Silhouette Mint consumables price comparision

My Silhouette Mint is coming soon. I am so excited!

I had a happy-happy birthday recently so my wonderful hubby pre-ordered the Silhouette Mint which comes with a starter kit of sorts. The D.I.Y. stamp machine is $119.00 from Amazon (Silhouette Mint Stamp Kit & Ink Bottles). I think he purchased a pretty good deal. But... I remember my dad saying something like "If you really dislike someone, give them a boat or RV". His point was that it wasn't the original purchase that zaps your money, it's the expenses that go along with such toys. Anyone who owns something as simple as a printer understands this concept.

I decided to try to find the best deal on the consumables I will need to actually use the Mint. I knew that there are Stamp Kits and Stamp Sheet Sets but since I don't have my Mint yet I needed to figure out the difference between the two and what the different parts do.

Without actually having the machines, after looking at the Silhouette Product Rollout pdf (link below), watching some youtube videos and reading some reviews, I think this is how the parts work together.

Labels
The labels are used to identify the image and are attached to the stamp mount and/or base.

Image from Silhouette Product Rollout 2015

Stamp Mount
The stamp sheet is adhered to the stamp mount. The stamp mount slides on and off of the stamp base. Stamps are stored and protected by the stamp mount. Each stamp will need a stamp mount whereas one stamp base is all that is needed for all stamps of the same size.

Stamp Sheet
The Mint creates the image to be stamped on this sheet. The stamp sheet is then inked for stamping. After approximately 50 images have been stamped. The stamp sheet can be re-inked with the same or different colors to be used over and over again.

Stamp Base
This is to the Mint what a block of wood is to a rubber stamp or an acrylic block is to a polymer stamp. It has a special groves made for the stamp mount to slide into. The stamp base and stamp mount work together with the stamp sheet. Each size of stamp will need at least one stamp base to work correctly.

Once I (hopefully) understood the parts that make up the Mint stamps and how they will be used, I was ready to compare the prices for each of these parts.

On the web I didn't find anyone selling the individual parts. I found that the parts were sold as either the Silhouette Stamp Kit of the Silhouette Stamp Sheet Set.

The  Stamp Kit seems to be the same price as the Stamp Sheet Set no matter the supplier. Each stamp kit comes with supplies to make 1 stamp. Each stamp sheet set comes with supplies to make  2 stamps using the base from the stamp kit.

October 2015 Price comparison for

Silhouette Mint Stamp Kit

2 labels, 1 stamp mount, 1 stamp sheet and 1 stamp base

October 2015  Price comparison for

Silhouette Mint Stamp Sheet Set

4 labels, 2 stamp mounts and 2 stamp sheets

The 4th option I found for Silhouette Mint consumables seems to be the best deal.  Amazon: Design Swing - Silhouette Mint 7 Blocks and 7 Stamp Pad Sets contains 7 stamp kits in each of the sizes and 7 stamp pad sets (This is the same sets that Silhouette calls Mint Stamp Sheet Sets). I contacted Design Swing through email to make sure I understood the listing correctly and promptly received a return email stating that I would indeed receive 21 stamp sheets (3 for each of the 7 sizes of stamps).

Look at it this way. If I wanted the same number of stamp kits and stamp sheet sets from the separate amazon listings I could purchase them separately from Amazon: Design Swing (no need to purchase the extra 45mm x 90mm size since the free shipping minimum will be met) for $161.86 but buying the 7 block and 7 stamp pad sets gets me the same amount of stamps for $139.99. That's almost a $22 dollar difference.

That may not seem like much but when you compare it to buying directly from Silhouette America it is a savings of $94.25. Even buying it through Amazon Prime: Silhouette it is a savings of $65.55.

Joann Fabric and Craft Stores looks like they will get in on the Silhouette Mint band wagon so it will be interesting to see how much they will price the consumables and if coupons will be accepted for Silhouette Mint supplies.