Edit I have no idea how much shipping will cost. My zip code is 60608, use USPS to figure it out. I mark up shipping by $0.10 for a polybag, $0.05 for a 4x6 label, and $0.15 for 2 cardstock sheets to protect the label sheets.
Edit 2 Stop PMing me. Please. If you PM me about this I will ban you for life -- I am not here to sit on PM and discuss. This is a GROUP BUY, not a "hey hook a brother up because I posted a recipe in 2009 that some people liked." I posted THIS post so I didn't have to respond to 50 people in PM FFS.
I was selling labels on Reddit last year and had some pretty good responses. Then I moved my printer in September and broke a $5 part which ruined $7000 worth of parts -- and I decided it wasn't really worth it for me to fix it since I wasn't really pushing the product on others.
I've been getting a LOT of PMs from people lately and it's aggravating to respond to everyone so I figure I'll just write here against sidebar rule #5 since I'm not really a vendor and I don't really care to make money on the process, but I'd like to see what people think of doing a weekly "group buy" on material and ink to do eliquid labels.
I'm going to drop the $7000 next week to fix the machine, and then start looking to see about doing a weekly group buy to get the prices as low as is humanly possible.
Here is a low quality photo of some labels I printed for myself last year. Full color, die cut, water proof, no paper crap. Snazzy.
The Logistics
Vinyl is cheap. Ink is cheap. The average net cost to print a label is somewhere around $1.66 per square foot for solvent ink and 7-year waterproof stretchy white vinyl. Your average 3.5" x 1.5" 30mL label is 0.037 square feet but in the label work you need "bleed" to be able to print and cut edge-to-edge -- typically a 0.25" bleed per side which brings you to 4" x 2" gross for one decal. That's 0.06 square feet -- or around $0.09 per label.
That's the maximum price if you maxed out the ink coverage of a label. This is the same kind of label that B-X Vapor and Mitten Juice does exactly -- they don't laminate their labels as there is ZERO NEED TO for eliquids.
The cheapest label might be one with almost no ink -- probably around $1.12 per square foot gross, or $0.07 per label.
I feel that a $0.09 group buy deal weekly makes sense since it covers everything no matter what you do. Plus if you use a lot less ink, I can credit you back for the next run.
Group Discounts
I buy 25" wide vinyl but the outer 1-2 inches is useless. I typically sell 8.5" x 11" sheets because they're easy to ship, and you can fit around 16 labels per sheet ($1.44 per sheet for the most expensive labels).
This assumes I only buy and use about 1 roll a week of vinyl. If there's more people buying each week, I can get vinyl heavily discounted but wer'e talking doing tens of thousands of decals a week and that isn't likely.
Should that happen, I bet we could see the price drop to under a nickel a label, but we'd need a ridiculous amount of volume.
Shipping is USPS FCM around $3-$3.50 total -- includes postage, a few pieces of thick cardstock to protect the shipment, and the $0.10 polypro bag. No markup there. No need to as it's an easy thing to bag, tag and ship.
The quality/turnaround/minimum
It's 4 color (CMYK) at 1440 DPI -- it's beautiful. I am considering going with white ink optionally which would let me print on clear vinyl optionally (for a LOT more money per sticker, mind you) but white ink means my print speed drops 50% which sucks balls. I'm discussing it with my printer repair company now, though. Everyone WANTS clear labels until they see the price of printing clear labels, lol.
Also, this is solvent ink, not the crappy pigment ink in your desktop inkjet. There is absolutely no way this stuff will ever run. It's the same stuff used on car vinyl wraps -- it's permanent. No VG or PG or sweat will make it bleed.
Turnaround would likely be one week or so -- I'd take orders the week before, collect your money once it's priced, and then print the same day every week (probably Wednesdays).
The labels can be die cut to any pattern or shape. Rectangle, oval, custom robot character, whatever. It doesn't matter. Fit it in the dimensions and go.
You get unlimited colors, of course, since CMYK can make almost any color mix.
There is no logistical minimum except if no one else is printing that week, then you'd have to spend at least $10 so I can turn my printer on and calibrate it and not waste a ton of vinyl for no purposes. Otherwise, you can do 5 labels for a total of $0.45 plus shipping, I don't care.
Payment
Paypal, Bitcoin, whatever. It's all the same to me, I just want to get to a place where I can pass on the use of my awesome technology to those with your own boutique brands or even e-liquid brands ready to start selling to others but can't afford to do hundreds or thousands of labels. Each label can even be unique (serial number, batch, date, etc) -- there's NO limit to what you can do as this isn't screen printed.
How it will work
I'm not sure how it will work -- if the mods allow, maybe a weekly post; if not, I'll post elsewhere and you can throw your order in. I won't take any money until I can verify I am printing again. I called the repair place yesterday, they came today and snagged my broken printer, and I hope to have a working printer in the next 1-2 weeks and ready to go. I want to be ready with "intent" orders (not paid, just voiced intent) so I can get moving and get everyone happy with their product.
Why am I doing this?
Labels print themselves. It's literally zero labor for me other than tossing a label on a bag and tossing the bag in the USPS bin with every other order. I don't really care if I sell $5 or $500 a week, I'm not making a profit on it, but I do want to see more DIYers have a quality product to show off (or sell if that's your thing).
**Edit: Some things for me to ask:
- What size are your labels now? What size would you like them to be?
- How many bottles a month do you typically go, and do you currently just hand write the mg/ml or PG/VG (or even the flavor)?
- Any "premium" vendors who do labels perfectly, so I can scope them out and see what I should recommend on my template PDF?
Thanks for all your PMs and inquiries -- if I linked you here, it just meant I didn't want to retype all of this all over again.
I don't have a line, but just wanted to say that these look damn good. And at a really good price, from what I can tell. Keep being you, you beautiful douchebag.
Even if you don't have a line, it never hurts to label your own ADVs!
I used to label ALL my mixes, even crappy ones, and whenever I'd carry them around, random vapers would ask me about them.
Of course, all of my labels are politically incorrect or disgusting. I have a great "woody caramel vanilla" that I call One Night Stand. It has a photo of a wooden nightstand on the label, lol.
In August I hope to buy a $30,000 rotary printer that actually prints ink onto glass directly. Permanent. No sticker at all, just a beautiful permanent print. That'll be fun as hell to do bottles with! I just need to save up to get that toy.
I need one hundred thousand labels "strawberry shortcake bar minus the stick" with blank nic and vg places. Kthnx.
Also don't put /u/notCharlesManson anywhere on the label.
Lol -- would be about $5000.
Downside is with one 24" printer it would probably take about a billion seconds for me to print them, haha.
Although if the group buy was busy enough, I'd just buy another printer or two.
First time on this sub and wow thank you for doing this! I also own a printer and am in the industry of wide format printing. If you don't mind me asking what printer do you have? Also have you looked into the UV printer from Roland? Maybe you'll consider that rather than the rotary printer?
Wow, that's very generous of you. I've been using a Dymo 4XL thermal, which works, but I may very well be interested. Thank you for the offer and the well thought out post!
How do you feel about 9 cents a label? Does that sound tolerable for your brand?
Also need to know what SIZE label you actually would prefer so I can better estimate how to use the vinyl most efficiently. On a typical run I throw away over 40% of vinyl because of inefficient placement -- once customer wanted a decal 4.5" x 4.5" or something, but if I resized it to 4.40" x 4.40" he ended up saving 20% on the total cost! Little things like that can make a big difference when you multiply out by 100 or 1000!
I love my Dymo 4XLs -- I own 4 of them myself! Downside is thermal labels get dark with heat and light, so they're pretty temporary.
9 cents is perfectly reasonable. I'm pretty low key. I sell just enough to friends and co-workers to pay for a reasonable portion of my next flavor order. I'm thinking a nice 1.5-2" x 2-3" label would be perfect.
I love my DYMO as well, but any moisture fucks the label, and they don't last all that long, I agree. I'm thinking more professional labels would help me expand.
I've got a $300+ flavor order in my cart right now, and don't really feel like shelling out that much of my own money for that right now. I really do want to start looking into MF and FLV more though!
tldr; Better labels sound like a good investment.
Edit: Totally open to whatever size will use the vinyl most effectively, long as it fits my 30mL LDPEs.
Yeah I figure if you're "big time" enough to sell 100 bottles a month, that's a $9 investment for better marketing.
I'll post here once I clarify the sidebar rules with the mods -- and once I get my printer back, hopefully quick!
I am also a vinyl printer, specializing in die cut stickers but I also do labels too.
I applaud you for allowing crazy low minimums, that is something I would hate to do, prepping the designs for printing is a huge PITA!
Well, I'm not competition because I just want to focus on the guys that the pro shops CAN'T focus on -- the little guy.
Once someone wants thousands of stickers, I just can't compete because I can sit and spend 4 days on 1 order lol.
Maybe I'll need to get your info and bird dog people to you when they're ready for the big time. I'll have perfect artwork I can kick over, too.
No worries, I am no where near a pro shop, I was just saying that it would be a huge PITA to do all those files if one guy wants 5 label each for his 25 different designs. I would probably go insane at that rate especially when people don't include a bleed.
Well, I'm an asshole -- most of my ecommerce sites basically beg customers to not shop with me and take their business elsewhere.
Since I'm doing this at cost, I will be a bigger dick. Like the Soup Nazi but with labels. Part of this program will be me teaching people what makes good labels and what makes crappy ones.
I'll do reviews on YouTube of premium LABELS on premium juice and why their labels work so well versus crappy labels, etc.
If I can get DIYers to up their game, it'll work better for those in the industry selling for a profit -- informed customers mean LESS downtime and less frustration for you.
I absolutely love the idea. If you're willing to do all of that, I am appreciative and would definitely use it.
What size labels do you usually do, if you do labels?
Does 9 cents a label seem acceptable?
Definitely acceptable. I use 1.5" x 3" labels for 30 ml bottles. Considering using a larger size for 120 mls as I now just use those same labels for larger sizes. I would also be interested in sizing options for stickers as well.
Stickers wouldn't be an issue at all!
To come up with an average price, here's the equation, in inches:
(Width" + 0.25") x (Height" + 0.25") / 144 * 1.66 = cost in dollars, round up to the penny.
So if you wanted a 4" x 4" sticker:
(4" + 0.25") x (4" + 0.25") / 144 * 1.66 = $0.21 per sticker. Not a super competitive price but also not terrible considering you can do just 1 sticker.
The downside is that I need to maximize the usage of the 23" width -- so 4" stickers would be 4.25" wide which fits 5 across (21.25") which leaves me with 1.75" of wasted material! But then I can rotate a 3" x 1.5" sticker 90 degrees and shove it in that 1.75" space and not throw away all that vinyl.
Jesus you are fucking awesome dude.
You'll be getting my order when you're up and running
Does 9 cents a label seem decent? I was price shopping and the best I was coming up with was 15 cents a label unless you buy 1000 -- but I'm offering 9 cents a label for 1 label, not 1000 lol.
Yeah, that's really good. I need small labels (1-1/2" x 3"). While your price is on par at large scale, I only need about 1000 to get me started, with a minimum of $200-400 for setup and production.
If I ordered 20,000, I could get the cost to about 9-12 centers each.
I also had no problem finding close to this pricing for large labels > 3"x3", but I want rounded corners and don't want to double my pattern to have to cut them in half.
Yep, that's how I figured my pricing -- I took my numbers and averaged them out, and then I looked up large wholesale prices and those confirmed it for me.
1000 labels would be a "huge" order for me -- in the past I was doing 30-50 per brand, really small jobs. Lots of fun to see what people were putting out there.
The one thing that I can't do is print rolled labels, which are really nice for when you have to apply 1000 labels using a label applying machine. My machine doesn't offer roll printing, unfortunately. But my option would help the smaller guys get to the point where they can hire a roll label maker to crank out thousands of labels at about the same price.
That sounds like my store for that pricing ($0.15/$0.13/$0.09 depending on quantity) if you were shopping for labels.
Not sure who all I googled -- I did see a couple of them but didn't really pay all that close attention. I'm constantly running my eyes on google searches mostly to see how people are SEOing their shit so I can SEO it better
I must be super cheap , i just write what flavor the juice is on a Avery brand peel and stick thingee , 30 pack a little over a buck .
I'm a cheap bastard though .
I'm a cheap bastard, too, but when it comes to what your customer perceives as valuable, marketing matters. Even if you just give away juice for free to buddies, there's perceived value in the presentation.
Anybody that spends 7 G's for printing is not a cheap bastard lol.
I agree about the importance of marketing though , i don't have to worry about that since even i am terrified to vape the shit i come up with .
No chance i give it away unless i wanted someone to suffer an agonizing death .
I'm a ridiculously cheap bastard. My house is 900 square feet -- no basement, no second floor. I don't own a couch or a dining table. Or much silverware or plates -- I figure 2 forks, knives, spoons, plates and coffee cups are enough for me and any overnight guest.
I don't own a car because Uber is cheaper by 40% a month.
No TV, no stereo, no iPad, no video games. No internet at home. I don't even have a computer at home, nor a laptop. That's how cheap I am.
The $7000 is just for repairs, lol. I think the printer was in the $20,000 range -- and I never really put it to good use, just kind of had it because it looked like something I would want in my life.
Then again, I probably save $20,000 a year not owning a car or a TV or paying for cable or internet, lol.
I'm interested, but at a low run novelty level. I just think it would be nice to have good labels for my go to flavors. I had looked into cheap printers for this, but this would make a lot more sense. I do not have a design, and it's been awhile since I even messed around with such. What would be the file requirements? Or would there be a template you would have in this hypothetical future?
Anyway, I look forward to the consensus and if there is enough interest for me to tack on 10 or 20 sheets. I think .09 a label is a great price, but that's skewed by what I'm using it for...
I have no idea what inkjet home labels cost to print, but I'm assuming they're expensive once you add the cost of ink cartridges -- plus that's pigment ink which can bleed even if you buy the most expensive label stock for it.
Even if you do a novelty boutique line, 100 bottles is just $9 for labels at my price. Would be curious to run an estimate for what an average home inkjet printer costs per page, though.
Since I literally CAN (and have) print just 1 label at a time, it's not a huge deal for me to do 1 label or 1000 labels.
I'm in. Looking forward to it. Thanks for doing this
Once I'm back up and running we'll try it for a few months and see if it makes sense for everyone (including me). I figure if I automate MOST of it, it'll be an easy way to actually give back to the community without creating endless headaches for myself.
> I have no idea what inkjet home labels cost to print, but I'm assuming they're expensive once you add the cost of ink cartridges -- plus that's pigment ink which can bleed even if you buy the most expensive label stock for it.
As a user of an inkjet printer to make labels, it gets insanely expensive.... and I'm going through about 200 bottles per month. If I had any kind of art skills, I'd make something nice and legit looking and outsource, but I'm so lacking in art skills that I don't even have the creative vision to come up with a decent idea in my head. I make decent juice, not art.
I'm looking for some standard 1-1/2" x 3" rounded corner rectangles.
Do you have a minimum cost/sheet count?
Zero minimum for sure. One label is all. If no one else prints that week, then you'd have an option to carry over your label until the next week run, or increase to my "group buy" minimum of 112 labels (7 sheets).
I assume I'll sell all 7 sheets every week, in which case there would be truly no minimum -- can do 1 label if you want.
One caveat: the artwork will have to be PERFECT as the most I will want to do is open the file and click go. I don't want to have to dick around with bad artwork -- my PDF will eventually have VERY specific instructions for designing the label in Illustrator or Corel or Photoshop or whatever.
I remember I hit you up for labels a long while back and you sort of disappeared into the mist once I sent them, wondered what happened. Might have to hit you up on this, definitely need a source for clear white print labels.
Yeah, white print is an issue still -- once I convert the printer to white ink, I can't undo it. CMYK is great because it prints 2 channels of each color for 200% faster printing. If I go white, even my CMYK prints will be dreadfully slow. Plus the white ink is ridiculously expensive -- CMYK is each 1 channel, but white is 4 channels to get the same brightness, AND white ink is 200% the price of CMYK each -- so you use 800% more costing to do a white pixel than any other actual color.
All of a sudden, that 9-11 cent label can be a 81-93 cent label. Not sure if it's worth it. White ink on clear is much more efficient screen printed (with the minimum run and set up fees, even). No one is going to pay $1 a label, lol.
But I am working on it -- talking to some other competitors who do it and seeing what their tricks are.
As for my disappearing act, I took a contract last year where the client specified I could have ZERO contact with social networks -- I don't sign NDAs and I refuse to agree to privacy clauses, so he demanded I get off line until the 2 month contract was done. Then it became a 3 month contract, and then a 4 month contract, etc. I had been silenced by The Man. The Man who paid really well, at least.
So I'm guessing that psd is not the format you want the atrwork in?
PSD is fine if they are standard cuts -- like rectangles or ovals or squares, sharp or rounded corners.
For die cuts, I really need a die cut line in Illustrator or Corel.
The other problem I have with PSD (same with Illustrator and Corel) is that I have a lifetime policy of banning customers (and friends, and family) who send me files without fonts outlined. If it happens EVEN ONE TIME, I ban that person for life.
I most definitely want to take part in this. I'm currently designing my label and would rather have this done with your labels. My PayPal won't verify and it won't let me add another card though, do you have a website I can just typenmy info in? I'd honestly be fine paying a little more per label, I really need some professionally printed. When is this all going to start?
I have a lot of websites -- you don't need to have a Paypal account to use Paypal at all, I can have you go to a website and on the Paypal page you just don't login, just type your CC info in on the paypal page before the log-in page. I do it all the time with local customers.
Right now I have no idea when it will start -- they literally picked up my broken machine 4 hours ago and said they'd get me the final quote next week. Once I get the quote approved they'll order the parts, fix it up and get it back to me. He told me a week is about average, but who knows. If it's more than $7000 I have to wait until I have the funds together -- that's the limit of my bank balance until I get paid in April next lol.
I'm hopeful to start it up in 2 weeks. As soon as I have the printer back, I'll run a mod-approved contest here or whatever sub lets me, and run some decals on YouTube live so people can check it out.
Since there won't be a minimum order, I'll suggest people do SMALL orders first to see if the quality is good for them. Screen printed labels CAN BE MUCH higher quality but then you have hundreds of dollars in setup fees per run, too.
I'd be down for the group buy. Even though it's just be for personal bottles and friends / family
Can you do unicorn bottles? Like 50 labels? Please PM me. Do you design labels or what? PM me
I don't PM. I hate PM, PM is for people who have time to PM.
Labels will be any size you want. 1/2" x 1/2" even. Figure out your size and pick that one!
I'll offer design through my graphic design business but we aren't cheap. I'd hunt around here or on ECR for someone who'd do them cheap, lol.
OK I'll design myself. What format do you need? Are they really 9 cents each? I need 4 different labels 50 each so 200
Not sure yet -- JPG is fine for standard shapes. If you want a die cut, import a JPG into Illustrator and draw a line around the die cut region.
All artwork will need a 0.25" bleed around the cut line.
By hate PM do you mean don't send you messages like this? Lol sorry wayyy new to reddit
PM mean "private message" -- people PM me all the time, some weeks I get piles of PMs and I just can't get to them all.
I have a policy: I charge a crap load for my time. My hourly rate for private consultation is criminal. So if someone PM's me, I sit there realizing "I am wasting my 5 minutes with this numbskull for free."
If I communicate with anyone for free, it has to be PUBLIC. That means other people will read that interaction and get value. My reputation goes up. I consider public comments and posts to be self promotion for me.
If someone wants to PM me, I have to charge them just to read the damned thing.
I'll be looking to get some black, gold, and creme done in a circle cut with maybe 4 points; I'll give you a logo sample when I get home. Looking for about 2000 stickers. How much would I be looking at shipped 08005? These would be for promo/give away with product, not for bottle adhesion.
Actual "gold" would just be a color, NOT a metallic look.
I have no idea on shipping -- go to POSTCALC.USPS.COM and type in 60608 to 08005 and if you want 2000 stickers I'd say pick like 4 pounds and that'll be the shipping cost. Probably Priority Rate medium box? Not sure yet. No idea what labels evne cost!
I did a LOT of promo stickers for people over 2 years when the printer was working and people came back over and over again.
Color is fine, my bottle labels are foil; if you had the option for foil I'd be open to it. I'll have to figure out dimensions with some samples.
I'm not sure I can do foil, I'll ask my media supplier next week! As far as I know, metallic vinyl isn't all that easy to cut, and it's super thick so wouldm't work well on an e-liquid bottle. Not sure how the huge label makers do foil, probably screen printed on specialty media that isn't available in the 25" rolls I use.
But I'll ask around!
9¢ per label sounds really cheap for quality like your picture. I'd gladly shell out $15 for 100 labels like that. Especially considering I know you would work with me to get the little size deferential worked out and other details.
I normally just write my stuff on thermal labels I find at work with a permanent maker I also found at work.
There are companies already offering 100 labels for $15 -- die cut too. 3" x 1.5" I believe. So it's not a super competitive price for 100 labels, but I want to offer it to people for less, and without the 100 label minimum.
This is why you're my secret grandada.
Count me in whenever you solidify the rules or whatever.
I'll run it by the mods and that Aussie dude who thinks he's a mod, and then throw up some kind of Google spreadsheet for people to throw in so I can recalculate any special discounts -- once the printer is in my hands and I do a giveaway first!
Hey, I'd totally be down for this! I need to find some sort of artist since my artistic ability is somewhere around this level.
Truth be told, labels like that would stand out beautifully in a B&M!
Personally, I'd go for the true hand drawn look
You're not really a vendor, just organizing a group buy. The other mods should feel the same way, but I'll tell you now that i approve of this.
Technically there are aspects of vending involved, though. I have to consider it deeper to figure out where the line is so I don't actually cross it. I may flout the rules by bitchslapping the edge of them, but I always try to stay on the right side of the law.
Except on one subreddit not vape related, lolol.
I'll work out the deets better once I get the cost of damages, then I can figure out exact everything.
Well, you're more of a garage-vendor, like queuetue with his app and scales. I consider this just organizing a group buy. Also, I'd like to be one of the intent orders, since i need 150 labels for my first run.
Is your background a cat peeing honey? If it isn't, I'd suggest it, lol.
150 labels would be easy peasy.
I'm going to start reviewing vendor labels soon -- just working on a method to properly explain why certain labels work so well and others are horrifying messes of bad branding errors.
A great label is more than just colors, logos and fonts. There are ratios and measurements and visual degrees to keep in mind.
I'd be interested if you wind up moving forward with clear vinyl I don't need the white ink, just the clear vinyl. Will try to keep my eyes open for updates if you move that direction. I only do a few hundred bottles a month at this point but wouldn't mind stocking up on several sheets of varying prints.
Edit: Pure Black with clear vinyl is expensive, yes I know, but that's my design so FML
Edit 2: threw the mod approved tag on your OP. Group Buys are always welcome and I understand the pricing of this crap way too well. Clearly not offering this to make money but to be am asset to the community in a manner that no one else has done thus far.
Can I ask what kind of quantity/pricing you've seen for those clear labels? I haven't seen many people show prices, it's all "email to inquire" crap that I don't have time for.
I can actually print on clear vinyl in CMYK, but no white. I have no idea how things would show up on clear -- don't know if the ink is opaque enough to show up at all against juice.
Technically I could make money at this price, but it wouldn't be likely. The amount of time involved even if everything goes right means I'd be working for $10 an hour tops, lol. Appreciate the tentative thumbs up so far.
None. I stopped looking when I couldn't find any sort of minimum quantities under 500 runs per artwork. I've been using Clear Polyester Labels and printing on a laserjet. They work and look good, unfortunately, they don't last very long. Doing it this route costs me about $0.18 per label factoring in ink costs for my laserjet. (All black label with the lettering/logo left as clear).
Gah that's pricey.
When I get back up and running drive up to the DP and hang out, we can tweak together and see what happens. I ordered a 25' sample roll of clear vinyl.
I believe I can even do a double pass of ink (thicker) which might help with opacity. No idea. Worth trying, though.
I definitely would be interested in this. Much more professional then my brother printer. I already designed my labels before but could never find a way to affordably get them.
I'd be willing to get down on this too. I've been doing the permanent marker on Avery labels thing too, wouldn't mind having some higher quality labels.
permanent marker on avery is obviously cheaper in dollars and cents BUT it's time consuming and doesn't really beef up your brand.
A great label (which I will teach everyone how to make) is a key element in customer retention and recognition.
The big issue is the barrier to entry, which I'm hoping this group buy will allow me to overcome for others. I'd also like to see other label vendors get in the market to do the same thing so I just kickstart the idea. But I love printing stickers, so it's not like it's a chore (yet).
I currently have 3 different sized labels. 3"x1.5", 3"x2.25", & 4.45"x3.25". I'm happy with my label sizes. Prob need 150 medium ones per month, 75 small ones, & 50 large ones. These # fluctuate like crazy though. I can message you my current label designs. I right in the white space I provided and well as stamp its date of birth.
Could be interesting. I'll be watching for further information.
Thanks! I'll post a giveaway as soon as my baby comes back to me -- hopefully in the next 2 weeks or sooner.
Just building some demand interest so I can see if I should put my effort into it. If I can't get at least 2000 labels a week (somehow) on average, it's not worth turning the printer on that day! That's just 36 feet of vinyl, so it isn't all that huge, but the overhead of just getting it going means I have to at least have an active group buy to make it viable.
I'll have hard figures up soon, too, explaining how much it all costs me and how much time it takes, so people can decide if it's a value for them or not.
I'm so totally excited about this. I'm using a handheld dymo thermal printer and this would be a sweet step up. Right now most of my labels are plain black on white plastic about .5x3" just enough to include flavor name, nic, ratio and date.
Could you do a basic label design, like two letters, for an additional fee?
On an unrelated note, have you heard the song "kick out the epic mother fucker" by dadalife? That's how I picture you if, god forbid, they make you a mod.
Also, thanks. Us rank amateurs appreciate you and all you do.
I'm sure some basic label help will be available gratis within reason. Part of my plan is to offer some basic design tutorials so people can make great labels themselves without the need to worry about talent -- great labels follow some simple guidelines that no one else talks about in laymen's terms.
as a printer, lol and good luck.
I've been violating printer truths for 20 years -- one of my print shops only works with churches and we're currently so cheap on our weekly group buy deals that HP themselves contacted me to ask how we're doing it, lol.
I hope to grod that you're scripting job files or something. I ran a 54" mimaki printer and plotter part time for few years at my old job. I just can't imagine wanting to set up jobs for fun/marketing-points without a serious amount of automation.
Whoa man, this is amazing! I'm in, and am the owner of a line that currently offers 8 flavors. I as well would be more then happy to pay double your .09 offering for your time, effort, utilities and awesome service you are providing!
This may have been covered as I didnt read all of the responses here, but do you need the files in vector format? Hope that isnt a dumb question...
I make juice for myself and friends.
Right now, my "labels" are a piece of painters tape, written on with a black sharpie.
I make about 25 bottles a month. I handwrite the flavor and mg.
I would love to have labels that contained a logo/brand name, just to separate my bottles from generic 30ml PET bottles, and make my juice my own.
I'll definitely pay you to check out some of those. My current labels are great however the ink scratches off pretty easily with any force. I'll want to test a few just to make sure it looks and feels on point but otherwise I'll get a thousand or two to begin with after that.
My hope is to be the entry point for those who want to step up to a more professional high volume house -- my method is similar to others in the game (although there really are 4 or 5 different ways to print labels, lol).
Plus I want to help take crappy labels and make them a real brand.
That is exactly the stage I am at. I just barely had the design completed a little over a month ago and have been testing the first printed labels. I'm going to finish building my clean room in the next 6-8 weeks as well. If I had to go with these I would need to cough up a LOT more money when they aren't even scratch resistant.
Seems like an awesome group buy, count me in.
For your questions,
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Sizes are now 1x2(5/8) white avery labels
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I hand write the name and nicotine content, always max VG to the people I sell to
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CRFT and White Label juice co. imo have great labels. Very simple design.
I'm down to get some labels!! I'm sick of trying out all these stupid Avery labels at office max. They work good til juice gets on then it's shitty. Then I went and bought the "clear label" and the shit rubbed off! I'm on my 4th label now and I'm just tired of Avery and their silly shenanigans lol. I get some of my supplies from a b&m in near Chicago and I talked to them about labels and they want me to order around 500+ for each juice that I have plus they want me to go through their designer which is more money because if they make me something and I don't like it then I have to pay more and blah blah... no. Lol
Currently I have labels with my "brand name", juice name, small description of said juice, ingredients and notice of possible nicotine, nic level from 0-9, vg/pg ratio and amount of Ml's.
All that being said if you do go forward with this I would be down for the "group buy" for labels and I'd be completely interested in stickers too. Probably like say 600 or more labels and maybe around 100-200 stickers. Now my question to you would be-How do you want us to design and send them to you? I currently and don't forsee me having photoshop in the near future.
First off, You're awesome! Im totally interested. I use avery 1"x2^5/8" labels from my printer now and just design labels with pixlr, would like to bump the labels up in size. This is DEALS for good quality. I have a simple design in mind, just a basic logo or whatever and space to write in the name/flavor of the content and fill in the vg/pg ratio and nic amount. Will order when available!
Ive been looking ino labels recently and i can't find anywhere to buy less than 500. Would you be willing to ship to the uk? I cant figure out how much that would cost using usps website on mobile
I'm not sure about international shipments because the packaging would need to be a lot stronger and I haven't considered what's the best way to ship that way.
USPS recently raised international shipping rates significantly -- what used to cost me $12 before now costs me $19 just to ship.
So I will have to look into the logistics of it. If there's a risk of package damage or loss in transit, I will have to wash my hands of it. I figure the group buy will warn everyone of that fact and if they want to pay extra for insurance or signature confirmation, they will have to.
I will come down extremely hard on people who blame me for the shipping company's problems -- to the point that I'd rather ban future people from future group buys.
I should mention that past group buys I did in other areas (not labels) ended up being a huge frustration for international customers. I ended up forcing internationals to use a reshipper from the US. Maybe with labels it'll be easier as there is less to damage.
Thanks. When it comes to the buy ill see whats up with international and decide then. Shipping may be too much and make it less cost effective for me. I understand what youre saying about coming down hard on people who place blame on you instead of the postal company... Idiots.
The one thing I could envision is maybe doing a group-shipment to the same country to divide up the shipping and handling costs between multiple parties.
So if shipping to the UK was $25, if you found 9 other people at the same time, it would be just $2.50 per person and then whatever the local re-shipping costs might be.
Not sure if that would work, either, but I'm willing to invest some time into finding a solution!
In 2015, I had (around) 90 chargebacks from customers. 89 of them were denied by the bank because the postal service verified delivery was made. I lost 1 chargeback because I was out of the country and didn't know about it until it was too late to contest it -- that one was delivered and I later found the guy on Facebook showing off the items he said he never got.
Does this break Rule #5?
/u/abdada any more progress to report or I'm still assuming the printer is at the shop? Hate to ask the obvious questions.
Anyways I can't wait till this goes live. Really tired of having these chicken scratch labels.
I'm very interested in this as well. I think the price is very reasonable and it'll be a great improvement from my masking tape and permanent marker method. I'll have to get to designing up some labels to send to you. I would just like some basic 4" x 2" labels with rounded corners. When you say that you need fonts outlined, will just a simple 1-5 pixel wide outline do or would you like something more substantial? Or if the text was an entirely different color than the background color of the vinyl would I need to outline the text at all?
/u/abdada are you still looking to sell labels? If so, I've got just about everything lined up with the artwork to get them printed.
same here i'm currently designing my own font and have been looking up labels and printers etc and would love a vinyl option. i'd probably be good for 100-200 labels to start. i'll have to measure my unicorn bottles length wise but i'm sure the same would definitely fit nicely on the newer, slimmer 120ml bottles that have been coming out.
Do you have a link to the 120ml bottles you are referring to? I've gone through a few different places now and still haven't found ones that I really like.
these feel really nice in your hand. hard to fill smaller bottles like a 30ml unicorn because of the small tip; but i'm really liking these. everywhere i look shipping is pricey. sks is the worst, cost almost as much as your order to ship.
http://www.liquidbottles.com/shop-bottles/plastic-bottles/120ml-ldpe-bottle-w-tip-and-crctamper-evident-cap/
Thank you! This is exactly what I've been trying to find. I most recently bought a 100 pack of 100ml bottles from Heartland. I like them, but they are actually just shy of 100ml. I only make 95ml so that I can actually shake the bottle.
You weren't kidding about shipping. I might look into doing a group buy of them if I can get a decent estimate on what it would cost to reship them.