Webshop Update

  If you look on the right side of the page, you’ll see that the Garage now has t-shirts for sale.  For right now they are from Printfection.com, but I’ve been evaluating four different options, Cafe Press, Printfection, Zazzle, and Spreadshirt.  There are good and bad points about each, and I’m not going to limit my choices by just picking one.  I’ll be offereing products from all four eventually.  In case anyone is thinking of making their own designs, I’ll detail what I’ve learned so far..
Cafe Press
  Of the four, Cafe Press is my least favorite.  The printing area is the smallest (10” x 10”), and the color choices are not as extensive.  On the plus side, their prices for children, toddler, and baby shirts are the cheapest.  Since that is, in my opinion, a rather small segment, there won’t be much offered from Cafe Press at this time.
Printfection
  This is the current supplier for all my designs, but that will probably change soon.  The prices are decent, and the color choices are excellent.  The problem I have is production time and shipping.  I ordered a tee on March 30th, a Saturday, so I expected a delay in production until Monday.  April 5th, the next Friday, is when it was finally produced and shipped, and the expected delivery date is April 18th!  Shipping costs $6.99 with no tracking information available.  Zazzle ships for $6.49 with tracking, and Spreadshirt ships for $4.50 with tracking.  Printing quality will be know, as soon as my shirt is finally delivered!
Zazzle
  Zazzle has great production and shipping times.  A tee ordered on March 23rd, a Saturday, was produced and shipped that day, and was delivered on March 30th, a Saturday!  Zazzle has a lot of great color options, and for basic tees they have two different weights, 5.5 oz (white only) and 6.0 oz.  The problem is that each color can have a different price, and they don’t list the manufacturer of some of the tees.  The lightweight version I received is made by Harriton, a brand I’m not familiar with.  Printing quality seems to be really good.
Spreadshirt
  Spreadshirt is probably going to be my main supplier for tees.  The costs are great (5.3 oz tees are $13.00, and the 6.1 oz tees are $17.00), they have good color choices in both weights, the shirts are made by Gildan, a known quantity, shipping with tracking is only $4.50, and production and shipping times are reasonable.  The printing area on the tees is also very large, better than Zazzle and Cafe Press, about the same as Printfection.  I’ll know soon how good the printing quality is.

  For the immediate future the Printfection shirts are it, but I’m working on getting the Spreadshirt designs going.  On the 5.3 oz tees I make $2.00 (out of $13.00), and the 6.1 oz tees I make $1.60 (out of $17.00).  I like to keep the prices as low as possible because, face it, you can get a graphic tee from Walmart for cheap.  I’ll also use Zazzle for some of their color options, they’ll just be a little pricier.  As always, comments, questions, criticisms are always welcome at
midengine-at-gmail-dot-com