Posted by Walter Rowe on August 7, 2007 at 10:10 PM
I have some water lily images I think would make excellent refrigerator magnets. Has anyone here done this before? How did you evaluate print shops? Which did you choose? How pleased were you with their results?
I have sure had the requests for this product. At least one vendor I found while knocking around offered free samples. I think that is worth getting and looking at. I have considered doing my own with business card magnetic backs like you can purchase at big box office supply places. I think this product has an excellent margin and I think it has a good fit to our markets these days.
I have also seen magnet backs for pin on button machines. That is another path you could go down. If you have not discovered these guys, I get super cheap prints from pephoto.com for this sort of thing. $.08 for a 4x6 and very good service and quality.
MD
Posted by Mike Moats on August 8, 2007 at 12:05 PM
Hey Walter, Go to www.houseofmagnets.com and you'll find a lot of options for picture magnets that you can apply your own photos to.
I have sure had the requests for this product. At least one vendor I found while knocking around offered free samples. I think that is worth getting and looking at. I have considered doing my own with business card magnetic backs like you can purchase at big box office supply places. I think this product has an excellent margin and I think it has a good fit to our markets these days.
I have also seen magnet backs for pin on button machines. That is another path you could go down. If you have not discovered these guys, I get super cheap prints from pephoto.com for this sort of thing. $.08 for a 4x6 and very good service and quality.
I think House of Magnets is quite good too. They have different products than vistaprint.
If you locate a better source I sure would be interested. I think these small "grab and go" items are going to take on greater importance as we seem to be sliding into a recession, at
least for regular people.
MD
Posted by Walter Rowe on August 8, 2007 at 8:44 PM
I found a place that will do full-color custom-size 3x2 inch magnets on 22 mil stock. The cost for a print run of 500 magnets is around 90 cents per magnet. Considering these can be sold for three to five times that amount retail, this has an excellent profit margin. The trick is printing the right images that will move, and placing them in the proper stores.
We don't do magnets Walter, but speaking from the purely business side, your markup sounds about right. We strive for 5x, and though you've called that a "profit margin" lots has to come out of it to support your business and finally land a nickel in your personal account. I think you've been party to past discussions, so I won' t list the associated costs over and above production cost here. Suffice it to say that in the 16 years we've been in business lots of folks have opened photo businesses here and tried to sell for less than we do, but we're still in business and they've all failed.
Posted by Walter Rowe on August 9, 2007 at 11:53 AM
I was directed to this photo lab by another photographer ...
Posted by Alain Briot on August 11, 2007 at 1:24 PM
My recommendation is to make the magnets yourself rather than order 500 or more from a commercial printer. That way you can test the market and see which ones sell. Then, later, you can get into commercial printing if you choose. At least you won't have to sit on hundreds of magnets that nobody wants!
The most cost efficient approach is to purchase magnetic sheeting in rolls. That's less expensive than cut pieces. I don't have a link, but a google search should bring vendors up. What you do is print your photographs, peel off the sticky side of the magnetic roll material, and stick them on. Then you use a very sharp x-acto or utility knife to cut along the edges of the magnet. You'll have to change the blade often because you are in effect cutting through metal. Magnet material is metal embedded in a plastic base which makes it very abrasive to knife blades. Once cut you protect each magnet in crystal clear bags.
Make sure to make a large variety of images to see which ones sell the best.
Just keep in mind that you need to sell a very large quantity of magnets to make this worth your time because the profit per item is small, even with a 5x or higher markup.
Posted by Alain Briot on August 11, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Here's a link I just found for magnetic material in rolls:
You want the "peel and stick" variety. I recommend the medium thickness material. Not too thin and not too thick. A 24" x10 feet roll makes a lot of magnets!
Posted by Brent Murphy on August 13, 2007 at 3:01 PM
I get my business cards from Vistaprint, mentioned above. Recently, with one of their mailers, they sent me a free pack of about 25 refrigerator magnets of my business cards. They look great, and are excellent quality, for a fridge magnet.
Posted by Walter Rowe on August 13, 2007 at 11:24 PM
Thanks Brent. Are they magnetically strong enough to actually hold things on your refrigerator or just strong enough to hold themselves? I want functional magnets, not just pretty ones. We use them at home to hold up pictures of family and friends that we receive each year in holiday greeting cards, take at family events, etc.
Discussion
11 repliesI have also seen magnet backs for pin on button machines. That is another path you could go down. If you have not discovered these guys, I get super cheap prints from pephoto.com for this sort of thing. $.08 for a 4x6 and very good service and quality.
MD
I have also seen magnet backs for pin on button machines. That is another path you could go down. If you have not discovered these guys, I get super cheap prints from pephoto.com for this sort of thing. $.08 for a 4x6 and very good service and quality.
MD
http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/splash/multi_magnet.aspx?xnav=TsrItem&xnid=aMagnetsPromotionalGiveaways&dng=1061559
I think House of Magnets is quite good too. They have different products than vistaprint.
If you locate a better source I sure would be interested. I think these small "grab and go" items are going to take on greater importance as we seem to be sliding into a recession, at
least for regular people.
MD
Am I thinking right?
Check http://www.my1stop.com for more info ...
http://www.millerslab.com/
The most cost efficient approach is to purchase magnetic sheeting in rolls. That's less expensive than cut pieces. I don't have a link, but a google search should bring vendors up. What you do is print your photographs, peel off the sticky side of the magnetic roll material, and stick them on. Then you use a very sharp x-acto or utility knife to cut along the edges of the magnet. You'll have to change the blade often because you are in effect cutting through metal. Magnet material is metal embedded in a plastic base which makes it very abrasive to knife blades. Once cut you protect each magnet in crystal clear bags.
Make sure to make a large variety of images to see which ones sell the best.
Just keep in mind that you need to sell a very large quantity of magnets to make this worth your time because the profit per item is small, even with a 5x or higher markup.
http://www.magnetking.com/
You want the "peel and stick" variety. I recommend the medium thickness material. Not too thin and not too thick. A 24" x10 feet roll makes a lot of magnets!