Wholesale cheap vinyl signs for tommorrow

[David Iannone]

Why not right? This is tomorrows signs that I do at wholesale prices on ebay. They get printed on outdoor vinyl and "stuck" so to speak to plastic or AL.

Printer did the hard work today, 30 min. Tomorrow I will spend 1hr or less to mount vinyl with laminator to substrate, print label and shove into a bubble envelope. My blanks are stacked by the hundreds for these dime a dozen signs.

I mix wholesale with retail. These signs are cookie cutter. It is all about volume with these particular "quick signs" but priced right, and with proper prep, I am glad to have these as a dependable monthly income.

Calling all sign shops with a Shopbot.......lets share some of our stuff. Even if its boring like mine. Techingues, pics, description. That's whats going to get the new SBers coming into the business to get creative.

Dave

[bobmoore]

David how do you compete with the big sign catalogs for this business. Bob

[David Iannone]

Bob,
I don't compete....IMO. Ebay, or the Internet is nationwide. There is plenty of business for all of us out there who want that easy high volume production stuff we do with our eyes closed. But yagota be ready to do 30 signs an hour if needed.

The easy part is thinking it, second half is making it happen and turning a profit.

I got the vinyl stuff down to a science. (started working with vinyl when I was 15 and the gerber 4b plotter was "IN".)

It is the dimensional signs off the Shopbot I want to demand top dollar for in my industry going forward.

Dave

[joe]

Dave,

I'm glad you posted your business model because the SB community come to the sign trade without any experience in this field. There's lots of good money to be maid by branching out like you're doing. That's the future for many small sign businesses. When a person buys a CNC, with the intent of going into the 3d field, without a good understanding what drives this field there's going to be financial losses.

We need more fellows like you leading the way. With professionals sharing their business and technical techniques a forum like this gains value. But it's hard to find or encourage successful sign business to post. That's because there's nothing in it for them. But without the skilled pro's you're left without the germ of what it takes to make a business go.

[Alex Naumenko]

I see you are selling those signs for $6.99 including shipping. How many do you have to sell to make shop rate? Or you do it after 5 for a beer money?
My cost to print 1 sq. ft of vinyl is about $1-1.25 (vinyl, ink, and laminate)
My problem it takes to much time out of my day to do small things. I can do them in bunches but not one by one.

[David Iannone]

Hello Alex,
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and look me up on ebay.

In the photos attached please see my cost of 3M vinyl rolls and 4x8 sheets of polystyrene. I am at .41 cents per sq/ft vinyl and print cost. These signs are done with 3MIJ35 with comply adhesive. No laminate used. 3-5 year outdoor before fading.

The 10"x7" plastic signs for $6.99 free shipping go like this:
- Mutoh Ecosolvent ink .15 per sq/ft
- 3M vinyl .26 per sq/ft
- .060 polystyrene .93 per sq/ft
- shipping $2.37 (this includes the bubble wrap envelope too)
Total Cost per 10"x7" Poly sign on ebay $3.16

The 18"x12" Aluminum signs for $10.99 go like this.
- 18"x12" .040 Alum blank $3.15
- Mutoh Ecosolvent ink .15 per sq/ft
- 3M vinyl .26 per sq/ft
- shipping on these is auto calculated so buyer pays ship on these. (and the auto calculate ship cost figures in for the larger bubble wrap envelope)
Total Cost per 18"x12" Alum sign on ebay is $3.76

So I can easily do 30 in 1 hour. Lets just say the 10"x7" = $114.90

I do them in bunches 2 or 3 times each week. Free scheduled pickups by the postal service come to my shop and pick the piles up. Last screen shot is my Seller dashboard.

I am not doing it for the beer money. I work to support my wife and daughter. However I do enjoy cold beer at home after an honest days work. It is not glamorous by any means, and I will not get rich off of it either. But my ebay sales monthly pay the rent at the shop. It has stayed dead on consistent for the last few years. The funny thing is I haven't added product listings in years either. I could easily double or triple my volume just by adding some more auctions. I plan on taking my top selling two dozen products and starting to sell on Amazon some time this year.

Its all about how efficient your process is and if you want to pursue that type of work. Me....I get up every day and right after I check my emails on my Iphone, I open up the ebay app and see how much money I made while I was sleeping.........;)

It is something anyone can do, and by the way I am a one man sign shop right now too,so trust me I stay moving all day. I don't advertise my ebay locally. (although I don't hide it either.) If someone comes in for the same sign in my front door the 10"x7" Poly is $15 Retail and the 18"x12" .040 Alum sign is $28.50 retail. If they were to say "I saw it cheaper on ebay", then I would say "order it from ebay please".

These files are pre setup and organized properly in directories on my hard drive. click, click, click and the stuff is shooting out the printer.

I do a lot of wholesale printing for a local sign shop. My charge to them is:
Zeelon 13oz banner $3 sq/ft
3M calandered vinyl printed $3 sq/ft with lam add $1 sq/ft
3M Cast Wrap Vinyl $4 sq/ft print with lam add $2 sq/ft
They supply the files in flexisign to me to size, color, etc. I basically just click print.

If I sell a job to a customer who comes in my door on the above material, my retail price is double what I charge wholesale.

I do about 200-300 12"x24" Magnetic signs per month for Charter Communications, Comcast, Mediacom. Ship magnetics all over the US to thier sub contractors $15 per mag/ $30 per set. Again, I can do 50 mags in an hour by myself using my laminator to "apply" the roll of printed vinyl to the roll of magnetic material. Super easy and fast.

I am not suggesting for people to follow what I am doing, but anyone interested I would encourage you to think it over. There is nothing like hearing your Iphone chime throughout the day with ebay sales while maybe the CNC is running, the printer is printing and I am working on stuff in the production room. When I am doing more than one thing at a time, well then I am making more money per hour. But you have got to keep all the robots moving. (Shopbot, printer, plotter) Ain't technology great?

Dave

[Alex Naumenko]

My wholesale prices for printing same is yours. we were thinking to start selling some signs on ebay but did not get around it. Thank you for all helpful information. I wish I would be as organised as you are.

[David Iannone]

Alex,
No problem.

Now that I just got my vac hold down table working for my shopbot I am going to buy the Donek drag knife so I can throw a full sheet of .060 polystyrene on the table and hold it so the drag knife can do all the scoring of the poly instead of my doing it with a tape measure, rulers and knife.

I go through a lot of cardboard too for my magnetic shipping material. Same thing with the Donek knife. Gonna start making my own boxes out of sheets instead of buying and altering boxes like I have been doing from Uline.

Dave

[barrowj]

David,

Cool idea. I hand cut and make my own boxes that aren't stock sizes but never thought of doing it with the shopbot. I will have to revisit that idea and next time I go to ATL I'll pickup sheet material. I have a good friend that owns a packing supply company that I get my big rolls of bubble wrap from and some boxes but he also gives me his scraps of sheet cardboard that i make most of my boxes from. I found ultralight mdf at Atlanta Hardwood and will be going down there in the next week or 2 and will pickup 2 or 3 sheets so I have some spare. They also have Baltic Birch in stock so I plan on getting a half pickup load of several items. I have decided to wait on putting on the bleeder board until I get the ultralight. No sense doing it twice.

Joe

[jerry_stanek]

I use a 1/8 bit to cut my boxes

[David Iannone]

Joe,
Whats the company name? I would like to check them out. I will be needing to start buying full 4x8 sheets of cardboard, I like the double thick sheets. I could make a run up to Atlanta every 6 months.

Dave

[David Iannone]

I just purchased the Donek Tools D2 Drag Knife.
http://donektools.com/

I have been wanting to get one of these since I first saw it, but have never had my table base properly setup to use it until now. My old bot is finally getting up to production speed now.

Dave

[barrowj]

Joe,
Whats the company name? I would like to check them out. I will be needing to start buying full 4x8 sheets of cardboard, I like the double thick sheets. I could make a run up to Atlanta every 6 months.

Dave


Dave,

For the cardboard, my guy is:

Packaging Plus, Inc.
Directions (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/''/packaging+plus/data=!4m5!4m4!1m0!1m2!1m1!1s0x88f59c36e18da0a9:0xf 5e75eef63484f52?sa=X&ei=inT9VOjoCYLDggT8jIGoBw&ved=0CJEBEPUXMAw)
Packaging Supply Store
Address: 2200 McFarland 400 Blvd, Alpharetta, GA 30004
Phone:(770) 772-9575



Just ask for Clay, he is a great guy.

[David Iannone]

Thanks Joe,
Will do.

I just received my Donek Tool today.....ordered friday and it was here monday. That was with standard shipping. I was so glad to see it already. My digital printer has been running all day, and still have about 5 hrs left of printing. I'm caught up on production stuff until tomorrow when today's printing is cured. I am about to go start cutting some stuff with the knife. I watched his videos over the weekend so I think I'm ready to slice and dice.

No more me hand cutting my sign substrates no more.

Dave

[David Iannone]

This was Sat pickup. 3rd pickup of last week.

[joe]

Bravo,

You're an inspiration to us all.

Joe

[David Iannone]

Thanks Joe,

The knife works great. Of course this was just a test cut box. I got it right on the third try.

- First try the bot took a dump and had a comm error.
- Second try I zero z incorrectly
- Third time was a charm....

Just threw a piece of coro on the table, flipped the Blue Box Vac hold down switch on. Cut the little trial out. Quick and painless.

Its a nice gadget at least for me. I don't run my Bot very much, but now there are things I can have the bot doing as a flatbed cutter with vac hold down to aid in my processing of the boring stuff.....:cool:

I am sure this has been done before, but here is my next thing I'm gonna try just for the heck of it.

I do not like sandblast mask, however, I am gonna take a scrap of western red cedar, prime and paint. Then overlay the piece with sandblast mask. Put on the shopbot and use the drag knife to cut out the vectors. Peel out the trash part. Then come in with a router bit and do a pocket in the part I just exposed. Take it down maybe .5" ? Then take it to my blaster to blast in the grain.

I am going to use a font with thin curves and lines to see how far I can push it.

Dave

[kenkelsey]

Dave, very interested in what you are doing. I sandblast as well and I'm looking to move more stuff away from the blaster and onto the CNC. Aspire 8 has some really neat curve lines that give a pretty realistic sandblast look when using a grainframe.

Anxious to here your results.

[David Iannone]

Ken,
Will do. I just upgraded to Aspire 8, but haven't even watched any new tutorials yet. Or played with the new texture tool. But it sounds really cool.

I will get some stuff posted up tomorrow with the drag knife in a new thread under Sign Making.

Dave

[David Iannone]

Just worked my way in with a Dish contract company. First order 144 mags. They sent file, I send to printer to 3M vinyl, then use laminator to "apply" the vinyl to rolls of mag. Then trim and ship.

Dave

PS. my auto takeup reel is broke. That's why I am rolling it up manually every 15 min or so. Working on making a new one on the Bot.