Comparing 5 Sticker Brands
For Monster Bash (the second local event I attended) I wanted to have more than prints and greeting cards to sell. I thought stickers would be a fun addition to my products. But, with so many sticker companies out there, how was I to know which would deliver on quality? Reviews weren’t enough. Out of the 5 companies I compared, I tested 3.
Here is what I found:
Going off of prices alone, I didn’t bother trying the brands in the last two columns. Rockin Monkey and Sticker Mule were a little more expensive compared to the other brands. You may be saying, “But Cassandra, Sticker Depot is obviously pricier than Rockin Monkey.” True, typically they are, but I took advantage of their deal: 100 3”x3” stickers for $39.
Sticker Depot
I used Sticker Depot to create my logo since I was giving these out as a “gift with sale” promo.
As you can see in the image, the packaging wasn’t the greatest. The company wrapped my stack of 100 stickers with plastic wrap and then sent them in a poly-envelope. I think it was padded at least.
The only negative thing to me was the color being a little dark. I know converting RGB mode to CMYK mode has a chance of making the image darker than originally intended. Yet, I didn’t mind the result.
I will say the quality of the stickers is very nice, since they are vinyl and weatherproof. The edges are clean and the backing is easy to peel off. Their processing time and shipping was relatively quick.
Overall, I would buy from this company again - especially when they have great deals!
Sticky Brand
Another company I chose to test was Sticky Brand. At $49.60 for 50 stickers, they are the most cost effective choice amongst the options I compared. They even offered free shipping for orders over $49.
I will say when I put my order in, I did not receive the free shipping, so I reached out to customer service. I just barely met their rule of free shipping on orders of $49 and more, but they were the ones promoting that, you know?
The lady I communicated with was really nice though. She said the shipping costs should have been adjusted, so she refunded the cost - and pretty quick, I might add.
Again, the colors were slightly darker, but still acceptable. I want to point out that the processing time took several days. So, it’s a good thing I ordered them a few weeks before Monster Bash.
Their packaging was well done though - the best out of the three companies. Edges were decent and peeling them off was easy.
Sticky Brand claims that their stickers are weather-proof, and the cool part? They print the designs with eco-friendly ink! Not to mention, they also sent me 11 more stickers for free! Bonus!
Final verdict: I will definitely be ordering from this company again.
StickerYou
Last and possibly least: StickerYou. I first submitted my Groot and Grogu design as a kiss cut option. The processing and shipping was quick. I don’t have a picture for how the stickers were packaged. They came in a plastic zip bag inside of a box, so better than Sticker Depot, but not as good as Sticky Brand.
When I opened them, I was immediately disappointed by the colors. When I submitted the design, it was in CMYK mode. I even adjusted the levels and saturation, but these still did not turn out well. Not only were they dark, but desaturated too.
Another thing to note was the thickness. The company claims their stickers to be weatherproof and waterproof. Yet, these stickers were very thin and felt cheap. And, they weren’t the easiest to get off the paper.
I contacted customer service and asked for either a refund or a reprint. They were nice and had me resubmit the order for reprint. The representative also asked me to send my rejected order back to them - all the way to Canada. It cost me $21 to return the stickers, but luckily they refunded me the shipping fee.
After waiting a week or so, they sent me my other order… It pretty much looked the same. I didn't feel like complaining again or wasting more time. So, I decided to suck it up and sell them at the event for a little cheaper than planned.
You think I would have been wary of this company after receiving the first set of unsatisfying stickers, right? While waiting for the second batch to come, I ordered ANOTHER product from them: sticker sheets. My Manager Babe warned against it, but I didn't listen.
Why? Because, I really wanted to give StickerYou another chance! Especially, since they offered bigger sheet sizes. I don’t think they had a minimum quantity to order, so that also made them more affordable.
And, I mean come on, surely the first coloring issue was a fluke…
NOPE. To my dismay, the 25 sticker sheets I ordered were also dark and desaturated. At least I could get by with selling them, but I was not happy with the quality.
And what was with the barcode and text at the bottom? Not cool. I had to trim all the sheets to get rid of that unsightly section.
So, my conclusion about this company? If you haven't guessed, I won’t be ordering from them in the future.
In Summary:
Based on my findings, if I order more stickers, I’ll probably buy from Sticker Depot or Sticky Brand. I'm interested in looking at Rockin Monkey as well. Sometimes, Sticker Mule promotes deals, so they could be an option in the future. I, personally, would not order from StickerYou again. They would have to improve their quality of color and paper before I gave them another chance.
Hopefully, this was helpful. I wanted to inform you of all the factors I looked at when ordering stickers and shed light on my mistakes. If you already order stickers from a company, I’m interested to know which one gets your business. Also, let me know in the comments below if there is one that I need to test!
Oh, and if you know someone who would be interested in this post, please share it with them! I would greatly appreciate it!
