Where can I buy misprinted things?

January 29, 2021 8:07 PM

Is there a source for items which are discounted because the lettering or design is a mistake? Like mugs that say "World's Bast Teacher" or a Tshirt that says "Superman" and it's a picture of The Hulk?

I figure most of these probably are destroyed, but as a Discordian these kind of little chaos errors please me, and I wish I could spread them around.

posted by The otter lady to Shopping (10 answers total)

There is an amazing store in Peoria called UFS ("Unclaimed Freight Store") where they basically buy, for pennies on the dollar, whatever goods retail merchants refuse delivery of, or go bankrupt before they pay for. They have a SHITTON of misprinted goods, although it's mostly in the store, not online. I once found a messenger bag that was embroidered with the CNN logo but it said "CNM" instead, and lots of misspelled corporate swag in general. Also lots of random mugs that were overruns from people's high school homecomings and things like that, for 25 cents apiece. "A Night Under the Stars -- Washington High Homecoming -- 2018" or whatever.

(SO MUCH LIQUOR, because apparently liquor stores go out of business a lot. Also a lot of flooring.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:13 PM on January 29, 2021

I used to have some t-shirts I'd bought at a local screenprinting place that they'd used as tests for a bunch of different screens -- they had the Ben & Jerry's logo with a dog, or whatever (it's been a long time). So, you might try your local screenprinter.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:40 PM on January 29, 2021

Get someone in Southeast Asia to buy some for you? These things are super common in cheap stores and markets there. Manufacturers happily offload these things in countries close to where they are being made and where people don't speak enough English to care much. I got a lot of amusement out of these when in the region.
posted by mkuhnell at 8:46 PM on January 29, 2021

I ordered a case of misprint notebooks years ago. I don't remember where, but searching for "bulk misprint notebooks" will get many options, as will "misprint pens" and "misprint pencils."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:49 PM on January 29, 2021

Ok, I was looking for misprints on Etsy and came across this Captain Planet T-shirt bundle. The photos don't make it clear how many shirts there are, and there is some profanity, but it looks like a good deal at $12.
posted by oxisos at 9:34 PM on January 29, 2021

I realize intentional errors aren't quite the same thing, but this one is kinda funny to me:
No regerts
posted by oxisos at 9:48 PM on January 29, 2021

Back in the Golden Age, when the goddesses and gods and non-binary and gender-nonconforming deities walked the Earth, there was a marvelous chain of stores in New England called Building #19. Instead of having store numbers, each store was designated with a fraction; my local store was Building 19⅛ in my state. The sales circulars were decorated with self-deprecating cartoons of the founders and creative fictional stories about how a few pallet-loads of each of the misfit goods had come into the possession of the chain.

I have a golden satin Armani dinner jacket I bought there for twenty bucks or something like that, smoke and water damaged. Real—who knows? But it made a fine centerpiece for an Elton John Halloween costume one year, along with some Building 19 white Christmas garland to look like a feather boa, and a women's fashion accessory silver cowboy hat purchased at the same establishment.

tl;dr They had that sort of stuff, so it's a long shot but "Building 19" could be a search keyword.
posted by XMLicious at 9:48 PM on January 29, 2021

I'll also chime in on the intentional front, because there is an entire (wonderful) genre of misidentified design media. This is my favorite example, and there are many variations on this theme.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:15 AM on January 30, 2021

How about this t-shirt set in Comic Sans that says Helvetica?
posted by oxisos at 11:20 AM on January 30, 2021

You can search on ebay for misprint (thing). Sometimes misprint (thing) lot for things like ink pens where selling one at a time isn't practicable. A quick scan and I got pens, t-shirts, etc. "Defect" also works, though sometimes that's problem with the actual physical item, not just a misprint.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:41 PM on January 30, 2021