SignTeam Production Notes / Reseller Margin Series
What a Sign Shop Actually Makes on 100 Yard Signs
A 24×18 coroplast yard sign is the cheapest thing you sell and the easiest one to lose money on, because the customer already has a price in their head from the internet before they call you. The margin is real, but it lives in how you quote the job, not in the sign.
This is the second post in the series where we put our wholesale price next to real retail prices and do the arithmetic in the open. The first one covered the 4×8 banner. Yard signs are a different animal: lower ticket, higher quantities, and a customer who shops harder.
/What we charge you
Our standard yard sign is 24×18, 4mm white corrugated plastic, full color UV printed both sides, square cut, no stakes. The numbers below come straight off the 4mm corrugated calculator today, one design, normal production.
| Qty | Total | Each |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8.80 | $8.80 |
| 10 | $66.00 | $6.60 |
| 25 | $132.92 | $5.32 |
| 50 | $247.50 | $4.95 |
| 100 | $425.00 | $4.25 |
| 250 | $964.57 | $3.86 |
There is also the economy political sign, same 24×18 4mm double sided, 100 minimum: $2.29 each for 1 color, $3.09 for 2 colors, $3.25 for full color. That is the product to quote when a campaign or a landscaper wants 500 of one design and price is the only conversation.
Shipping is a flat $10 on any order of $50 or more, since a 24×18 rigid sign is inside the 24×24 limit. Ten signs land at $76, or $7.60 each. Fifty land at $257.50, $5.15 each. A hundred land at $435, $4.35 each.
/What the customer already thinks it costs
Your customer typed “18×24 yard signs” into Google before they called you, so you should know what they saw. Printastic lists $8.99 each at 10, $6.49 at 50, $4.99 at 100, stakes extra. eSigns shows a single double sided sign at $20.96. The YardSigns.com pricing guide puts small runs at $10 to $15 a sign, 50 to 99 at $8 to $9, and 100 or more anywhere from $2 to $10, with double sided adding 40 to 60 percent and stakes another $2 to $5. It also walks through a real 100 sign double sided laminated order that came in around $1,300, or $13 a sign.
Two things fall out of that. The online floor for 100 double sided signs is about $5 each, and the ceiling from a full service shop is $12 to $13. That $8 gap is your room to work in.
/The margin, in dollars
Take the landed costs above and price the three quantities the way the market prices them.
| Job | Your cost | You sell at | Gross | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 signs | $76 | $12 each, $120 | $44 | 37% |
| 10 signs | $76 | $15 each, $150 | $74 | 49% |
| 50 signs | $258 | $9 each, $450 | $192 | 43% |
| 50 signs | $258 | $11 each, $550 | $292 | 53% |
| 100 signs | $435 | $5 each, $500 | $65 | 13% |
| 100 signs | $435 | $7 each, $700 | $265 | 38% |
| 100 signs | $435 | $10 each, $1,000 | $565 | 56% |
| 100 signs | $435 | $12 each, $1,200 | $765 | 64% |
Read the $5 row. Matching the internet on 100 signs leaves you $65 for taking the order, checking the art, unpacking two boxes and handing them over. That is not a job, that is a favor. Every other row is a real job.
/The ten sign order is where shops bleed
A realtor wants 10 open house signs. You quote $8 each because it feels fair, they hand you a JPEG of a logo, and you spend 40 minutes fixing it. You just made $4 on the whole order and lost an hour. Ten signs is a $120 to $150 job with a $50 art fee on top if the file is not print ready, and you should say so on the phone before they send anything. If that price loses the order, you lost a customer who was going to cost you money.
The exception is the repeat account. A property manager who orders 10 signs every month gets $9 each, because the art is already done and the job takes five minutes.
/Where the hundred sign order gets won
At 100 you are up against Vistaprint and every trade printer with a flatbed, and the customer knows it. You do not win that job on price. You win it on the three things the website cannot do: a proof they can hold, delivery to the job site or the campaign office, and stakes already bundled and counted. Quote $8 to $10 each with stakes and delivery included, and quote the economy political sign at $6 to $7 when the customer truly only cares about the number. Either way you clear $300 to $500 on a job you never touched a printer for.
On a Signs101 thread a shop quoted $12.34 a sign for 100 double sided with stakes and lost the job to a $500 online order. The lesson is not that $12 is too high. It is that $12 needs to buy the customer something the $5 sign does not, and the shop never said what that was.
/Stakes, and the two things that quietly eat the margin
Stakes are a separate line item, always. We do not bundle them with the sign, so buy them in bulk, mark them up, and never absorb them. A customer who says “with stakes” at the end of the call just added $2 to $5 a sign to your cost.
Art time is the same problem as banners, worse, because the ticket is smaller. Thirty minutes rebuilding a logo on a $120 order is the entire margin. Charge for it or require a print ready file.
Two designs is the one nobody catches. A customer orders 100 signs and mentions 50 are for one listing and 50 for another. That is two 50 piece jobs at $4.95 each, not one 100 piece job at $4.25. Ask how many designs before you quote.
/The short version
Your landed cost on 24×18 double sided full color is about $7.60 each at 10, $5.15 at 50 and $4.35 at 100, or $3.25 at 100 on the economy political sign. The online floor is $5 a sign at 100 and the full service ceiling is $12 to $13. Quote 10 signs at $12 to $15, 50 at $9 to $11, 100 at $8 to $10 with stakes and delivery, and charge for art and extra designs. Done that way a hundred yard signs is a $300 to $700 job.
More answers on rigid signs are in the rigid signs section of 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 yard signs here. We print, you get the credit.
