Ideas for stickers/decals to sell online

Blaze

The Jeeper Reaper
Joined
Aug 9, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
For Christmas my parents bought me a vinyl cutter. I've helped a friend out before messing around at work in the sign shop he worked at so I knew how to handle things. I started making some stickers and then started selling them on eBay and Etsy, mostly car logos and stuff like that. Well, it's growing and I am selling a bunch of them, maybe 6-7 a day. It's pretty decent money for a side hustle that I can throw in an envelope and mail out. I'm looking for new ideas for decals and things to make and sell. I'm hoping it grows big enough that I can move to an even larger cutter and do some bigger things too.

Any ideas? I can design and make most stuff with the software I have.
 
1623770550206.png
 
I'd be careful with anything that has a copyright/trademark and would require licensing. I got hit with a C&D from Ford and my wife got hit with one from Disney. I was going through ebay and FB and she was selling through her business's social media accounts. I was making about $500-1000/month from my groups and she was doing $2-3k/mo in shirts. So it's not like we were heavy hitters drawing attention to ourselves. Edit...also note, it wasn't like we were stealing designs/logos either, they were designs we made about the topic, but there was a 'likeness of images used'.
 
Last edited:
I'd be careful with anything that has a copyright/trademark and would require licensing. I got hit with a C&D from Ford and my wife got hit with one from Disney. I was going through ebay and FB and she was selling through her business's social media accounts.
^^^
This.

Also college logos are bad ju-ju. Punitive. Benn there done that got the t-shirt and lawyer bill.

But in short you do you.

Wife made really good money cutting stylized bowtie overlays. That isnt trademarked because you are decorating the owners existing logo.

BTW ebay.....ahahahahha....if you are acceting paypal, when you get a C&D they will freeze your account and the account its tied to indefinitely. We are on year 5 of a bank account being frozen with just over $6k in it. The Paypal account tied to it had a total transaction value of $47 all time. I'd starve to death before Paypal got 1 penny of my money ever again.

But its jumped the shark. Everyone SAHM has a cricut now and sells their crap for about $5/hr labor rate. Aint worth the time or electricity imho.
 
Just come up with a cool slogan and make a bunch of designs around it. Think of " Salt Life". Just a decal/shirt company.

I know someone that started "Creek Life" merch and its selling like crazy.
 
Yeah, I know about the trademark/copyright shit. I already got tagged on eBay for selling Jeep stuff. :lol: It was just a "stop selling our shit and we're good" kind of thing. I've been avoiding college logos and sports team logos.
 
Yeah, I know about the trademark/copyright shit. I already got tagged on eBay for selling Jeep stuff. :lol: It was just a "stop selling our shit and we're good" kind of thing. I've been avoiding college logos and sports team logos.

I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin, strike while the iron is hot. $5/shipped per sticker...I bet you wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

 
I'd be careful with anything that has a copyright/trademark and would require licensing. I got hit with a C&D from Ford and my wife got hit with one from Disney. I was going through ebay and FB and she was selling through her business's social media accounts. I was making about $500-1000/month from my groups and she was doing $2-3k/mo in shirts. So it's not like we were heavy hitters drawing attention to ourselves. Edit...also note, it wasn't like we were stealing designs/logos either, they were designs we made about the topic, but there was a 'likeness of images used'.
I've been told that Disney actually looks for people using their characters or anything they own. Any large company likely has people they pay to look for that.
I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin, strike while the iron is hot. $5/shipped per sticker...I bet you wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

That reminds me of Ftiz and Tits. Google it if you don't know it....
 
I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin, strike while the iron is hot. $5/shipped per sticker...I bet you wouldn't be able to keep them in stock.

To me, the telling part about that article and the current intellect of society, is all the comments saying that the slogan is racist. Offensive, possibly; but last I checked prostitution wasnt limited to only a certain race.


If you are looking to expand a little, we have a friend that has started doing sublimation, and it has expanded what she can make. Didnt seem like much cost involved to add that capability. A heat press that can do cups/mugs seemed like a neat device as well.
 
I'd be careful with anything that has a copyright/trademark and would require licensing. I got hit with a C&D from Ford and my wife got hit with one from Disney. I was going through ebay and FB and she was selling through her business's social media accounts. I was making about $500-1000/month from my groups and she was doing $2-3k/mo in shirts. So it's not like we were heavy hitters drawing attention to ourselves. Edit...also note, it wasn't like we were stealing designs/logos either, they were designs we made about the topic, but there was a 'likeness of images used'.


"L:ikeness" is how they get you. Such a vague word. Three circles °O° that touch at top are magically "owned:" by Disney with the Mickey Mouse likeness. I once had to battle with Michigan State's licensing bureau once over a Green Block S. I agreed that they had ownership of the Spartan head mascot, but they did not (at that time, maybe they do now) have licensure to a single block character since then every instance of a letter in that font would be subject to copyright in any printed material ever using that font and color combination. Since I did not use the specific PMS color - PMS 567 that was licensed for MSU and was using a similar, but different PMS color, I was not subject to their C&D. It worked at the time, but maybe only because of my printing knowledge and not my legal prowess.

I was allowed (back then - 1992) to use the Block S in that specific (non -MSU) for my poster calendar and distribute 10,000 of them across campus. Paid for almost a year of tuition with one calendar.
 
Last edited:
"L:ikeness" is how they get you. Such a vague word. Three circles °O° that touch at top are magically "owned:" by Disney with the Mickey Mouse likeness. I once had to battle with Michigan State's licensing bureau once over a Green Block S. I agreed that they had ownership of the Spartan head mascot, but they did not (at that time, maybe they do now) have licensure to a single block character since then every instance of a letter in that font would be subject to copyright in any printed material ever using that font and color combination. Since I did not use the specific PMS color - PMS 567 that was licensed for MSU and was using a similar, but different PMS color, I was not subject to their C&D. It worked at the time, but maybe only because of my printing knowledge and not my legal prowess.

I was allowed (back then - 1992) to use the Block S in that specific (non -MSU) for my poster calendar and distribute 10,000 of them across campus. Paid for almost a year of tuition with one calendar.

I respect the hustle for sure.
 
This might not be your thing, but start doing some girly monogram stuff or funny little sayings that women love to put on stuff. My wife's office had me make a slew of vinyl stickers for various cups, tumblers, etc. I seriously thought about doing this as a little side business, but got to be a hassle setting everything up, designing, and cutting for me to really get into it. I have tried to convince my wife that she would turn our spare bedroom into a little office and since she only works Mon-Thurs, she could spend her Fridays doing that stuff.
 
Yeah womenz spend lots of money on monograms and such
 
This might not be your thing, but start doing some girly monogram stuff or funny little sayings that women love to put on stuff. My wife's office had me make a slew of vinyl stickers for various cups, tumblers, etc. I seriously thought about doing this as a little side business, but got to be a hassle setting everything up, designing, and cutting for me to really get into it. I have tried to convince my wife that she would turn our spare bedroom into a little office and since she only works Mon-Thurs, she could spend her Fridays doing that stuff.
This for sure.

The thing that launched my wife before she decided to scale back...
She started making stickers for our kids when they played high school sports. It was half ball and half team mascot and had the players name and number.
So something like:
1624370131706.png

or:
1624370151202.png


with their name and number incorporated in.

Then we started getting requests from teamates etc.

Then my entrepreneurial side kicked in. The local high school booster club was running short on funds and having a membership drive. We were selling these for $10/each to parents but spreading the word and such was the big problem.
So I approached the high school AD and said hey, I got an idea. The wife sells these for $10 each and most folks buy 2 or 3. Booster club membership is $50. Up it to $60 and we will give you one to give away with the membership for $5, and we will include an order form for additional orders and pay you $2 per each we sell.

It was a win-win. The booster club got more money, we got more money, and the money we gave to the booster club was tax a deductible donation.
For reference we were averaging about 800 sticker sales per year to the one high school. And there is very little set up time because production, and you only need 1 or 2 vinyl colors...

Then we contacted some neighboring high schools with a recommendation from our AD...in 2019 she sold right at 4500 stickers just off this program...

The rate limiting capacity is the weeding, which sucks, for her.

But it got to be too much headache so we killed the goose and ate goose roast for dinner one day.



Edit just remember I had some actual pics of a few of her stickers - the dumb ass sloth was a cash cow. She sold those for $18 and sold like 150 in 2 weeks in some sloth facebook group.
Some basic marketing and a 40 hour work week and I think you could easily gross $100k/yr in decals

1624372054499.png



edit#2 - the tiger stripe bowtie overlay - $20 with a "lifetime fade or cut guarantee"..yeah you will send a few freebies out. Most will sell their car before it fades.
 
Last edited:
Make a GIJoe logo sticker that says "I survived Raleigh Cobra invasion 2021"
 
Back
Top