Pin Back Buttons for Central Islip, New York

"If I am putting buttons on a table at a conference, what am I actually paying for, and how do I keep the total from surprising me?"

That is the question we get asked more than any other, and the answer is short enough to give up front. You are paying a printed rate ladder for each button, set by the size you pick and nothing else, plus one flat shipping charge that steps up at fixed counts. The per button figure changes at three counts, and all five are counts of one size. So the whole cost of a run headed to Central Islip can be worked out on the back of an index card before you ever upload anything: multiply your count by the size price, look up the one shipping figure that matches your count, add the two. That is the entire structure. The rest of this page is just filling in the numbers for the kind of order exhibitors tend to place.

Five sizes, and what each one is doing on a table

There are five round pin back buttons and nothing else: 1 inch, 1.25 inch, 1.5 inch, 2.25 inch and 3 inch. The difference between them is not really quality, it is how much of your artwork survives at arm's length.

The 1.5 inch is the pocket size. A logo mark, a short handle, a single word. It reads when someone is holding it, not when it is sitting in a bowl six feet away. People order it in larger counts because it is the one that gets scooped by the handful.

The 2.25 inch is the usual badge size. A logo plus a word, or a name plus a role. It is the size most people picture when they hear "button," and it is the safe default when you are not sure which way to go.

The 3 inch is the one that works as signage. A QR code prints legibly at this size. So does a booth number, a product name, a short line of copy under a logo. If the button is doing a job beyond decoration, this is usually the one.

Where quantity changes the per button figure

Here are the five figures, and they do not change up to ninety-nine of that size:

• The 1 inch $1.49 each
• The 1.25 inch $1.69 each
• The 1.5 inch $1.89 each
• The 2.25 inch $1.99 each
• The 3 inch $2.49 each

The breaks in the rate are published rather than negotiated. Ten of the 2.25 inch cost $1.99 each. A thousand of the 2.25 inch is where a quote takes over, and 999 of them are $1.39 each. Everything up to 999 of a size is priced automatically, and a thousand of one size is where a person takes over. Order the number you want. The per button figure is already what it is.

Where the total actually moves

Shipping is the only part of the bill that steps, and it steps on total buttons across the whole order, not per size and not per design:

• up to 100 buttons $9.99
• up to 250 buttons $14.99
• up to 500 buttons $19.99
• up to 1000 buttons $24.99

Worked through with a real order: 75 of the 3 inch button at $2.49 each is $186.75 in buttons. Seventy five sits inside the first tier, so shipping is $9.99, and the order comes to $196.74 before tax.

Notice where that count is sitting. It is twenty five under the line where shipping goes to $14.99. If you are already at 75 and someone suggests rounding up to a hundred, the hundred is cheaper outright: 75 of the 3 inch at $2.49 is $186.75, and 100 at $1.99 is $199.00 with the same $9.99 shipping, so twenty five more buttons cost $12.25. If instead you go to 110, you have crossed into the second tier and picked up five dollars of shipping for ten buttons. Neither is wrong. It is just worth knowing which side of a boundary your count is on before you commit to it, because that is the one place a round number costs you something.

Two neighbours sitting at exactly the same distance

Central Islip is 12.7 miles south east of the shop, measured as a straight line rather than as anything you would drive. That figure is the honest kind of distance, the sort you can check on a map.

What is unusual about this one is what sits next to it. North Great River is 2.0 miles away. Islandia is also 2.0 miles away. The same number, in two different directions, from the same starting point. Islip Terrace is 2.1 miles, which is close enough to be the same answer again. Hauppauge is 3.1 miles and Brentwood is 3.3 miles.

The practical version of that: if your booth team is scattered across those addresses, none of them is meaningfully further from anything than any other, and there is no geography argument for routing an order one way or the other. The three ZIP codes here are 11722, 11749 and 11760, and the whole cluster is Suffolk County.

What we print from

Full colour, printed from artwork you upload. Whatever you send is what goes on the button, so the thinking worth doing happens before the upload, not after. Give the important part of the design room away from the edge, because a round button curves over a rim and anything crowded against the outer boundary gets lost in that curve. Dark type on a light field reads more easily at button scale than the reverse. And if you are putting a QR code on anything, put it on the 3 inch.

Four people who end up ordering for a booth

The marketing lead with a budget line. You want a number you can defend in a spreadsheet cell, not a quote that shifts. Pick the size, multiply, add the one shipping figure. That is the number. It will not move underneath you.

The person who got handed this on top of their real job. You do not need to become an expert. Pick 2.25 inch, pick a count, upload the logo file you already have. That combination is correct far more often than not.

The one running two products on one stand. Two designs on a single order do not change the per button price for either of them, and the shipping tier reads the combined count, so splitting a hundred into fifty and fifty lands in exactly the same tier as a hundred of one design.

The one whose team is spread across several addresses. Every separate order pays its own flat shipping tier. One order to one address pays one tier. Three orders to three addresses pay three. If the buttons can travel together, they should.

Questions exhibitors ask

Which size should I put in the bowl at my booth if I am based in Central Islip? If people are meant to pick one up and walk away, the 1.5 inch at $1.89 is the scooping size. If the button carries a QR code, a booth number or a line of copy, go to the 3 inch at $2.49 so it can be read from a step back.

What does an order of 75 three inch buttons for Central Islip come to in total? $186.75 for the buttons, plus $9.99 flat shipping because 75 is inside the first tier, so $196.74 before tax.

My Central Islip order went from 95 buttons to 110 and shipping jumped. Why? The tier boundary is at 100 total buttons. At 95 you were paying $9.99. At 110 you are in the next band at $14.99. The per button price did not change and never does. Only the shipping band moved.

Do I pay less per button in Central Islip if I order 500 instead of 100? It does, in three steps. 100 of the 2.25 inch is $1.59 each and 500 of it is $1.39 each, because 500 reaches the 500 to 999 band. The ladder has four rungs per size and the lowest online one is 500 to 999. A hundred of the 2.25 inch pays $1.59. Five hundred of it pays $1.39, which is the 500 to 999 rate. The only figure that differs between those two orders is the flat shipping charge.

I am in Central Islip but two of my booth staff are in Islandia and North Great River. Should I place three orders or one? One, if you can. Shipping is charged per order on the total buttons in it, so three separate orders pay three separate flat charges. Those two neighbours are each 2.0 miles from you, so there is no distance reason to split.