DSF

Hello everyone, I am just starting sublimation business, I had a lot of issues so far and the one I am facing now is where to buy good quality blanks for 3D sublimation. I ordered some from china, really cheap, something like 0.5$ per one but I wasn't able to sublimate them. They look to thin, and they literally melt or dont sublimate properly. Then I ordered some from ebay (UK), they are really good quality, much thicker than my first ones and dont scare to be heated up even at 200 degrees. I paid 10 pounds for 10 cases iphone 4. I was searching for information in forums and found that SUN FLY cases are good quality but too big. I ordered 50 cases to try. I paid 0.6$ per one + delivery cost. Is anyone has ideas where can I buy the best quality cases coz I am really struggling at this point. Is anyone tried to sublimate sun fly cases? Any suggestions? Thanks for any information.

Good luck with this one. There appears to be no supplier that can offer the whole range of phones at the moment and the quality varies. I'm having problems too. An opportunity for a forward thinking proactive person to cash in here methinks...

Really, are you both having problems finding reputable UK suppliers of 3D blanks?

I have used cases from Subliblanks, BMS and Longoforte without any problems (teething issues aside). I would suggest that looking for Chinese Imports yourself or Ebay are not the places to search but instead try reputable sublimation suppliers who have imported good quality cases (from China), tested them and are prepared to put their name to them.

You are only struggling because you are trying to save pennies.

And if you both became premium members you would get a discount on some of the suppliers listed.

I'm not trying to save pennies and have no intention of dealing with China. My comments were based on recent experience trying to find a supplier that would stock the entire range of case types in a broad range of phones iphone4,5,6 Galaxy S3,4,5. In both 3D, rubber 2D and flip front.
Spent four hours yesterday, with no luck. Correct me if I'm wrong please

All that you have listed are easily found on the suppliers I have mentioned (although iphone 4 might be limited), why limit it to one supplier?

As an example, I found that my usual supplier for 3D do some flip, but not all. They have i4, but not i5 or i6. Another supplier has the Samsung S4 and 5 but not the iphones. I also want to do the rubber ones. Not the black plastic that say they are rubber, but the proper jelly type that give good protection. Again one supplier does them in i4 and 5 but not the Samsung.

I'd have to agree with we-print, and it's far from being a financial thing for me as I'm known for making sure my customers have high-quality products. I just can never seem to find a single supplier who stocks everything that I need, or they'll say that they do and when it comes to placing the order I'll invariably get an email saying that they don't have certain items in stock. Sometimes I CAN get everything from one place but the supplier has changed their own supplier so the product I expect to get is replaced by something considerably inferior which ends up with a lot of wastage or I'll just throw them in the bin.

I have to flit between three or four suppliers most of the time, and sometimes I'll even have to go further afield. I've even contacted eBay sellers before who are selling cases that are the same build (ie the blank is the same) as the ones I can't get from anywhere and will buy them directly from them at a higher price. For example, my current S5 stock (after trying three pretty poor products from various suppliers) is 100% down to contacting an eBay seller and buying directly from them. Sadly, I bought their remaining stock and will have to wait for them to buy more from the factory in China. I'd do it myself but, as I said before, I was massively screwed over through (and by) AliExpress so don't particularly want to import anymore.

But why do you need to stick to one supplier?

As you have both said, you can get XXX from Mr A and YYY from Mr B, so what is the problem?

I have a phone shop that wants to stock some flip cases, and unless I can get the range from one supplier, I don't know they will be exactly the same design/finish/PRICE?? Some flip cases are just over £2, some are nearly £4. With tiny margins, you can't operate like that. You don't know when you come to restock how much you're going to have to pay.

Because I can't. I thought I made that perfectly clear... I'll buy from all different suppliers, expecting to get what I would normally get from them but sometimes they'll send me an entirely different product, which means I've wasted my money and saying "Hey, you sent me these cases but I don't particularly like them as I feel they're inferior to the ones you normally sell" isn't reason enough for a refund, so I continually lose money. It's not about finding a single supplier for me; it's about finding consistency. I care about quality, so I'm not going to peddle inferior products to my customers just because my suppliers are willing to compromise if supplies are short on their usual product.

When suppliers send out different products, it alters everything - some cases need slightly more time in the vacuum press than others (or slightly less), or they'll need a different temperature setting so if I only buy say 25 of the cases in I could end up wasting half of those trying to get the correct settings. Some also come out with a more blueish or reddish hue, so then you have to alter the colours before sending to print. It all costs money, unnecessarily. It's a question of consistency. If I were to list my prints as 295gsm pearl lustre on Hahnemuhle paper and then couldn't get any so started to send out my work on Imajet 200gsm gloss instead, I'd get a lot of hacked off customers because I'm showing one thing and sending another, yet a lot of the sublimation suppliers do exactly that.

So when I've bought 25 cases, spent the shipping on them, and then waste half of them trying to get them right and start ordering from other suppliers to try and get better quality products, it can actually remove the margin altogether, as has happened in the past. I'm not asking for one supplier who can sell everything... I'm asking for suppliers to remain consistent so that I know I can continue to by X from Mr A, Y from Mr B, and not have to start going to Messrs M, N, O, P, and Q to try and source the products I'm used to getting from my usual suppliers.