There are a lot of really attractive t-shirts and other apparel on eBay.  Humorous ones that can't be found easily in stores pop out the most.  However there is a big confusion between screen printed shirts and vinyl iron-on shirts.  I will do my best to clear up this confusion.

Just to give you an idea of the difference: Overall, most of your college shirts, sport team shirts, and graphic tees you find in most stores (not all) are produced using screen printed method.  The best example, however, is a typical college t-shirt.

Screen Printed method.  The method goes as follows:

• Method:
• The graphic is printed directly onto the shirt.
  
• Pros:
• It is a cheaper method to produce screen-printed shirts, meaning the savings are usually passed onto the buyers (ideal for very large orders - certain events like a company/faculty baseball game, conventions, etc.)
• These shirts can have multiple colors throughout the graphics, no extra preparation is needed
  
• Cons:
• It's is not durable in the wash/dry as the t-shirt made using the vinyl method.  You will began to see flaking and this fading will be more noticeable with each wash cycle
• The dry cycle can dry out the graphic very easily (compared to the vinyl method), causing cracking, peeling and flaking

Vinyl iron-on method.  The method goes as follows:

• Method:
• The graphic is cut out perfectly in a vinyl cutting machine.  So if your shirt was to say "Joe's Pizza," every letter would be precisely cut out by the machine.
  
• The vinyl is then laid on a shirt and ironed on by a heat-press (a machine that transfer the graphic to the shirt at extremely high temperatures)
• Pros:
• The shirt can withstand multiple wash and dry cycles without a problem (this is ONLY true for THERMOFLEX vinyl).  Always ask the company what type of vinyl they use!
  
• This method is preferred among high-quality apparel retailers
  
• Cracking, peeling and flaking are much more resilient (THERMOFLEX vinyl)
  
• Cons:
• The method is a more expensive method because vinyl is a higher quality product compared to screen prints.  This usually hurts the buyers who are wanting to order a large quantity
• Usually it is difficult to produce more than one color per shirt.  However, professionals (established shirt retailers) can usually do this flawlessly

Overall, you get what you pay for. Cheap shirts are cheap for a reason. Be prepared to trash them after 1-2 washes if you do buy cheap shirts. Quality shirts cost more, but you will wear them more often and for a longer period of time.

Sincerely,
Mad Cows Design
www.MadCowsDesign.com