How to Price Custom T-Shirts for Resale

To price custom t-shirts for resale, add up your full cost per shirt (blank, printing, shipping, fees, and a slice of overhead), then charge 2 times that number as a starting point. A 100% markup gives you a 50% margin, which is the baseline most small apparel sellers aim for. Go higher for limited designs with a following, lower for basics you're selling in volume.

That's the short version. The longer version is where people lose money, because "full cost" is bigger than the invoice from your printer. If you're getting ready for a holiday market (the Sacramento-area ones start filling up right after Thanksgiving) or launching a small clothing line, here's how we'd work it out at Conquer Printing.

Start with the real cost of one shirt

Most first-timers price off the print invoice divided by the number of shirts. That number is a floor, not a cost. Here's everything that belongs in it:

• The blank shirt itself
• Decoration: screen printing, DTF, or embroidery
• Extra print locations (a sleeve, a back print, a neck tag)
• Shipping or your drive time to pick up the order
• Booth fees or marketplace fees, spread across the shirts you expect to sell
• Packaging, bags, hang tags, a card reader

Say your example math looks like this (these are made-up round numbers to show the method, not our prices): a $6 blank, $5 for the print, and $1 for tags and bags. That's $12 per shirt. At 2 times cost, you'd price at $24. Now add a $100 booth fee and a 40-shirt order, and you owe another $2.50 per shirt just to cover the table. Your real cost is $14.50, and $24 only gives you a 40% margin, not 50%.

That gap is the whole reason this topic exists. Small gaps like that add up across a hundred shirts.

Markup vs. margin (people mix these up constantly)

Markup is how much you add on top of cost. Margin is how much of the selling price is profit. They're not the same number.

When a blog says "aim for 50%," check which one they mean. Our read is that a 100% markup is the sensible floor for retail, because the other costs (your time, returns, the shirts that never sell) eat a lot of what looks like profit on paper.

Fees eat more than you think

Selling at a market is the cheap case. You pay a booth fee, maybe a card processing fee, and that's about it. Selling online adds marketplace fees, payment fees, shipping supplies, and sometimes ad spend. A shirt that looks like it clears $12 in profit can land closer to $5 once those come out.

Sales tax is its own thing. In California, if you sell shirts to the public you generally need a seller's permit, and the state's tax agency explains how that works on the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration site. Talk to an accountant for your specifics, since we print shirts and don't do taxes.

Pick a price tier before you pick a number

Here's how we'd think about it by type of seller.

The craft fair or farmers market seller. Shoppers compare you to the table next to you and to what they'd pay at a mall. A plain screen-printed tee at a Sacramento-area market tends to sit in the range people already expect to pay for a "nice local shirt." You can charge more if the design is original and the shirt is soft. You can't charge boutique prices for a heavy, boxy blank with a clip-art print.

The brand with a following. If people already ask when the next drop is, price on demand, not on cost. Cost just tells you your floor.

The business selling to its own customers. A restaurant, gym, or brewery selling merch isn't running a clothing company. The shirt is advertising that pays for itself. Price it so you break even or make a little, and sell more of them.

The fundraiser. Whatever the margin is goes to the cause, so the question becomes how many shirts you can realistically sell. We covered that math in our guide to fundraiser t-shirt costs.

Your decoration method changes your margin

The print method you choose changes both your cost per shirt and which designs make sense to run. Here's the honest summary.

Screen printing gets cheaper per shirt as the quantity goes up, because the setup cost is shared across more shirts. If you're selling one design in big numbers, it's usually the best margin. It's less friendly for a design with a lot of colors in small runs. Our screen printing page lays out how it works.

DTF is the better call when you want many designs in small quantities, or a full-color illustration. The cost per shirt stays flatter as quantity changes, so you can test five designs without ordering 100 of each. We'd steer a new brand toward DTF for its first drop, and you can read about it on our DTF and DTG page.

Embroidery is the wrong choice for a photo-style design (thread can't do gradients), but it holds up well for hats, polos, and anything you want to feel a step up. Prices run higher, and so can the resale price. See embroidery.

Order small, then reorder

You don't have to guess your best seller. Conquer Printing has no minimums, so you can start with a small run of each design and see what moves at the first market. Reorder the winners. The shirts that don't sell cost you a couple dozen blanks, not a garage full of boxes.

Standard turnaround is 7 to 10 business days, and rush work (5 days or less) starts at an additional 20%. If you're eyeing a market that's three weeks out, that means you've got to place the order sooner than you'd think. Order after the middle of the month and a late-November market gets tight.

Common Questions

How much should I charge for a custom t-shirt?

Take your full cost per shirt, including blank, print, fees, and overhead, and multiply by 2 for a starting retail price. Then adjust for your market. If the shirt is plain and the market is price-sensitive, you may land lower. If the design is original and you've got an audience, you can go higher.

What is a good markup on custom t-shirts?

A 100% markup (which equals a 50% margin) is a reasonable baseline for retail. Wholesale to a store usually runs lower, since the store needs its own cut. Limited-edition drops can support more.

Do I need a seller's permit to sell t-shirts in California?

Generally yes, if you sell shirts to the public in California. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration issues seller's permits and explains the rules, so check with them or an accountant before your first sale.

What's the cheapest way to start a t-shirt line?

Order small runs of one or two designs and test them in person before you scale up. With no minimums, you can begin at a quantity you can actually sell. DTF is often the lowest-risk method for a first run since the cost stays steady on small orders.

The bottom line

Work out your real cost per shirt first, double it, then adjust for your market. Don't price off the printer's invoice alone, and don't print 100 of a design nobody's bought yet.

Get your actual numbers from our instant quote calculator, plug them into the table above, and you'll know your price before you commit. If you'd rather talk through a first run, contact us and we'll help you size it.