... if its on there.... there is a reason, most lightly it's substandard or faulty.

[FBW]

Whooo hoo ...I just sold my first two mugs on fleabay.
Im gonna be rich rich rich beyond my wildest dreams

Seriously this is much like my other "hobby", photography. With lower prices for good quality cameras and even cameras on phones getting better with each updated iphone everyone is now becoming a photographer. I only started 3 years ago and seemed to have picked it up quite nicely - certainly I get a lot of models travelling huge distances to shoot with me BUT...I make diddly squat from it. There's no money in the game. Even wedding photographers are getting squeezed out.

And..I imagine that's similar for the printing game. As equipment becomes cheaper and better quality...anyone can have a go.

I bought my mugpress over Xmas period mainly so I can cheaply add a marketing gimmick to my main business....now I dont have the funds to go to someone and buy a 1000 mugs and after reading through this forum it looked feasible to do it myself.

But yeah....if I can sell a few to pay the costs for my own stuff then that would be cool. Unfortunately for those that make a career out of dye sublimation printing there will be hundreds like me and the cake slices will get thinner and thinner, as it has in photography. A lot of the older photographers feel threatened and dont understand they need to evolve their business model....and they will be the ones going out of business. To run a photography business nowadays is 95% marketing skills and 5% taking a good snap.

Times they are a changing. The internet has made it possible for anybody to become whoever they want - quite easily.

[Simong12]

I brought my items off ebay for £130, was 71 mugs, mug press and epson printer with ciss system full of new ink, in apr14, and have now brought Ricoh sg3110dn and Pixmax swing press, photoshop and brought 20 mouse mats,20 coasters, and 10 jigsaws, and so far still have 36 mugs and the rest haven't used the press yet. For me it's the ease of ebay for blanks really.

I would like to do the clocks, glass, other stuff but I haven't got the belief to do more as I love my job as engineer,

Its still fun for me,

[Simong12]

Like most people I've seen mugs for £4 including delivery, and unless they sell loads, I can't see a big profit in that,

the people that sell all gear I can only assume they didn't have the drive and heart to continue with sublimation, because as some have said you need business plan.

or I suppose when on ebay they are lying on listing to sell items,

[JMugs]

To make money you don't need to be the best at printing, like wise you can not be useless, you need to be what your market expects .....you need to understand business.

Printing is easy really, marketing, designing etc is the money maker and that is where you need to understand (or be prepared to learn) business.

Just my thoughts.

[rossdv8]

From a hobbyists point of view, I can imagine a lot of people seeing the relatively low start up cost of equipment, blanks and consumables being an enticement to start 'printing money'. Then perhaps, after ruining a carton of mugs and a few dozen tee shirts, deciding it is all a waste.

I firmly believe the advice on this forum has probably saved a heap of start up entrepreneurs from that, but it is still risky for beginners, not because of any complexity in the design and pressing process, but because people simply don;t investigate the cost versus sales versus time aspect.

Sure, you can make a good profit on an item like a mug. But how long did it take you to create the design and actually make the thing? More than the 7 minutes to print, cut, tape and press, then strip and cool, I bet. And then you might be sending it off. So there's the time involved in packing, addressing, calling the freight company or wandering to the post office.

All this has to be converted to minutes per product and dollars per hour, on top of the cost of the blank and consumables, and so many people never bother. So they try to cut the guts out of the competition, then they wonder why they seem to be doing so much work and not actually making money.

They decide it is all too difficult and another 'starter business' is for sale with 'everything you need to get rich quick'.

Luckily the Pauls, pisquees, Niks, Charleseses and other regulars here are around to rescue some of us with advice, probably because they have worked out their math well enough to stay in business and provide some inspiration.

Then you get the clowns like me. Hobbyists who work a niche tourist market for fun and refuse to sell anything at all without a certain minimum of profit. Direct sales to niche markets is a numbers and patience game, and you more or less need to have confidence in your ability to sell eggs to a chook to succeed. And nothing succeeds like a budgie. You also need to have time, cash reserves and location on your side and the willingness to experiment and learn from numerous mistakes.

As long as people see this industry as a get rich quick scheme there will be start up businesses advertised. It is surprising how much 'ill health' is around.