How to Price Sublimation Products
Sublimation pricing starts with materials — the blank, ink, paper and tape — then separates the time a person actively handles each item from the time it occupies a press or oven. Add shop overhead and ruined blanks, divide by what you can sell, and you have your cost per item.
Where the cost of a sublimation item goes
Materials
- Blank
- Ink and paper
- Tape or wrap
- Protective supplies
Active labor
- Printing and artwork prep
- Trimming paper
- Taping and wrapping
- Loading and unloading
- Finishing and inspection
Equipment occupancy
- Printer operation
- Heat or tumbler press cycle
- Oven cycle
Plus allocated shop overhead and waste or remakes.
Active handling vs. press or oven time
A tumbler can spend minutes in a press or oven while the operator is preparing the next one. If you charge labor for every minute of the press cycle, you may overstate labor; if you ignore the cycle, you miss what it costs to tie up the equipment. Separating the two shows which one actually limits your output and cost.
Worked example: 20 tumblers
Hypothetical example. These are not suggested market prices. About 4 minutes of hands-on handling per tumbler. The shop prepares 21 to allow for one ruined blank.
| Tumbler blanks (21 × $5.00) | $105.00 |
| Ink, paper & tape (21 × $0.60) | $12.60 |
| Active handling labor (21 × 4 min = 1.4 hr × $18/hr example wage) | $25.20 |
| Press occupancy (21 cycles × $0.25, hypothetical) | $5.25 |
| Allocated shop overhead for this job (hypothetical) | $20.00 |
| True Job Cost | $168.05 |
| Cost per sellable tumbler ($168.05 ÷ 20) | $8.40 |
| Price at 40% margin (cost ÷ 0.60) | $14.00 |
| Price at 50% margin (cost ÷ 0.50) | $16.81 |
Enter your own blank cost, quantity, print size and shop numbers to see your True Job Cost and cost per item.
Calculate My Sublimation JobShirts, mugs, tumblers and panels are different jobs
Blank cost, press or oven cycle, consumables and the cost of a failure vary substantially by product — apparel, mugs, tumblers, signs and panels, and other hard goods. One price list rarely fits them all; price each product with its own numbers.
Same waste rate, different cost
One ruined item out of 21 is the same waste rate on any product. But with $0.60 of consumables, that remake costs $3.60 on a $3 blank and $15.60 on a $15 blank. Use your own production history to estimate waste, and weigh it by what the blank actually costs.
The $18/hour above is an example production wage; rent and other operating costs belong in overhead. Know Your Shop estimates overhead per productive hour, and the methodology explains how it's applied.