The cost DIY-versus-POD guides skip: your postage
Print-on-demand bills a seller about $4 to $5 to ship a first tee. Your own label for the same shirt costs more. On a single-shirt order that gap can be larger than everything you save on the print.
Rates checked . Postage changes several times a year. Check the current price before you rely on these.
What POD charges to ship
- Printify providers: about $3.99 to $5.49 for a first tee in the US, and roughly $1.25 to $2.69 for each additional item from the same provider.
- Printful: $4.95 for a first shirt and $2.20 for each additional one, plus a $0.40 per-order surcharge from October 15, 2026 to January 17, 2027.
What your own label costs
Since July 12, 2026 the published USPS commercial price list charges one rate for every Ground Advantage package under a pound. The 4, 8 and 12 ounce steps are gone from that list.
| USPS Ground Advantage, commercial | Nearest zones | Zone 5 | Farthest zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1 lb, list of July 12, 2026 | $6.93 | $7.69 | $8.40 |
| Under 1 lb, holiday list, Oct 4, 2026 to Jan 17, 2027 | $7.33 | $8.24 | $8.95 |
| 1 lb, list of July 12, 2026 | $7.61 | $8.74 | $10.67 |
| 2 lb, list of July 12, 2026 | $9.95 |
Some label services advertise rates below the published commercial list and still price by the ounce for most addresses. Those are quotes, not a list, so run one for your own package and enter it in the calculator.
What it does to the math
In the Comfort Colors 1717 example, POD ships the first shirt for $4.75 and the seller's label is $7.69. That $2.94 is most of the $3.17 cash gap per order. Postage would have to fall below $1.99 for pressing to break even there.
Four things to check
- Weigh a packed shirt. A package at 16 ounces or more is billed as the next whole pound. Two heavy tees can cross that line; two light ones may not.
- Get a live quote from two label services for your usual package and a typical destination.
- Count the orders that need no postage. Pickup, markets and group orders change the result more than any other input.
- Look at multi-shirt orders separately. POD adds roughly $1.25 to $2.70 for each extra shirt. Your label rises only when the package crosses a pound.