Where can I get vinyl decals printed for a decent price?

I need 2'x4' (that's feet) vinyl decals printed with photos of my photography at a decent price. I had a local place quote me $80 for one. They're going on corn hole boards and that's way too much. The guy that wants them is paying $100 for two matching beer logo ones right now. If I can't get a low enough price, I won't get the job and he needs 10 sets of photos, so 20 total images.

Anyone have a lead on where to go?

the local hockey team sells dasher board advertising and the printer they use (not sure what they are exactly) but they get about $80 for a 3' by 8' vinyl image...

$80 for half of that (your size) seems a little bit steep but im not sure if were really comparing apples to apples...

And how many threads are on here **** about photographers lowballing other photographers?

You could always buy your own vinyl printer: https://www.signwareho​use.com …-valuejet-48packages.html

drvnbysound wrote in post #15814358
You could always buy your own vinyl printer: https://www.signwareho​use.com …-valuejet-48packages.html

Thousands of dollars for something I'm going to use once? No thanks.

that's why they're not cheap to make

You don't have to use it only once, but I guess that is an option. You could start offering life size wall prints of your clients... similar to Fatheads, or you could just become a cheaper alternative for everyone else to outsource their printing to. When you look at the cost of the materials, I'm sure that it would be cheaper that what you've been offered

Village_Idiot wrote in post #15813694
I need 2'x4' (that's feet) vinyl decals printed with photos of my photography at a decent price. I had a local place quote me $80 for one. They're going on corn hole boards and that's way too much. The guy that wants them is paying $100 for two matching beer logo ones right now. If I can't get a low enough price, I won't get the job and he needs 10 sets of photos, so 20 total images.

Anyone have a lead on where to go?

Get in touch with this guy, he's a good guy, and I almost did some business with him once, but my thoughts went on to something else. I do remember that he was more than reasonable in his pricing though.
I didn't actually see any 4-color image decals that are on his site, but he sent me a sample of one, and I was impressed. That was a couple of years ago though. If he doesn't (for some reason), ask him who does, he knows people that will.

I copied and pasted his information below...

http://www.skmfg.com/

"Feel free to call us at 800-764-8688, Monday thru Friday between 9AM and 5PM (Central Time Zone)"Randy

DBNissan wrote in post #15815193
that's why they're not cheap to make

That really was my point

But I was half serious about the purchase, lol. I own my own business in another field, and I bought a vinyl cutter/plotter (not printer) almost 10 years ago. I wanted to make window decals for myself (advertisement), and also wanted to be able to give some smaller ones away to my clients (more free advertisement). I figured being able to do them myself would not only save me a lot of money, but it would allow me to control when they are done, but also allow me to offer them (i.e. custom designs) to my clients.

It ended up expanding into a whole thing of itself, where I've done things from standard window decals, to wall graphics and even commercial signage. Such as:

http://imageshack.us/a​/img708/3998/wallartcm​t.jpg

http://imageshack.us …833/8220/coropl​astdds.jpg

You may want to check out VistaPrint. They seem to do just about everything and perhaps they can do something in vinyl for you. Another possibility would be FastSigns if there is a local brick and mortar. Good luck with the project. - Stu

drvnbysound wrote in post #15815237
That really was my point

But I was half serious about the purchase, lol. I own my own business in another field, and I bought a vinyl cutter/plotter (not printer) almost 10 years ago. I wanted to make window decals for myself (advertisement), and also wanted to be able to give some smaller ones away to my clients (more free advertisement). I figured being able to do them myself would not only save me a lot of money, but it would allow me to control when they are done, but also allow me to offer them (i.e. custom designs) to my clients.

It ended up expanding into a whole thing of itself, where I've done things from standard window decals, to wall graphics and even commercial signage. Such as:

http://imageshack.us/a​/img708/3998/wallartcm​t.jpg

http://imageshack.us …833/8220/coropl​astdds.jpg

Then you factor in the cost of the inks (especially the UV stable inks ), replacement blades, premium vinyl costs, etc. It gets steep to own one real fast. My buddy does clear bra and tint and has a 54" wide format Roland plotter that was not cheap. He looked into one of their UV printer/plotter machines to start offering FatHead-like appliques and custom clear bra accents but found out the machine would cost him over $60k. That killed his ideas quickly!

DBNissan wrote in post #15815260
Then you factor in the cost of the inks (especially the UV stable inks ), replacement blades, premium vinyl costs, etc. It gets steep to own one real fast. My buddy does clear bra and tint and has a 54" wide format Roland plotter that was not cheap. He looked into one of their UV printer/plotter machines to start offering FatHead-like appliques and custom clear bra accents but found out the machine would cost him over $60k. That killed his ideas quickly!

Doing work on that scale is certainly not cheap, and most people don't want to take out a mortgage to buy equipment for their business. However, if there wasn't profit in the market no one would be doing it.

BTW: The margins on tint is CRAZY - I did that for a few years too. At the time I could purchase a 100' roll of [GOOD] tint for about $115 (after shipping). With that roll, I could do 4-5 cars @ a MINIMUM of $99 each. I know of places that charge $175 for a single cab truck. The difference is that the cost of doing business (tint) is almost nothing - you need some spray bottles, razor blades, squeegees, paper towels, etc.

drvnbysound wrote in post #15815237
That really was my point

But I was half serious about the purchase, lol. I own my own business in another field, and I bought a vinyl cutter/plotter (not printer) almost 10 years ago. I wanted to make window decals for myself (advertisement), and also wanted to be able to give some smaller ones away to my clients (more free advertisement). I figured being able to do them myself would not only save me a lot of money, but it would allow me to control when they are done, but also allow me to offer them (i.e. custom designs) to my clients.

It ended up expanding into a whole thing of itself, where I've done things from standard window decals, to wall graphics and even commercial signage. Such as:

http://imageshack.us/a​/img708/3998/wallartcm​t.jpg

http://imageshack.us …833/8220/coropl​astdds.jpg

It was definitely fun at first when I started, but I've grown tired of it because it takes up too much of my time.

It is nice to be able to make my own decals.

By the way, even though I don't do the printed decal thing, I'm sure the costs are higher than mine. I ran the numbers for what I do and the number you got doesn't sound half bad and I don't have any overhead like your guy probably does.

I'll check out some of those links. My biggest point is that he's getting bud light, colors light, etc vinyl for $100 a pair from some place but they do huge runs so their cost is obviously lower. If I can't get under $100 a pair it's not worth it to go with what I'm doing when my profit would push the cost up way more than what he's paying now.

Village_Idiot wrote in post #15816051
I'll check out some of those links. My biggest point is that he's getting bud light, colors light, etc vinyl for $100 a pair from some place but they do huge runs so their cost is obviously lower. If I can't get under $100 a pair it's not worth it to go with what I'm doing when my profit would push the cost up way more than what he's paying now.

Being a beer promo I agree - it's probably a HUGE print run so the price is so low. That's going to be a tough challenge; good luck in your search.