Custom Die-Cut Stickers for East Rockaway, New York

If we are ordering supporter buttons for a team in East Rockaway, what does a full set for the stands actually come to? Here is a worked figure rather than a range: 251 of the 2.25 inch button at $1.49 each, the 250 to 499 band, earned by that size's own count, is $373.99 in buttons, flat shipping for an order that size is $19.99, and the order comes to $393.98 before tax. That covers a roster, two sets of parents, a bench, and enough spares for siblings and grandparents. It is a number you can take into a team meeting without anyone having to guess at it.

Five sizes, and the count that sets the rate

There are five round pin-back buttons and nothing else. The 1.5 inch is $1.89 each. The 2.25 inch is $1.99 each. The 3 inch is $2.49 each. The ladder has four rungs per size and the lowest online one is 500 to 999. Padding a count across sizes gains nothing, because sizes are counted separately. The only padding that pays is inside one size, at a boundary. All five are printed full colour from artwork you upload. Two smaller options exist as well, the 1 inch for $1.49 and the 1.25 inch for $1.69.

Choosing between them is mostly a question of how much has to fit inside a circle. The 1.5 inch holds a logo, a jersey number, or one short word. The 2.25 inch is the common choice when a name and a logo both need to read from a row or two away, which is why it shows up in the worked example above. The 3 inch is the size at which a player photograph starts to work, because a face needs room before it reads as a face rather than a smudge.

The only part of the bill that steps

Two figures move as the count grows: the rate band for each size, and the shipping tier for the order as a whole. 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 matters more than it first sounds. Look again at the worked example: 251 buttons crossed into the $19.99 tier by exactly one button. Order 250 instead and the same job ships at $14.99, a saving of $5.00. The band your count lands in is published in advance, so the whole saving is postage. Before you place an order, count your total and ask whether you are sitting one or two buttons over a line. If you are, either trim to the round number or add enough to make the extra tier worth having.

Neighbours close enough to share a roster with

East Rockaway sits 21.8 miles south west of the shop, measured as a straight line, in Nassau County. That figure is the least interesting distance on this page, though. The useful ones are much shorter. Lynbrook is 1.0 miles away. Hewlett is 1.4 miles. Rockville Centre is 1.5 miles. Oceanside is 1.6 miles. Lakeview is 2.6 miles. Five places we also cover, all of them inside a three mile radius, with the first of them barely a mile out.

A neighbour one mile away is unusually tight, and it changes what a button order can look like. A team drawn from two adjoining places is not a logistical problem, it is one order. Whoever is collecting money is not driving across a county to hand out a bag of buttons.

One order, two sets of parents

When rosters, leagues or squads overlap between East Rockaway and a neighbour that close, the sensible move is to combine into a single order rather than place two. Designs at the same size pool for the discount and different sizes never do, so a mixed order does not combine its way into a band. The reason is the shipping tier. Two separate orders of 90 buttons each pay $9.99 twice. One order of 180 buttons pays $14.99 once.

The same logic works in reverse when a combined order would tip over a boundary. If two groups together land at 260 buttons, you are paying the $19.99 tier for ten buttons past the line. Dropping to 250 or splitting the order are both reasonable answers, and the arithmetic is simple enough to do at a table before anyone uploads anything.

Getting artwork to behave inside a circle

Every button is round, so the first thing to check is what your artwork looks like cropped to a circle. Team logos are often built for a rectangular jersey patch or a banner, and the corners that get cut are sometimes carrying the year, the sponsor, or half the team name.

Keep names, numbers and anything else you need to read inside the middle of the circle rather than out near the rim, since artwork close to the edge curves away from the viewer. Contrast does the rest of the work. Dark type on a light field or light type on a dark field survives being shrunk to 1.5 inches. Thin type in a colour close to its own background does not. If the design has small print and you are unsure, the 2.25 inch buys you room without much change to the bill.

Who tends to order these

Team parents ordering for a whole roster. You usually know the player count and are guessing at the parent count. Guessing high costs the buttons you add at the band they land in, and it is the two boundaries, the shipping tier and the band, that decide whether the guess was expensive.

The treasurer working to a number that was voted on. You need a total, not an estimate. Multiply your count by $1.49, $1.69, $1.89, $1.99 or $2.49, add the one shipping figure for your tier, and that is the whole cost before tax with nothing else to appear later.

The coach ordering a short run for the bench. Small orders are not penalised here, because there is no minimum price advantage waiting further up the scale. Forty buttons cost forty times the single price plus $9.99.

Whoever is running the table at a fundraiser. You are pricing something for resale, so you need a firm cost per unit. It is published above, and a reorder is priced on its own count, so a second run of the same size pays whatever band that run reaches.

Questions people ask before ordering

Our East Rockaway order works out at 251 buttons. Should we change it? Probably yes. At 251 you are one button into the $19.99 shipping tier. Trim to 250 and the order ships at $14.99, saving $5.00 for one fewer button. The alternative is to use the tier you have already paid for and go further up toward 500.

Does the price per button drop if an East Rockaway team orders 500 instead of 100? Yes, and the saving applies to the whole run of that size. 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. There is a discount at 100 of a size, a better one at 250 and the best online one at 500. The 2.25 inch is $1.59 each at 100 and $1.39 each at 500. The rate you pay depends on how many of that one size are on the order.

Our squad is split between East Rockaway and Lynbrook, one mile apart. Is it better to place one order or two? One order, in almost every case. Two orders of 90 buttons pay $9.99 each, which is $19.98. From 500 to 999 of a size the rate is 30 percent under the listed one.

Which size should East Rockaway team parents choose if they want a player photo and a name on the same button? The 3 inch at $2.49 each. A photograph plus a name is two elements competing for space, and the 3 inch gives both enough room. If it is a name and a logo without a photo, the 2.25 inch at $1.99 usually holds them.

What does shipping cost on a small East Rockaway order, say 60 buttons for the bench? $9.99. Anything up to 100 buttons sits in that tier, so 60 and 100 ship for the same flat figure. If you are near 100 and thinking about spares, the buttons between those two numbers add nothing to the postage.