Custom Pin-Back Buttons for Bohemia, New York

240 of the 3 inch button at $1.99 each, 20 percent below the listed rate, is $477.60, flat shipping on an order that size is $14.99, and the order comes to $492.59 before tax. That is the whole sum, written out, because a band that has never ordered merch before usually wants to see the arithmetic rather than a starting-from figure. What $492.59 buys is 240 round pin-back buttons at the largest of the five sizes we make, printed in full colour from artwork you upload yourself.

Most of the button orders that come out of Bohemia and the towns around it are merch orders for small acts, and a button is one of the few pieces of merch that works at that scale. Those counts sit in different bands: thirty at the listed rate, three hundred at 25 percent under the listed rate. If you play out and you want something on the table next to the records, a box of buttons is the easiest thing on that table to carry in and out of a venue.

Five sizes, and four price bands on each

There are five round sizes and nothing else. The 1 inch is $1.49 each, the 1.25 inch is $1.69 each, the 1.5 inch is $1.89 each, the 2.25 inch is $1.99 each, and the 3 inch is $2.49 each. A size reaching 100 moves every button of that size onto the lower rate. Ten of the 2.25 inch cost $1.99 each, 999 of them cost $1.39 each, and a thousand of one size goes to a quote. The per button figure drops at 100, 250 and 500 of one size, so it is worth knowing where your count sits before you decide you are finished.

Size choice is mostly about what the artwork is. A 1.5 inch button holds a logo, an initial, a single word. The 2.25 inch is the size most people picture when they picture a band button, and it will take a logo plus a line of type without the type going small. The 3 inch, the one in the worked total above, is closer to a small poster: cover art, a full illustration, a tour design with dates on it.

Four price bands, and where they break

Shipping is flat and it steps by the total number of buttons on the order. Up to 100 buttons is $9.99. Up to 250 is $14.99. Up to 500 is $19.99. Up to 1000 is $24.99. That is the only thing on the invoice that changes as the order gets bigger, and it is worth a look before you settle on a quantity.

The 240 piece example sits just under the 250 line. If that same order went past 250 buttons, shipping would move from $14.99 to $19.99 for every button on it. The two sets of boundaries sit on the same three numbers and are counted from different totals. It just means that if you are hovering somewhere near 250, it is worth deciding whether you want the extra pieces enough to move the tier, and if you are a long way under it, there is room to add a second design without touching the shipping at all.

Two neighbours sitting at exactly the same distance

Oakdale is 2.4 miles away. Sayville is also 2.4 miles away, the same figure to the tenth of a mile, in a different direction. North Great River is 2.6 miles, Ronkonkoma is 2.7 miles, West Sayville is 2.9 miles. We cover all of them.

That matters for a practical reason rather than a scenic one. Small acts around here tend to share members, share bills and share a van, and the person handling merch for one band is often handling it for the other. If two bands 2.4 miles apart want buttons, they have a choice: two separate orders, each with its own shipping tier, or one order with both designs on it, counted as a single pile of buttons against a single tier. The second way is usually the cheaper way to get the same buttons, and it is the sort of thing that only becomes obvious once you have seen the tier table.

How far out you are

Bohemia is 16.3 miles south east of the shop in a straight line. Everything in 11716 falls inside the same Suffolk County service area we work across, and the Islip township addresses around it are handled the same way. The distance makes no difference to the price of a button or to the shipping tier. It is here because people ask.

What to send us

Buttons are printed full colour from artwork you supply, so the artwork is the part of the job that is actually yours. A few things are worth knowing before you export. Anything that runs right to the edge of the circle will curve over the rim of the button, so keep type and faces away from the very edge. High contrast art reads better at 1.5 inch than a photograph does. A design that reads well on a record sleeve does not automatically read well at button size, and shrinking it on screen before you send it will tell you most of what you need to know.

For the act ordering merch for the first time

You do not need a catalogue of designs. Pick one of the five sizes, put your single strongest image on it, and keep the quantity low enough that you are not storing boxes you have no plan for. An order of up to 100 buttons sits in the $9.99 shipping tier.

For the person who runs the table but does not play

Quantity now has two consequences, one on the rate for a size and one on the postage for the order. Order them the way you would order stickers. Two steps instead of one: find the band for that size's count, then multiply.

For two bands splitting the cost

Put both designs on one order. The tier is calculated on total buttons, not on number of designs, so a combined order of 240 is the same $14.99 whether it is one image or two. Work out the split on the button subtotal, then split the shipping the same way.

For an act with a design that keeps changing

If the logo is not settled, the 1.5 inch is the size to test with. It is the lowest cost per piece of the three, which makes it the least painful thing to reprint when the name of the band changes again.

Common questions

Can a Bohemia order mix 1 inch, 1.25 inch, 1.5 inch, 2.25 inch and 3 inch buttons? Yes. Each size is charged at its own count and so its own rate, and the shipping tier is worked out on the combined count of all the buttons on the order.

Does a Bohemia band ordering 240 buttons pay less per button than one ordering

100? No. One rate per size per band, and every size uses the same band boundaries. 240 of the 3 inch is $1.99 each, the 100 to 249 band rate, and 100 of the 3 inch is $1.99 each. The order total does not set the rate. A single size's count does.

If a Bohemia order goes past 250 buttons, what happens to the shipping? It moves into the next flat tier, $19.99, which covers up to 500 buttons. The buttons themselves cost the same either side of that line.

Can a Bohemia act put two different designs on a single order? Yes, and it is the usual way to do it when two acts are sharing the cost. The order is counted as one pile of buttons for the shipping tier regardless of how many designs are on it.

Is a band in Bohemia charged differently from one in Oakdale or Sayville? No. Both of those towns are 2.4 miles from you and neither distance changes a price. Button prices and shipping tiers are the same figures everywhere we cover.