Custom Pin-Back Buttons for Manorhaven, New York

Five hundred and one of the 3 inch buttons at $1.74 each, which is the 500 to 999 rate, comes to $871.74, the flat shipping on an order that size is $24.99, and the total is $896.73 before tax. That buys a full colour pin for every name on a long membership roll, plus a handful of spares for the people who misplace theirs and the people who join after the list was printed. It is the sort of sum a club treasurer works out on the back of a meeting agenda. Both ladders are published before you order, which means the count is fixed first and the money follows it. Almost all of that total is fixed too. Only one number in it can be moved, and it is not the one most people go looking for.

The number that moves, and the ones that do not

The rate falls in steps rather than on a curve, at 100, 250 and 500 of a size. A 3 inch button costs $2.49 across the whole 1 to 99 band, and the same shape holds for the other four sizes. Count each size on its own, because that count is what sets the rate for it. Nothing is hidden, so there is nothing to hunt for. There are three thresholds and they are printed above.

Shipping is the part that moves, and it moves in steps rather than in a smooth line. It is a flat charge set by the total number of buttons on the order, which is why the worked example above is worth a second look. At 501 buttons the order sits one button past a tier boundary and pays $24.99 to ship. Ordering 500 instead would hold it in the $19.99 tier and save $5.00 on postage. That is a small saving on a four figure order, but it costs nothing to notice, and it is the one place where changing your count actually changes your total for a reason other than the buttons themselves.

How the shipping tiers are drawn

There are four of them, and they are set by the total number of buttons on the order rather than by size, weight or box count. 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. Because the tier counts buttons and not line items, an order split across two or five sizes still adds up into a single tier. Two hundred of the 1.5 inch and sixty of the 2.25 inch are 260 buttons and land in the $14.99 band together, not in two separate charges.

So if your count lands just over 100, 250, 500 or 1000, look at it once before you submit. Usually the extra buttons are worth more to you than the postage difference and you should keep them. Occasionally the spares are arbitrary, and trimming two or three moves you down a step.

Five sizes, and what each one can carry

The catalogue is five round pin-back 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. All five are full colour and printed from artwork you upload.

Size is a question of how much has to fit inside the circle. A 1.5 inch face holds an emblem, a monogram or one short word. The 2.25 inch is the usual middle choice, with room for a crest and a name arranged around it. The 3 inch is for designs carrying three pieces of information at once, a name, a role and a year for example, that must still be legible across a hall. Plenty of groups order two sizes on purpose, a larger pin for officers and a smaller one for members.

A short hop between neighbours

Manorhaven sits 16.9 miles west of the shop in a straight line, in Nassau County, served by ZIP code 11050. What stands out on a map is not that distance but how little space separates this village from the next one. Port Washington North is 0.7 miles away, which is close enough that a single club can draw its membership across the line without anyone thinking of it as two places. Kings Point and Port Washington are both 1.9 miles out. Flower Hill is 3.0 miles, and Sea Cliff is 3.6 miles.

For a pin order this matters in a plain way. Groups that meet in one of those places and draw members from another often need their count to cover both, and they sometimes want a second small run in a different colourway for a sister chapter. Sixty of one design and sixty of another at the same size is one hundred and twenty of that size, and both lines are discounted. There is only the shipping tier to watch, and that is decided by the combined button count if both variants go on one order.

Getting artwork ready for a round emblem

A club emblem drawn for a letterhead does not always survive being shrunk into a circle. Two things tend to go wrong. Fine outlines that look crisp at page size turn into a single muddy stroke at 1.5 inches, and anything sitting close to the rim gets pulled around the curved edge where it cannot be read straight on. Both are easy to avoid. Thicken hairlines before you upload, and keep text and the outer edge of a crest inside a comfortable margin so the wrap has spare artwork to take.

Circular text is the other common request. It works best as one band of type rather than two, sitting across the top of the circle instead of running the whole way round. If your society name is long, set it on two straight lines inside the circle instead of bending it.

Four ways a pin order usually starts

If you are a membership secretary, your count is your roll plus spares, and your real decision is whether officers get a distinct size. Order the officer pins as a separate design in the same submission so everything sits in one shipping tier.

The rate is worked out per order, so holding part of a run back can cost you the band the whole run would have reached.

If you are chairing a fundraiser and pins are going out at a table, the 2.25 inch gives you a face people can see from a few feet away without pushing you into the higher per button price of the largest size.

If you are ordering for a volunteer crew, keep the design simple and the count generous. Crews grow between the day you write the list and the day the pins go out, and a Manorhaven crew drawing helpers from the villages listed above tends to grow more than the list suggests.

Five questions people actually ask

Does the price per button drop if my Manorhaven club orders 1000 instead of 500? Yes, as long as the count is for one size. 500 of one size pays 30 percent under the listed rate, and 1000 of one size is a quote rather than an automatic price. The breaks in the rate are published rather than negotiated. A 3 inch button is $2.49 each at both counts. The ladder has four rungs per size and the lowest online one is 500 to 999.

My Manorhaven society needs 501 of the 3 inch pins. Is there any reason to order 500? Yes, one. At 501 the order pays $24.99 shipping. At 500 it stays in the $19.99 tier and you save $5.00. There is a discount at 100 of a size, a better one at 250 and the best online one at 500.

Can one Manorhaven order mix all five sizes? Yes. Each size is charged at its own rate, worked out from its own count, and the shipping tier is worked out from the total number of buttons across the whole order, not per size.

Our group meets in Port Washington North but most members live in Manorhaven. Does that change what we order? Not at all. The catalogue, the prices and the tiers are the same for both, so order one combined count and let it fall into a single shipping tier.

If a Manorhaven club orders exactly 100 buttons, what is the shipping? $9.99. One hundred buttons is the top of the first tier, so 100 ships at $9.99 while 101 moves up to the $14.99 band.