Where to get VIP stickers

[ScubaBunga]

I've used www.stickeryou.com to just get vinyl stickers - they work well but do tear if dragged across sharp stuff (like the metal brackets on my home made tank holders for the truck). But even the shop's stickers tear in that case - worse case, I pop the valve, vip and put a new sticker on. You can customize your image/sticker - I put my PSI # on there - never had a question about them so far.

Now, please know what you are looking for if you are doing your own vip. I went through the psi class after another lds trashed two old steel tanks that were perfectly fine. Not all LDS know what I think they should. I also wanted more info as I was buying tanks from craigslist. I got 4 tanks from a guy that thought he had all old steel tanks and I was able to inform him (from knowledge from the class) that he actually had several old aluminum 72's that were made from the poor 6351 alloy. i.e. many people don't even know what they are selling so be sure you know what you are buying.

I also wrote an online VIP form to track all my tanks/vips, so history, search, and new vips are easy to manage.
Happy and Safe Diving!

 

[3arl J0n35]

I order my VIP stickers from Vinyl Disorder (dot com). I get 5x4 inch ones for $40 for 25. That's as cheap as I have been able to find for customer-printed ones.

 

[luscioman]

I have a LDS that will not accept PSI stickers because they only have a one digit year on the sticker.

 

[3arl J0n35]

I have a LDS that will not accept PSI stickers because they only have a one digit year on the sticker.

Yeah PSI teaches in their class one should have common sense enough to know which decade you're in. I believe Bill or Mark, I don't remember which one, wrote an article on one-digit VIP stickers a while back.

If you come into my shop with "8" punched on your VIP, that means either your last VIP was 2008, 2018, or 2028. Unless I look out the window and see you're driving a DeLorean that rules out 2028, and if your hydro is current, that rules out 2008.

I'll see Mark this weekend and I'll ask him where the article is.

 

[akdeepdiver]

Here is the link to the article

PSI-PCI - My stickers expired...or did they?

 

[3arl J0n35]

Here is the link to the article

PSI-PCI - My stickers expired...or did they?

Yeah that's it.

I have mine printed in a "5 year window" with the full 4-digit year on them because I'll run out before 5 years anyway and have to reorder. I can just open the file and change the dates with GIMP. No big deal. My current stickers show 2018 to 2022. It'll take me about 10 minutes to change that to 2023-2027 when the time comes.
I guess it is an issue for shops that order them by the thousands to get the bulk discount.

 

[3arl J0n35]

...
@Scared Silly :
Real slow please, because I am very obviously misunderstanding or misinterpreting or just plain not quite yet understanding something:
If a person coming in for fill with an in hydro tank, with a generic VIP sticker, with his name and VIP inspector ID on it and also brings his non-expired, valid VIP credentials (card), why is it that some shops would refuse to fill the tank?

It's a confusing subject with many dive shops just making up their own rules as they go because they don't know. Most of the tank fillers at my LDS haven't take the VCI course so they just know what other people tell them, right or wrong. And it even varies by whoever the FSO is at the time. One dive shop monkey wouldn't fill my tank when I told him I VIP'd it myself. The guy says "I might be more inclined to let a defect "slide" because it's my tank." My defense was, "BS. I'm more critical on MY tank because it'll probably be on MY back when it explodes or I'LL be the one at my shop filling it when it explodes."

Another employee happened to walk by and told him, "DOT standards is DOT standards, so it doesn't matter. Fill his tank."

I've heard of some shops not accepting the TDI VIP stickers but never encountered one. I asked both shops here in town just out of curiosity. One really doesn't care and the other told me PSI or TDI was fine.

 

[3arl J0n35]

Look guys don't be wasting your money on them expensive generic eBay stickers. I got them as cheap as a .75 cents each. Just $8 bucks per dozen plus postage.

 

[kombiguy]

Here's what I use.

 

[3arl J0n35]

Here's what I use.

Definitely won't find that one at Starbucks.