How to Price Tumblers: Sublimation, Custom and Bulk

To price a sublimation tumbler, add up the blank, the print, the shrink wrap and heat tape, with an allowance for misprints, then the box and the minutes it takes to print, wrap, press, cool, unwrap and pack it, plus any design time, and price for the margin you want after fees. Here the blank is the biggest single cost, so where you buy blanks and how many you ruin matter as much as your time. In the example below, a 20-ounce tumbler with a stock design costs $8.72 and sells for $19, a custom name tumbler costs $10.39 and sells for $23, and a bulk order of 24 with a business logo is $15 a tumbler. Below is what a tumbler costs, custom and bulk prices, misprints, the equipment, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Cost a tumbler: blank, print, wrap and tape, plus 5% for misprints.
• Add the box and your minutes; add design time for custom names.
• Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees), rounded up to a dollar.
• Buy blanks by the case: the blank is more than half the cost.
• Bulk orders spread the setup and skip the gift box; quote them per tumbler.
• The printer and press are paid from what tumblers leave, not from each one.
• TaroStack keeps blanks counted by size and color and every design costed. More below.

What a tumbler costs

Kickapoo Creek Crafts, a made-up sublimation shop in Peoria, Illinois, I use in these examples, buys 20-ounce skinny tumblers by the case:

The blank and print are $5.30 of the stock tumbler's $8.72. The minutes cover printing the design, wrapping it on and taping it, pressing in the oven or tumbler press, cooling, unwrapping and boxing; a bulk order runs in batches, so it's 6 minutes a tumbler. How to cost the box properly is in packaging cost per unit.

Prices

Each price is the cost divided by (1 − 0.45 − fees), rounded up to a dollar. The custom name is $4 more for 5 minutes of design and a proof, which is the line customers argue with, so show it as part of the price, not an extra. A bulk order leaves less a tumbler but more an hour: 24 tumblers at about 7 minutes each, with the setup, leave $162.48 for under 3 hours. How to set prices for businesses that order in quantity is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Misprints

A tumbler with a ghosted print, a blowout at the seam or a faded patch is a $5 blank in the bin, plus its time. At 5%, misprints add 25 cents to every tumbler; a new press, a new blank supplier or a new paper can push that to 15% until it's dialed in, which adds 76 cents. Count the seconds for a month, by cause, and if one supplier's blanks are behind most of them, that's worth knowing before the next case. A waste log template keeps the count.

The equipment

A sublimation printer, a tumbler press or convection oven, and a design program are fixed costs, paid from what the tumblers leave rather than added to each one. If they cost $1,200 in all, they're paid off by about 137 stock tumblers at $8.76 each. The care card in the box says how to wash the tumbler, which saves a few complaints.

Get the calculator

Download the tumbler pricing calculator. Type what the blank, the print, the shrink wrap and heat tape cost, your misprint allowance, the box, the minutes a tumbler takes, the design or setup minutes for the order and how many tumblers are in it, your hourly rate, fees and the margin you want. It works out the cost of a tumbler, its price rounded up to a dollar, the order and what's left. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Tumblers in 20 and 30 ounces and six colors, mugs and kids' cups, blanks from two suppliers at different prices, a bulk order for 48 due next week, and a busy December. A sheet can't say whether there are 48 white 20-ounce blanks on the shelf, which blanks cost what in the last case, or whether bulk orders or custom names earn more.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps blanks counted by size and color and every design costed.

Blanks by size and color. Each blank is an item, counted on a phone and kept at what you paid, and units convert: blanks bought by the case of 25, used one at a time. A price-creep report per supplier shows whose blanks are getting dearer.

Designs as recipes. Each tumbler is a recipe of its blank, print, wrap and box, so recording a run takes them off stock at what you paid and gives the cost of each. Bulk orders are sales orders that show whether the blanks are on the shelf while you're still typing, so a 48-tumbler order doesn't find 30.

And what each line earns. Throwing out a misprint is an adjustment with a reason, reported by reason and item. The reorder list works in days of cover against each supplier's lead time, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Recipes, batches, sales orders, adjustments and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for a sublimation tumbler?

Cost it from the blank, print, wrap, box and your time, then divide by one minus your margin and fees. In the example, a 20-ounce tumbler costing $8.72 sells for $19.

How much should I charge for a custom tumbler?

Add the design time to the cost. In the example, 5 minutes of design and a proof make a custom name tumbler $10.39 to make and $23 to buy.

How much does it cost to make a sublimation tumbler?

In the example, $5.30 for the blank, print, wrap and tape with a misprint allowance, and $8.72 with the gift box and 8 minutes of time.

How do you price tumblers for a bulk order?

Spread the setup over the order, swap the gift box for a carton share, and price per tumbler. In the example, 24 logo tumblers are $15 each, $360, and leave $162.48.