When pressing your own shirts beats print-on-demand, and when it doesn't
The answer depends less on the print than on what kind of orders you get. Five situations, each run through the calculator with public list prices.
Prices checked . Illustrations, not anyone's books. Time is valued at $15 to $20 an hour. Use your own numbers.
| Situation | Per order, cash | Per order, after time | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comfort Colors 1717 tees shipped one or two at a time | −$3.17 | −$5.70 | Keep outsourcing |
| Same, with transfers at a 250-piece price | −$0.15 | −$2.68 | Keep outsourcing |
| Same tee on a POD service charging $15.60 plus $4.95 | $0.46 | −$2.07 | Your time eats the savings |
| Two 20-shirt group orders a month, handed over in person | $57.79 | $36.46 | Pays back in about 11 months. Test first |
| Gildan 5000 tees, three per order, 60 orders a month, transfers at a 250-piece price | $9.08 | $5.83 | Pays back in about 1.9 months |
Single shirts in the mail: POD usually wins
A purchased transfer plus a blank costs close to what POD charges for the finished shirt, and your own label costs more than POD's shipping charge. Supplier guides that show a $5 to $14 gain per shirt leave postage and time out of the home column. Put them back and the gain is gone. The postage numbers.
Many shirts to one buyer: this is where a press pays
POD charges full price for every shirt and adds roughly $1.25 to $2.70 of shipping for each extra one. At home, the extra shirt costs a blank, a transfer and three minutes. On a 20-shirt order handed over in person the difference is $57.79 in cash. Team, church, family-reunion and staff orders are the ones to price in-house.
No postage: markets, pickup, local delivery
Take postage off the home side and most of the gap closes at once. If you sell at events or hand orders over in person, enter that share under “Less common situations”.
Cheap blanks and steady designs: possible, with volume pricing
On a $2.69 blank with transfers bought 250 at a time and three shirts per order, each order saves $5.83 after time and a $600 setup pays back in about 1.9 months. The catch is the 250 transfers. That price needs a design you already know sells.
Reasons that are not on the invoice
Sellers who moved in-house often give reasons other than cost. In T-Shirt Forums threads, POD users describe thin margins alongside print quality that varies, garments swapped for another brand, and fulfillment that slows before Christmas. A press gives you the last look at every shirt and same-day turnaround on stock designs.
Sellers who went the other way talk about time. One creator who recommends transfers and a press still calls time the ceiling, because every shirt passes through your hands. A long-running forum piece of advice is to start with a press and a few stock transfers before spending more, in case you dislike the work. You also take on sizes and colors to stock, lost-package messages, and returns.
- T-Shirt Forums: POD margins and service problems, and the press-plus-transfers suggestion
- T-Shirt Forums: a seller who used POD profits to buy a first heat press
- T-Shirt Forums: higher margin per shirt, but too few shirts per hour
- T-Shirt Forums: POD users on price rises and slow holiday fulfillment
- Video summary: test on POD, then transfers and a press, with time as the ceiling
If you are still unsure
Price a 12-shirt test before buying anything. The calculator shows what that costs at your prices. Press the batch on a borrowed or used press, time yourself, count the misprints, and rerun the numbers with what happened.