Every time we turn around it seems like there’s a new electronic gadget that claims to make your life easier and less complicated. For example, I just went to the phone dealer about a year ago, and acquired what was supposed to be the latest and greatest new device that the industry currently has offer. I went to a restaurant to have dinner with my friends and regretfully left my phone at the table before heading home for the evening. The very next day I realized this and called them up to ask if anyone had turned it in. The girl who answered informed me that as far as she knew no one had, but she was kind enough to check into it. After about 5 min. of being on hold she informed me that no one had seen it. Fortunately I had insurance on it and after going to the dealer that I had purchased it from, they informed me that that model was now considered obsolete and they didn’t carry it anymore. Therefore, they cannot just replace it with a new one, but they at least had access to a few old ones that they had rebuilt and informed me that they would be willing to provide me with one of these free of charge less my deductible.
This is my point – technology is changing so quickly and the Columbus T-shirt printing industry is no exception to this rule. What was considered to be state-of-the-art last year is now potentially not the latest and greatest. For example, when it comes to digital T-shirt printing equipment, I would certainly not recommend buying something that was the latest version because you’re going to pay a premium for it and it is going to devalue at an alarming rate as new ones are introduced with brand-new features that last years model did not include. On the other hand, if you were to buy a digital T-shirt printing machine that was about three years old, it is likely that it will still have a lot of life left in it assuming that it was maintained well. One of the keys to this is buying it from a Columbus Ohio screen printing company that uses the equipment on a daily basis instead of letting it sit idle. This type of equipment needs to have any ink flushed through the system regularly in order to keep it from drying up in the head. If that happens, then it’s ruined and it’s not a cheap fix either. Most of the warranties on new machines last approximately one year or two and then it has to be renewed at an additional cost. I can’t tell you how many people that I’ve spoken to who let their warranty run out and within a month or two later it breaks down. Some of these machines are as much is $15,000 brand new, but you can often find a deal where the person that bought it thought that they were going to launch a successful brand new business and that it was going to be fun then within a year or two discovered that it was actually harder than it looked. This is not uncommon that they would like to get out from under it.
If you happen to be considering the possibilities of breaking into the Columbus custom embroidery market, then the same concepts would apply when trying to acquire the right machinery.