Society6 vs Redbubble

[AffectedMind]

EDIT: which is better?

I consider to start my own shop somewhere, but I'm a poor person and can't affort special equipment. Which would you recommend?

[Kayke]

They take a LOT of the profit. But they do handle everything from printing to shipping, you just provide the art. You can make your prices more expensive to make more of a profit on some items.

The quality isn't great but it's okay. I have ordered prints, mugs, and tote bags from them and it's all professional quality, but on the ones with my own art I can look at it and be like "oh that's a little too dark" and stuff like that.

[joannekwan]

For Soc6 you can mark up the price on prints, for shirts and other things, I believe they are at one price and you just get a portion of sales. They do take a large percentage, but seeing as how they do all the printing and shipping, it's fine by me. The margins aren't as high as you might get from say Red Bubble, but it's still a couple bucks more than if you don't upload anything at all. Plus they have some products that Red Bubble doesn't. Best just to cover all your bases I say.

I got a T-shirt from them once and the quality's pretty good.
Here it is (design by KiltyKid, from the series Weretrucker, read it on Tap).

I think as far as colors go, the physical product will always differ from the screen. In an ideal scenario you would have a proof of what the printed product would look like, then go back and adjust your colors on the computer (flashbacks of all the graphic design and photography projects I had to do).

[nobody]

You'll find more information on their pricing here: https://society6.com/help/selling

Art prints are the only products where you determine your profit. The minimum price for the smallest print is $12 (if I remember correctly), so if you decide you want to sell your prints for $14, that means you earn $2, or if you decide to sell it for $20, you earn $8. Profits on all other products are determined by society6.

In short: yes, they take a big chunk of the profit, but keep in mind they provide all the materials that your design is printed on, plus they take care of shipping the products to customers - and if a customer for some reason doesn't want the product and wants their money back, they take care of that too.

I've had no problem with the quality - in fact I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. This could have something to do with what colours you use, but most creators seem happy about the quality. Things very often come out darker on print than they do on screen, so I try to always do test prints of stuff that I want to sell - even if it's on a different printer, just to quickly see if there are some obvious areas that will be problematic.

[AffectedMind]

The minimum price for the smallest print is $12 (if I remember correctly), so if you decide you want to sell your prints for $14, that means you earn $2, or if you decide to sell it for $20, you earn $8. Profits on all other products are determined by society6.

That's really discouraging x_x

[KreativeConfusion]

Unless you do it yourself you;ll have to take the hit on the price of products. I know if you look around enough you can find cheaper options but I'm not sure on the quality.

Redbubble is a little cheaper I think but the different really isn't much. they go by a percentage rate rather then a "flat" rate like Society6

[AffectedMind]

Unless you do it yourself you;ll have to take the hit on the price of products. I know if you look around enough you can find cheaper options but I'm not sure on the quality.

I would love to have my own buisness, but now, the shipping would kill me, I would have to charge people for 20 bucks extra which is absurd u_u

[shazzbaa]

I'm on Redbubble! I ordered a few of their prints to make sure the quality was good (attempts at photos) and I tried out sticking something on one of the new graphic tees (another attempted photo)! I felt good about both! I can't speak to Society 6 'cause I haven't tried that one yet, though I have seen people on both.

I feel like I heard somewhere that INPRNT has a higher margin for artists, but they're moderated so you have to apply to get in.

My thing is, I would make more profit selling prints myself, but then I have to keep a stock of posters, I have to drive out to the post office and actually send them, and there's risk involved -- if I get 20 prints made and I can't sell them, then I've lost money. If I tried to get prints made one at a time on demand, then they'd be a lot more expensive than to make.
And that's not even mentioning the other products that would be very hard for me to ever make myself!

So for me, it seemed worth it to switch to letting Redbubble handle things! I haven't put a whole lot of effort into merchandising yet, but it's literally risk free. I can put any silly thing I want on a shirt and just see if anyone wants one, and if nobody does, there's no loss. The way I look at it, that's what you're paying for with these services -- complete lack of risk.

[AlkseeyaKC]

I use Redbubble. I don't know the other place. I went with Redbubble because it seemed to be what most others are using.
DA did a poll once to see what print service people use the most of: http://poll.deviantart.com/439/
Redbubble came on top. Ignore the other other option. People missed read and wanted to choose Deviant art.

The way I see it, if more people use it. you might get more sales if that's what most people want to use.

I've bought a sticker from Redbubble and I liked it. They also gave me a big Redbubble logo sticker. I don't know if they do that for everyone.

[AffectedMind]

My thing is, I would make more profit selling prints myself, but then I have to keep a stock of posters, I have to drive out to the post office and actually send them, and there's risk involved -- if I get 20 prints made and I can't sell them, then I've lost money.

That's why I did a poll on my profile to ask fans if they are interested : D
But none cares.... ;_;

[elixiadragmire]

I'm actually in the process of making a storenvy store. basically gonna stick on the stuff I don't sell out of at comic cons

I sold A print on redouble and got 50 cent ... that 30p .... nope!

[AffectedMind]

I don't have any moneys to have my own shop, to make my own merchandise, that's why I'm asking. Not mentioning the shipping. From my place the package to USA would be 20-30$ and most of my fanbase is located in the US u_u

[nobody]

The way I look at it, that's what you're paying for with these services -- complete lack of risk.

That's the way I see it too. I don't have the time nor energy to run a shop. If you pay lots of money to keep a stock of posters or other merchandise, you better have time to market yourself and your work to make a profit - and that is a lot of work too. The way I use Society6 at the moment, is mostly to have an account where I can easily print stuff for myself or family/friends. And on a few occasions some stranger has stumbled over my account and bought something, and that's nice of course Point is, they're running a business where they take all the risks, so it's quite natural that they get most of the profit.

Haven't tried Redbubble yet, but I've been considering opening an account there as well! They have stickers, which is the one thing I miss on Society6!

Society6 does have a $1 fee for creating a shop--not a huge problem imho, but maybe worth mentioning. (i forget if they give the dollar back to you or not, but eh)

I almost forgot about the startup fee, but I think they pay it back

[MrKyleRose]

Does anyone know how the rights management works for either service? Example do they claim rights ownership of anything you sell through them? Or have any exclusivity clauses that prevent you from also selling the same content through another services?

[AffectedMind]

They don't claim any copyright. Some people work on multiple services and have no trouble because of that so I guess it's 100% safe.

[MrKyleRose]

Thanks, I'm always a little cautious about that. Services like this are nice to get products into people hands via the internet, but I still want to have other options for selling directly.

[guilhermecahu]

And what about shipping? I know it differs from place to place, but in general, how's Soc6 compared to Red Bubble on this matter?

[joannekwan]

For customers? I'm pretty sure both use USPS or UPS's rates, not sure about international shipping.

[guilhermecahu]

I don't know their rates (#lazy to go search for them now#), but yeah, I was interested on international shipping prices =/

[joannekwan]

I know Soc6 often has free worldwide shipping events (about every other month or so) so that's a plus!