Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
I ordered a gal of the 130 today. I talked to a rep from the supplier I get my qcm from and he was asking me why I wanted the 130 and that no other printers were requesting it but he was being rude about it like I was some idiot printer (entirely possible) and I should be buying the 158 & 159 like every other shop in town was doing. I hate it when suppliers act like they know everything but I was asking him questions that I knew the answers to and he wasn't even close to being right with all the different qcm whites and their characteristics.
Chris: As either a Distributor or Ink Manufacturer, the biggest thing you will find when you send out white ink is the diverse opinions people will have about the same ink. Even on this board you have seen that. I sent out the same white to several different customers and the responses ran the gamut, from it's crap to it's the best we've ever had in the shop. This was the exact same ink. A shops reaction is completely based around the people in the shop, how rigid they are in their print approach, conversely how adaptable they are with an ink that is different, what their relationship is with the distributor, whether or not the printer/production manager has their own agenda, whether the owner is looking at only cost, whether the shop is looking at ink and doesn't care what the cost is....etc etc etc
Chris: As either a Distributor or Ink Manufacturer, the biggest thing you will find when you send out white ink is the diverse opinions people will have about the same ink. Even on this board you have seen that.
Quote from: Colin on June 13, 2012, 07:32:46 PMChris: As either a Distributor or Ink Manufacturer, the biggest thing you will find when you send out white ink is the diverse opinions people will have about the same ink. Even on this board you have seen that. I sent out the same white to several different customers and the responses ran the gamut, from it's crap to it's the best we've ever had in the shop. This was the exact same ink. A shops reaction is completely based around the people in the shop, how rigid they are in their print approach, conversely how adaptable they are with an ink that is different, what their relationship is with the distributor, whether or not the printer/production manager has their own agenda, whether the owner is looking at only cost, whether the shop is looking at ink and doesn't care what the cost is....etc etc etcAmen to that!!! I have given a customer a private labeled white (Wilflex White Buffalo) and he didn’t like it... Two freaking weeks later my competition gave the same customer Wilflex White Buffalo, and he loved it... WTF... Another example... Back in the day we had Kiwo Poly Plus S as a private label product (Per the manufacturer’s request)... Went around selling it as a drop in replacement for the Poly Plus S... I prolly had 4 or 5 printers tell me they were not that similar, and the "labeled" Poly Plus S was better, Faster, Etc... There are so many variables in what a printer actually wants, drives me effin nuts sometimes...
How can u private label buffalo white? I didnt think polyone allowed that. Hope I am not one of the Jackasses you speak of.
QuoteChris: As either a Distributor or Ink Manufacturer, the biggest thing you will find when you send out white ink is the diverse opinions people will have about the same ink. Even on this board you have seen that. We could offer a whole set of additives that actually do nothing to modify the ink in any way but offer a placebo effect that something is happening.
Well, my qcm supplier called today and said the 130 was discontinued, awesome. I'm really wondering what other factors all these print shops that dictate what qcm makes and what they discontinue are looking at when selecting a white ink. According to the freaking people who made the ink, the 130 was more opaque and flashed faster than any other cotton white yet it sold so poorly they just scrapped it. And same thing for the low bleed whites, there are better performers in the three main categories, opacity, flash time and bleed resistance than the 158 and 159 yet it's their best sellers by far from what my supplier was saying. I've got a gallon of the Miami Screen Print Supply Superior white coming in on Thursday so if it's as good or better than their smooth white then I may have found me a winner. The smooth is a great white ink so far, and the superior is supposed to have more opacity so I can't wait to test it out. And the fact it's like $170 for a 5 gal makes it almost too good to be true.Colin, that guide is freaking awesome, and I found it to be spot on with my findings and when comparing the qcm whites I've tried, so I trusted it 100%. Which makes me even more angry now that I think that the best overall performing cotton white they made never sold so they are getting rid of it.While on the phone today I was being told which white inks sell the best but I've never had any luck with "best sellers" because I think a lot of shops in our area buy based on price alone because their quality is craptastic and they don't give a damn that another ink will give them better results. I was asked if I wanted to try the qcm 108 and if you look at the numbers on that ink I politely declined, I think it was the worst performer in both categories. Oh well, the search continues.