SignTeam Production Notes / Reseller Margin Series
What a Sign Shop Actually Makes on 1,000 Magnets
A 3×3 magnet is the smallest thing on your price list and the one most shops never bother to quote, because the ticket looks tiny. It is not tiny. A thousand magnets is a $600 to $750 job that takes ten minutes of your time, and the customer who orders them is already buying signs from you. This post does the arithmetic at 250, 1,000 and 5,000.
It is the third post in the series. The first covered the 4×8 banner and the second covered yard signs. Magnets are different from both: the internet floor is lower than you think, so this is the post where we tell you where the margin is not, as well as where it is.
/What we charge you
Our promotional magnet is 30mil flexible magnet, full color UV printed, cut to shape. The numbers below come straight off the magnet calculator today at 3×3, one design, thru-cut, normal production.
| Qty | Total | Each |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | $54.25 | $0.54 |
| 250 | $94.69 | $0.38 |
| 500 | $182.71 | $0.37 |
| 1,000 | $358.75 | $0.36 |
| 5,000 | $1,358.61 | $0.27 |
Two cheaper versions worth knowing. Pick square or rectangle instead of thru-cut and 250 drops to $82.81, 1,000 to $314.58 and 5,000 to $1,172.92, about 12 percent less, and a 3×3 square with a straight edge looks fine on a fridge. Pick 12mil instead of 30mil for an indoor fridge magnet and 250 square cut is $57.81. Save 30mil for anything that lives on a truck door or a toolbox.
Shipping is a flat $10 on any order of $50 or more, so 250 land at $104.69, or $0.42 each. A thousand land at $368.75, $0.37 each. Five thousand land at $1,368.61, $0.27 each.
/What the customer can find online
This is where magnets differ from banners and yard signs. The magnet houses that sell direct are cheap, and you should know exactly how cheap before you quote. Custom Magnets Direct lists a 3×3 30mil at $0.556 each at 250, $0.366 at 1,000 and $0.332 at 5,000, no setup fee. Magnets.com lists a 3×3 25mil at $1.01 at 250, $0.58 at 1,000 and $0.34 at 5,000, plus $0.10 a piece to step up to 30mil. On the promotional products side, 4imprint sells a 30mil laminated magnet at $0.99 at 250, $0.55 at 1,000 and $0.38 at 5,000 with a $10 setup charge, and that is the number most of your business customers have actually seen, because their promo rep sends them that catalog.
Read that against our column. At 250 you are well under everyone. At 1,000 you are a penny under the cheapest magnet house and 35 percent under the promo catalog. At 5,000 you are under all of them, but only by a few cents against the cheapest. So do not build a magnet business on beating Custom Magnets Direct at 5,000 pieces. Build it on the 250 and 1,000 piece orders from customers who already trust you, priced against the promo catalog, not the magnet house.
/The margin, in dollars
Take the landed costs above and price each quantity three ways.
| Job | Your cost | You sell at | Gross | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | $105 | $1.00 each, $250 | $145 | 58% |
| 250 | $105 | $1.25 each, $313 | $208 | 66% |
| 250 | $105 | $1.50 each, $375 | $270 | 72% |
| 1,000 | $369 | $0.55 each, $550 | $181 | 33% |
| 1,000 | $369 | $0.65 each, $650 | $281 | 43% |
| 1,000 | $369 | $0.75 each, $750 | $381 | 51% |
| 5,000 | $1,369 | $0.38 each, $1,900 | $531 | 28% |
| 5,000 | $1,369 | $0.45 each, $2,250 | $881 | 39% |
| 5,000 | $1,369 | $0.55 each, $2,750 | $1,381 | 50% |
The 250 row is the one to memorize. A dollar a magnet sounds high until you notice the promo catalog charges $0.99 and Magnets.com charges $1.01 at that quantity. You are matching the market and keeping $145 on a job you can quote from your phone. At $1.25 you are still cheaper than a local promo rep once the setup charge and freight are on their invoice.
/Magnets are an add-on, not a product
Nobody walks into a sign shop for magnets. They walk in for a banner or a truck door, and magnets are the second line on the invoice if you put them there. A realtor ordering 10 yard signs will take 250 magnets with the same art for $250 if you ask, and the art is already built, so the whole job is a copy and paste. An HVAC company ordering truck lettering will take 1,000 fridge magnets with the phone number at $650, because every magnet on a customer’s fridge is a service call in two years. That is how a $120 yard sign order becomes a $370 order and a $900 truck job becomes a $1,550 job, with no press time on your end.
The rule is simple. Every quote for a business customer gets a magnet line at the bottom, priced, not offered. “250 magnets with the same art, $250” closes a lot more often than “would you like magnets?”
/Where the 5,000 piece order goes wrong
At 5,000 the customer is usually a franchise, a bank branch or a school district, they have a promo rep, and they know the catalog price is $0.38. Quote $0.45 and lead with the things the catalog does not do: thru-cut to their logo shape, 30mil so it survives a truck, and the boxes delivered to their door in four to six business days instead of a promo timeline. If they will only pay $0.38, take it. $531 for forwarding a PDF is still money, and it keeps you in the room when they order the 4×8 banner and the parking signs for the new location.
What you do not do is quote 5,000 at $0.33 to match the cheapest magnet house. That customer was never going to buy from you anyway, and $280 gross on a $1,650 invoice is not worth the phone calls.
/The three things that eat the margin
Art time is worse on magnets than anything else we sell, because the ticket is small. Twenty minutes rebuilding a logo on a $250 magnet order is most of the margin. Magnets should reuse art the customer already paid for. If they do not, add the art charge or require a print ready file.
Shape is the quiet one. A customer says “make it look like our logo” and you quote square. Thru-cut is already in our price above, so quote it, but be clear that a custom shape needs a vector outline. A JPEG logo cut to shape is a phone call you do not want.
Thickness is the upsell nobody makes. 12mil is a fridge magnet. 30mil is a truck magnet. A landscaper who wants magnets for the crew trucks needs 30mil and will pay for it. Quote the right one and say why.
/The short version
Your landed cost on a 3×3 30mil thru-cut magnet is about $0.42 each at 250, $0.37 at 1,000 and $0.27 at 5,000. The promo catalog price your customers have seen is $0.99, $0.55 and $0.38 at those same quantities. Quote 250 at $1.00 to $1.25, 1,000 at $0.65 to $0.75, 5,000 at $0.45, and put a magnet line on every business quote. Done that way magnets add $150 to $400 to jobs you were already doing.
More answers are in our FAQ, or call us at 563.296.8386. SignTeam is a wholesale trade printer, so if you are a sign shop or reseller, price your magnets here. We print, you get the credit.
