7 T-Shirt Pricing Mistakes | Check Your Costs Before Selling

White printed T-shirt, calculator and price tag: selling at a loss?

Do you sell shirts but end up with less money than expected? These t-shirt pricing mistakes can hide small costs that add up and take away much of what you charge.

We will use an order of 20 shirts. The math can be checked, but the blank shirt, labor and other cost assumptions are made up for learning. They are not measured shop earnings.

The example: a $15 sale is not $15 of earnings

For the print, we use a published reference: Transfer Express UltraColor Max at $0.06 per square inch. An 8 × 10 inch image gives 80 × $0.06 = $4.80. The 2026 guide uses that rate for 1–24 images. This US reference was checked November 1, 2026; confirm your own order price.

The other costs in this table are exercise assumptions. All amounts are USD.

Cost per shirt	USD
Blank shirt	4.00
Reference print cost	4.80
Pay for your work	1.50
Packaging	0.50
Other costs, including tests	0.50
Shipping: $10 split between 20 shirts	0.50
Total before selling fee	11.80

If you charge $15 and assume a 5% selling fee, the fee is $0.75. That leaves $15 − $11.80 − $0.75 = $2.45 per shirt. The 20-shirt order leaves $49 after the costs included here.

1. Counting only the shirt and print

The incomplete calculation is $15 − $4 − $4.80 = $6.20. That looks comfortable, but it leaves out work, packaging, other costs, shipping and the fee. Include them and only $2.45 remains.

What to do: list everything you pay to deliver a finished shirt.

2. Giving your own work a cost of zero

You prepare the file, position the print, press, check and pack. Doing it yourself still takes time. In our example, $1.50 per shirt pays for that work. The $2.45 left is a separate amount.

What to do: time the job and choose how much to pay yourself for that time. The exercise amount is not a suggested labor rate for every shop.

3. Charging the same for every print size

A small design and a large one can need different amounts of printing. Do not change the size after quoting without checking the cost. See small versus large DTF print costs for measured examples.

4. Forgetting to split shipping correctly

A $10 shipment split between 20 shirts adds $0.50 each. Split the same shipment between only 2 shirts and it adds $5 each. A large-order cost does not automatically work for a small order.

What to do: divide whole-order costs by the number of shirts you will actually deliver.

5. Applying the selling fee to the wrong amount

In this exercise the fee applies to the sale: 5% of $15 is $0.75. It is not calculated only on your expected earnings. Your service may also charge a fixed fee; check its terms.

What to do: enter the percentage in the calculator and add fixed charges to whole-order costs without counting them twice.

6. Offering a discount without checking again

With the same $11.80 cost and assumed 5% fee, here is what happens:

Selling price	Fee	What is left
$15	$0.75	$2.45
$14	$0.70	$1.50
$12	$0.60	−$0.40

Dropping from $15 to $12 does more than reduce your earnings: you lose $0.40 per shirt in this example. Run the discounted selling price through the numbers first.

7. Accepting changes without updating the quote

A bigger design, a second print on the back or a faster deadline may add costs. A failed test also uses materials and time.

What to do: confirm quantity, shirt sizes, artwork, print size, delivery date and shipping in writing. If the order changes, update the price before work starts.

Try your own numbers

In the free t-shirt pricing calculator, enter 20 shirts, blank 4, print 4.80, work 1.50, packaging 0.50, other costs 0.50 and whole-order costs 10. With a selling price of 15 and fee of 5, the result is $2.45 per shirt.

To leave $5 per shirt with those costs, the calculated price is $17.69, rounded up. That does not guarantee buyers will accept it. Taxes, returns and other costs you have not entered are not automatically included.