It might be intimidating to get larger rolls of HTV if you don't know just how much you could save. In this blog we'll take a look at the benefits of buying your most used materials in bulk.
First, I’d recommend taking note of what you primarily offer. Is it glitter? Mostly black and/or white graphics? A specific color palette that you always tend to gravitate toward? You should also take a look at popular sports teams and holidays in your area to help forecast what you’ll need. From there, you can calculate your needs.
STORAGE
Some of you may be concerned about using that much vinyl in a certain amount of time, but take heart that your vinyl, if stored indoors away from sunlight in a room that is 68-75 degrees, the shelf life of the vinyl is 6-12 months. So if you’re small time, and only do a few transfers here and there, it’s still more economical in the long run to purchase a 10 yard roll of the material you use most often.
But how economical is it?! Let’s break it down and look at some numbers.
THE BREAK DOWN
The following scenario will be based on creating 30 transfers that are 12x12” cut out of 15” EasyWeed.
We’ll start with 1 yard rolls of material. You’ll be able to squeeze two or three transfers from a yard so you’ll need to purchase around 10x 1 yard rolls to complete this job at $9.00 a yard that would be $90.00 right there vs. a 10 yard roll which is $69.00. So that’s obvious savings but let’s break it down even farther.
A 1 yard roll of 15” material is 540 square inches (36”x15”) and a 12”x12” transfer is 144 square inches. To determine how many transfers you’ll get from this 1 yard of material, divide 540 by 144 and you’ll get 3.75. So you’ll probably be able to get close to 3 transfers out of a yard but remember to allow for a bit of space between each one to cut the transfers apart.
So now let’s talk pricing per square inch. At $9/roll and with a roll being 540 square inches, to determine the price per square inch we’ll divide $9 by 540 which equals 1.6 cents per square inch so in this case that would translate to your cost for materials being $2.40/transfer. For 30 transfers your cost for materials would be $72.00 (2.4x30)
A 10 yard roll of 15” material is 5400 square inches (360”x15”) and a 12”x12” transfer is 144 square inches. To determine how many transfers you’ll get from this 10 yard roll of material, divide 5400 by 144 and you’ll get 37.5. So you’ll probably be able to get close to 35 or 36 transfers out of a 10 yard roll but remember to allow for a bit of space between each one to cut the transfers apart.
Let’s look at the cost benefits of buying larger materials across the board in a more broad spectrum! For those customers who typically buy by the sheet, if you purchased 1500 sheets (or 500 yards) in a year, you’d spend $5,250.00! Check out the graph below to see how much you would spend, and ultimately how much you’ll save by buying in bulk! Maybe you aren’t quite to that 10 yard roll volume yet, that’s ok. Buying material by the 1 or 5 yard roll will still save you loads at the end of the year! If you bought 500 1 yard rolls instead of sheets, you’d save $750.00! Now imagine those savings when you translate that up the chain! Instead of 1 yard rolls, purchase 10 yard rolls and you could save over $1000 a year!!
Let’s talk pricing per square inch. At $69/roll and with a roll being 5400 square inches, to determine the price per square inch we’ll divide $69 by 5400 which equals 1.3 cents per square inch so in this case that would translate to your cost for materials being $1.87/transfer. For 30 transfers your cost for materials would be $56.10 (1.3x30).
When we break these two rolls down into price per square inch almost a tenth of a cent doesn’t seem to make much of a difference but when you multiply them into a project, this becomes a difference of $15.90 (72-56.10) in your cost of materials!