Selling Merchandise the EASY WAY

[Joel Tacey]

I didn't know what category to put this under, but promo works pretty well.

If you ever wanted to sell stuff with your logo/website/picture/face on them, AT NO COST TO YOU, then check out www.cafepress.com and click on "create and sell." I am not affiliated with them in anyway.

You provide your contact info and promo pics, and they take care of the rest - your webpage, taking the orders, billing, shipping; everything. Then they send you a % of whatever they sell on your behalf. This may sound confusing, but check it out for yourself. It's pretty neat.

Let me know what you think!

[clapchap]

Just some questions...
Do you have any products of your own on the site?
Does it send any spam?
"You provide your contact info and promo pics, and they take care of the rest - your webpage..." is this a page of your products on their site?
Have you ever ordered from them to know how well they deliver or their products are, etc?

Thanks for sharing,
Eric

[Jim]

I've never bought or sold anything on cafepress, but I always got the impression that the products they sell are "iron-on" type images on the articles of clothing. There's no way they're making screens and silk-screening high quality images for every single product. They must just scale your image to size, print it out with an inkjet printer onto the iron-on paper and then do a quick heat transfer onto the shirts and whatnot.

Sure it's convenient for you to sell the stuff with zero overhead, but I can't imagine the quality is all that great for the consumer.

Has anyone bought anything from cafepress? Does the printing hold up to more than a couple washings?

Jim

[le pire]

I haven't used cafe press for the exact reasons Jim has listed. The other thing is I've seen a LOT of people use cafe press (not just performers) so I would imagine that customers are familiar with cafe press.

So here's my question for people who use cafe press:

Has anyone ever BOUGHT anything from you?

etienne

[stickman]

I tried it after Johnny Massacre showed it to me a few years ago. Haven't sold a thing, not that I got a check for anyhow. I've stopped using them now. Only spam I got on that email account was directly from them, so tolerable.

Stickman

http://www.weeble.org

[Joel Tacey]

Details...

I have not used cafepress.com, and have never bought anything from them.

I discovered their site after visiting a website that makes fun of religion and sells a bunch of stuff on cafepress.com (www.landoverbaptist.org -- do not visit if you are easily offended).

Now, onto the real info:

I called cafepress and asked them about how they produce a few of their products:
T-shirts -- "High quality, industrial heat press...resists cracking, pilling, and fading"
Coffe mugs -- "die-sublimation process" (the logo is printed on a special material and baked onto the mug under the enamel)
Lunch Box -- "high quality trasparent sticker" (a transparent sticker fits the front/back of the box, with the logo printed on the underside of the sticker)

Then I got bored and told them I had to go. So, while I have never ordered anything from them, they seem to be fairly high quality products, similar to what you would get at an average custom-product-printing shop.

Finally, the main way you would get people (all of your fans) to buy your products, is by having a link to "your product page" on your website. These fans would then see a selection of products with your logo/info on them and get so excited, they would buy them by the truckload.

Keep in mind that none of your products are actually printed until they are ordered by someone.

Jim had an excellent comment:
"Sure it's convenient for you to sell the stuff with zero overhead, but I can't imagine the quality is all that great for the consumer."

That is exactly how cafepress makes their money; they deliver an average product for an average price and handle 99% of the details…a service you just can’t get anywhere else.

Whew. That took a lot more time than I had thought it would.

Thanks for reading.

[Jewls]

Hi,
I have a cafepress account only for a few weeks. I have sold some things and I have ordered some promo things for myself. I am not looking to make a lot of money selling products I have very little mark up. I just want my products out on the street. I have my web site addy on everything. I have a link on my web page to my products. I will post if I ever have a problem.
Jewls

[upjuggler]

Ordered a couple of stickers, a t-shirt and a black cap, and received it today. took over 2 weeks.

Here's the scoop. So far, I am happy with the t-shirt and the stickers, but NOT happy with the black cap. It has a patch with my "image" on it. i don't know what the patch is made of, but it is easily creased. the patch is just glued onto the cap -- it looks like they have "superglued" the patch to the cap, and the glue has bled into the image a bit and is smeared on the cap in one spot. Looks pretty cheap to me. I am sending the cap back and REMOVING it from my store.

Quality of the actual material? Great! The cap has a tag on it with the "OTTO" logo. I haven't researched "OTTO" yet, but I will. The cap itself is wonderful, it's just the cafepress patch that's not good. The t-shirt is "Hanes BEEFY T". Great quality, and great work on the t-shirt.

[Jewls]

I am guessing you paid for the cheap shipping and that most of the 2 weeks was the 10 day shipping. am I wrong?
Check your shipping options.
They have my stuff shipped out within 3 days every time I order. My hats don't have patches? What hat did you get I have ordered two different hats and both were well done, printed no patches. Really even two weeks is good for personalized products even when I have them done locally. If you need things sooner look at the shipping options and pay for faster delivery.
I have been very pleased with everything I have ordered.

[upjuggler]

The "Black Cap" is the hat that has the patch. The image is printed on the patch, and the patch is glued to the hat. Mine is really messy, and is going to go back. I may have just gotten the "rotten apple", and the next one will be fine - I don't know.

You are right, shipping option was 5-10 business days. I didn't realize that one. It took 10 business days from the shipment date, which was two days after my order.

Jewls, I may be seeing you on Thursday - I'm not sure yet. I am making plans to visit "ToyBoy" for a few days.

~upjuggler

[upjuggler]

I received a replacement hat the other day, and it is great. No flaws. I must have gotten a bad apple the first time.

~upjuggler

[upjuggler]

I received a replacement hat the other day, and it is great. No flaws. I must have gotten a bad apple the first time.

~upjuggler

[Jewls]

Thanks for the update it's good to know they stand behind their products and the replacement seemed to be fast.
~great passing with you Upjuggler!
Thanks for making the trip!

[May East]

Originally posted by le pire

So here's my question for people who use cafe press:

Has anyone ever BOUGHT anything from you?

etienne

I've sold stuff on cafe press, but I have to send the people there to buy it.

Also I only have one product so my 'store" isn't that inviting.

my cafe press valentines store