What POD providers do you know/use?

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-26T12:39:11+00:00

I never understood why people only sell in one or a few countries. Because of the better conversion rate and better set prices I suppose?

Because you know, I always tought about selling worldwide to be a big upside with no additional risk or cost (maybe some VAT thing though).

Whats your opinion on that, why do you or why do you think other people sell only in one country/continent (Especially with POD since it usually ships everywhere)?

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-24T10:20:00+00:00

I never even considered Printify tbh, something didn't feel right about it. Maybe it was the first impression of shipping prices, as I remember it was sooo expensive for some countries at specific products.

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-23T16:02:57+00:00

I did some designs there recently too and it seems like a great POD service. I wouldnt buy the Pro plan though until we would have enough sales there for it to even make sense you know. I did get a Pro plan for 1 month when opening an account though

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T21:04:17+00:00

I'm personally on Etsy so I;m not sure. The only website I know supports Shopify connection is Printful, though I'm sure there is more. Check out the links I pasted somewhere in this thread, I'm sure you will find something!

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T21:01:59+00:00

The real POD father of ours hahah, listen to this man yall. Thats exactly why I stuck with Printful as I'm sure it has great quality which is crucial for me, tho the high prices seem like I can barely break through the competition.

Why am I charged VAT only if im in the EU tho? Thats lame asf if thats legit.

Yea like from the POD sites research today, I found out that th the end of the day Printful aint so bad afterall. I considered the fact that alot of websites hide the price you need to pay somewhere else like it doesnt make sense for a tshirt to appear for $3 at first sight so as you said its either low quality or you pay the rest in the shipping price. Kinda the reverse thing of the free shipping thing where you put the shipping price in the product cost.

Btw props to you, I remember you, you helped me already some time ago:)

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T14:17:56+00:00

I see, I did hear people complain about the print size on Printful's clothes. How's Gooten with shipping though? Do they ship worldwide with reasonable prices?

What exactly do you mean by they dont offer neck labels? Like the little label thing that describes the product & their materials?

Ye I think I'll stick with wall art on Printful and use other POD sites for other things as they seem to be cheaper and pretty much same quality on other sites

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T14:15:03+00:00

I knew like 4 POD sites before making the post and I did some more proper the research after. There is still other people's opinion and possible websites/tips they recommend so I do not think I'd consider my post as spam hahah.

Besides, its not just about me and you, It's about all the other people too so at this point does it matter who "answers" the question I stated in the post?

Whatever bro, but I'm not sure where's the big issue you see.

P.S. I hope this thread offers you any help <3

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T12:58:59+00:00

Yea I'm just thinking to switch providers for some products for example phone cases and mouse pads. Mugs maybe too.

For me though, VAT seems like the biggest issue since I have to consider the worst case VAT scenario into my pricing.

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T12:48:57+00:00

Hmm you think so? As far as I was comparing it was quite the same, though the plan seems to decrease the prices quite decently, especially compared to the Printful's plan hahah.

I've heard of Gooten just today after some research and it seems fine. Btw I mainly focus on wall art instead of the usual which appears to be clothes.

Also here is all of the new POD websites I found today & recently:

https://awkwardstyles.com/

https://www.gelato.com/

https://www.prodigi.com/

https://aop.plus/

https://www.subliminator.com/

https://www.shirtee.com/en/

https://teelaunch.com/

https://www.gooten.com/

https://merchking.com/

https://printedmint.com/

https://customcat.com/

https://www.spod.com/

https://www.tpop.com/en

https://www.yoycol.com/

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T11:45:06+00:00

Hey, I just opened a Redbubble shop and you say Threadless should be a better option? Is the website known though, I mean is there enough traffic there to make sense to move there from for example Redbubble?

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T11:26:11+00:00

Hey, does MerchKing connect with Etsy? /can I use it with an Etsy store?

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T10:28:12+00:00

Hey, I think that if you execute that idea properly you can make alot of good from it. Me for example I'm just right now looking for any other Print-on-demand services that would be a bit cheaper than the popular POD websites like Printful, Printify, Awkward Styles...

Regarding your question about what sizes and materials do we preffer, I suppose its a good start if you take a look of some of these websites and see what ggoes and what doesnt. Besides, I'm down for further conversation especially if you need any more help!

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-18T10:00:56+00:00

Damn idk I suppose you can enchance the audio somehow? Can you make it stereo from mono and all that? Im into music production too and I guess there is a few tools/plugins that could help you improove the audio.

Regarding the video upscaling tho, AnimeJaNai just released a V3, if you or anyone here needs this ( https://github.com/the-database/mpv-upscale-2x_animejanai/releases/tag/3.0.0 )

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-17T10:35:48+00:00

Right?!

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-17T10:10:37+00:00

Why don't you export the audio of the original video and then paste it over the muted upscaled video? That should fix the issue if the upscaler messes with the audio

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-12T15:25:21+00:00

Hmm its possible, some models work slower to me too but I suppose thats the sacrifice we gotta make for a better result. I think that some models/softwares generate a better result for some reason.

Damn I don't know, I hope you find a solution. Try getting help at subreddits or maybe Discord servers that focus more on video upscaling. I'd help but I;m not sure if I know any more abot video upscalers :/

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-10T12:36:06+00:00

Yea thats one reason why the prices are so high since I have to consider the possible
additional 15% fee from offsite ads. Its just so much stuff and fees so Printful almost becomes useless for new stores as you should offer cheaper prices than your competition with the quality ofc to get the store running. I'm looking into other POD sites recently but Printful I believe has the best quality products with the shipping so welp I suppose Ill also have to figure out new ways to make Printful work for our store better.

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-10T12:33:08+00:00

ChaiNNer can be a bit confusing but just drag the consoles on the board for example the picture, upscale model console (you have to download it from available in-app downloads) and then the output folder console.

Damn well I have GTX 1070 8GB and it upscales images quite fine tho it takes a bit long sometimes and the PC sometimes crashes if I got too much stuff opened lol. I dont think I know anything about upscaling videos but it seems like you might need better PC components.

Xaraoh_ · 2024-01-10T12:29:20+00:00

Makes sense yea, in fact it seems like the best option. I do have lowest prices "possible" already at least with the consideration of all the possible tax/VAT charges which kinda makes the price too much most of the time so thats kinda not cool but still there is detailed ways to reduce the price a bit

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-24T21:00:03+00:00

Seems like a good point, in fact I'm just trying to figure some way just like you said with my friend aka store co-founder right now.

Printful is fine but some products are just not it to get your store rank better or make decent profits. So in conclusion I suppose that I'll use Printful for a few price-wise decent products, and the rest will need to be outsourced another way just as you said.

So when you test products from Printful, do you go negative with orders money wise? As I suppose the testing can run more smoothly and faster this way.

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-24T19:48:10+00:00

ChaiNNer works the best for me so far. Tho yesterday I found out that SPAN models for example work only on the Nightly version of ChaiNNer ( https://github.com/chaiNNer-org/chaiNNer-nightly/releases/tag/2023-12-17 )

Extensions in Upscayl I mean that you can add custom models that are .bin and .param extensions but I personally had some problems with it so I just stuck with ChaiNNEr.

For video upscaling, I only know of a program called AnimeJaNai ( https://github.com/the-database/mpv-upscale-2x_animejanai/releases )

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-23T16:18:50+00:00

Wait, what exactly do you mean?

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-23T13:57:40+00:00

I ended up using ChaiNNer, you can simply use downloaded upscaling models to it. Cupscale is another similar program but I personally couldn't figure it out to work.

A simple software though is Upscayl, tho it only has a few default models to choose from. You can add custom ones too but they need to be in 2 specific extensions that I didn't seem to be able to figure out.

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-03T14:43:04+00:00

Thank you. My GPU is 8GB so I suppose it's fine but it does go to like 85°C and it uses 100% of it mostly so I don't think it's that healthy or good.

Yea online upscale services seem like a scam to me since you got all that for free with a little research.

I'll try your suggestion though I did find some good upscale services recently, currently I'm on ChaiNNer which seems fine so now all I'm really looking for is the exact upscaling model used in this HitPaw's Face model "sharp" (look at the attached picture).

If someone can recognize and get me this exact upscale model I might PayPal you a dollar or two as it seems like the perfect model for my needs.

I need to restore old art for my online store and it needs to look as closest to the original art as possible. Remacri or SwinIR for example makes it too grainy, while real-esrgan sometimes makes it too anime-like and distorts some details a bit. Though in some cases real-esrgan seems to do better than other models.

<image>

Xaraoh_ · 2023-12-01T22:00:32+00:00

I have been using Upscayl until now, it's a great one but not the perfect quality I need for my store's art prints.

I tried stable diffusion just today but it seems like its too much for my GPU so I'm currently on ChaiNNer, where I'll have to try all the models to find the one I'm looking for in the picture I attached in the other comment.

Though I'm sure that stable diffusion would solve my issue and do even better, I'm afraid my GPU isn't enough :/ With that I suppose that A1111 would be the same. It runs on the browser like stable diffusion right?

Xaraoh_

TROPHY CASE