Custom Pin-Back Buttons for Flanders, NY 11901

An order headed out this way is identified by two things together: the ZIP code 11901 and the hamlet name written out in full on the address line. Put both on the order and there is no ambiguity about where the box is going. A ZIP code on its own does not always separate one hamlet from the next out on the east end of Suffolk County, and a hamlet name on its own can be read loosely. Written together they route cleanly, and the name on the label matches the name on the order confirmation, which matters when a club treasurer is reconciling a receipt later.

Buttons are round, full colour, pin-back, and printed from artwork you upload. Five sizes, nothing else: 1 inch, 1.25 inch, 1.5 inch, 2.25 inch and 3 inch.

Writing the address so it lands where you meant it

The useful habit is to treat the hamlet name as part of the address rather than as a note. Line one is the recipient, usually the person who will actually be holding the box on meeting night. Line two is the street. Line three carries the hamlet name, the state, and 11901. If the delivery point is a hall, a lodge room, a firehouse bay or a marina office rather than a house, add the name of the building on its own line above the street. Carriers out here read building names.

The second habit is to put a contact number on the order for whoever is receiving. If a club orders under an organisation name and the box arrives at a residence, a name mismatch is the most common reason an address gets queried. A phone number resolves that without anyone having to guess.

Five places we also cover, all of them close

What makes this corner of the county unusual is how tightly the covered places sit around Flanders. Riverhead is 3.4 miles away. East Quogue is 4.1 miles. Hampton Bays is 4.6 miles. Westhampton is 6.0 miles. Remsenburg-Speonk is 7.3 miles. Every one of the five nearest places we cover falls inside a 7.3 mile radius.

That matters in a practical way for anyone ordering for a group whose membership is not confined to one hamlet. A single order ships to a single address, and it pays one flat shipping tier, for the first ninety-nine of each size. If the members are spread across a handful of hamlets that all sit within a few miles of each other, the sensible arrangement is one order to whoever hosts the meeting, and distribution by hand from there. You are not paying to move buttons between places that are four miles apart.

How far east this is

The straight line distance from the shop to here is 41.3 miles, due east. That is a real distance and worth knowing when you are weighing having an order sent against collecting it in person. It is a straight line figure, not a road figure, so the actual driving route is longer.

What each size costs

One rate per size per band, and every size uses the same band boundaries. It is the same for the first button on an order as it is for the thousandth.

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

The order total does not set the rate. A single size's count does. Above 999 of one size the answer is a quote, so the published ladder stops there. The rate is counted inside a single size and the shipping tier is counted across all of them.

The 2.25 inch size is the usual choice for club and society pins, because it gives enough room for a crest or a chapter name at a readable size without becoming a badge that dominates a lapel. The 1.5 inch is the tidier option. The 3 inch is what people reach for when a design has detail in it that needs the room.

Flat shipping, and where the tiers change

Shipping is a flat charge based on the total number of buttons on the order, all sizes counted together:

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

Because the tiers are flat, the cost per button of shipping falls as you approach the top of a tier and jumps when you cross into the next one. An order of 505 buttons pays the same $24.99 as an order of 1000. If a quantity lands just barely over a boundary, it is worth checking whether the count can come back under it, or whether it makes more sense to use the tier you have already paid for. This has nothing to do with the button rate, which is the same anywhere inside a band.

A worked order for a club run

A society ordering 750 of the 2.25 inch button pays $1.39 each, the rate that applies from 500 of one size, which is $1042.50 in buttons. That quantity falls in the top tier shown above, so shipping is a flat $24.99. The order comes to $1067.49 before tax.

Note what is not happening in that example. The 750 buttons are not discounted for being 750. Each one is $1.99 at 40, and $1.49 at 400. The only reason the total shipping figure is the one shown is the tier the button count falls into.

Four people who order this way

The club organiser with a fixed roster. You know your membership number, you order to match it, and you want the arithmetic to be predictable when you present it to the committee. Nothing is hidden in the arithmetic: a rate from the band, a count, and one shipping figure.

The society officer handling a chapter with a crest. You have one design that does not change year to year, and what changes is the count. Reordering the same artwork at a different quantity gives you the same unit price, so last year's per-member figure is still the figure you quote this year.

The person running an annual dinner or installation night. You need a badge for every attendee plus a margin for late additions. Adding twenty more costs twenty times the band rate that size is in, with two thresholds worth a glance: the shipping tier, and whether the twenty carry that size past 100, 250 or 500.

The volunteer who ended up holding this job. You did not ask to be in charge of pins. What you want is three numbers: size, unit price, shipping tier. They are all on this page, and none of them require a quote.

Questions people ask before ordering

How should an order for Flanders be addressed so it routes to the right place? Recipient name, building name if there is one, street, then the hamlet name, the state and 11901 on the last line. Add a phone number for whoever is receiving it.

Our society in Flanders is ordering 750 pins. Does the price per button drop at that quantity? Yes, and it is worth knowing where the steps are. The first break is at 100 of a single size and takes 20 percent off every one of them, and there are two more at 250 and 500. The discount is worked out per size and applied automatically. At 750 the 2.25 inch button is $1.39, the same as at any other count.

Can one Flanders order mix all five sizes? Yes. Sizes are priced individually, and the shipping tier is worked out from the total number of buttons across the whole order, not per size.

Two clubs in Flanders want to combine into a single order. Is there any advantage? Only on shipping. Combining means one flat shipping tier instead of two separate charges. One order can be cheaper per button than two, because each order earns its band on its own count and two halves may each fall short of it.

If a Flanders order comes to 505 buttons, what is the shipping charge? $24.99, which is the tier covering counts up to 1000. An order of 500 would have fallen in the $19.99 tier, so five buttons over the boundary moves the whole order up one step.