Custom Die-Cut Stickers for West Hills, New York

One hundred of the 1.5 inch button at $1.51 each, which is the 100 to 249 rate, is $151.00 in buttons, plus $9.99 flat shipping for an order of that size, which brings the whole thing to $160.99 before tax. That figure buys a hundred round, full colour, pin backed buttons printed from artwork you upload, and it is the single number most people are actually looking for when they land on a page like this one.

The reason the arithmetic comes first is that a giveaway button is rarely bought for its own sake. It is bought because somebody has a headcount and a budget line, and the two have to meet. A charity walk in West Hills is the clearest version of that problem: registrations come in, the organiser wants something in every hand at the check in table, and the question is not what a button looks like but what the total does to the money the walk is trying to raise.

## What the total is made of

There are exactly two things in the number above. The first is the buttons themselves, priced per button. The second is a flat shipping charge set by how many buttons are on the order in total. Nothing else enters the calculation before tax.

That makes the total easy to rebuild, for the first ninety-nine of each size. Take the per button price for the size you want, multiply by how many you need, then add the one shipping figure that matches your quantity band. The worked example above is that method applied to a hundred of the 1 inch.

Each size has four price bands: 1 to 99, 100 to 249, 250 to 499 and 500 to 999. The shipping tier does.

This is the part that surprises people used to quoting print work. The listed figure is the 1 to 99 rate, and it improves at three points above that. A hundred pays 20 percent under the listed rate. A thousand of one size is past the ceiling, so that one is quoted rather than priced automatically. Three counts are worth a second look before you commit: 100, 250 and 500 of a single size. Everywhere else, order what you need.

What does change with quantity is the flat shipping tier. Up to 100 buttons the shipping is $9.99. Up to 250 it is $14.99. Up to 500 it is $19.99. Up to 1000 it is $24.99.

Look again at the worked example and you will see it sits exactly on a boundary. A hundred buttons is the top of the $9.99 band. The hundred and first button carries the order into the $14.99 band, while the button itself still costs what every other button costs. So if your count is hovering just above a tier ceiling, it is worth asking whether the real number is a little under it instead.

## Choosing between 1.5, 2.25 and 3 inch

Five sizes, all round. The 1.5 inch is $1.89 each. The 2.25 inch is $1.99 each. The 3 inch is $2.49 each. Choose the size on what has to fit on it. The count will pick its own band. For a lapel pin rather than a badge, the 1 inch is $1.49 and the 1.25 inch is $1.69.

The 1.5 inch suits a design that is a logo, a short name, or a single line of text. The 2.25 inch gives room for a logo plus a line underneath without the text closing in on the edge. The 3 inch is a different object in the hand: a bigger canvas, or something meant to be read from across a table rather than up close.

## One order, several places that sit close together

West Hills is in the town of Huntington, in Suffolk County, and carries the 11743 ZIP code. The thing worth knowing if you are organising anything here is how tightly the surrounding places we also cover are packed around it. South Huntington is 2.1 miles away. Huntington Station is 2.5 miles. Cold Spring Harbor is 2.8 miles. Melville is 3.0 miles. Plainview is the furthest of the five at 3.3 miles.

Five neighbours inside a 3.3 mile radius changes how a fundraiser order gets assembled. A walk that starts on one side of that radius can pull volunteers, sponsor teams and family from every one of those places, and the first question is usually whether each group needs its own batch. It does not. One artwork and one order covers all of them, and since the shipping tier is set by the total buttons on the order rather than by how many groups are involved, splitting into several small orders only means paying a shipping charge several times.

## The distance, and what it is good for

The straight line distance from the shop to here is 4.7 miles, to the south west. That is a useful number to have because local pickup is free, and an order collected in person carries no shipping charge at all. For an order sitting just over a tier ceiling, that can be the difference that matters more than the button count.

## Getting artwork into a circle

Buttons are printed full colour from the file you send, and the thing worth planning for is the shape. A round button crops a square design, and it wraps a thin band of the outer edge around the curve where it will not be read straight on. Keep logos, text and dates in from the edge, and let the background colour run all the way out rather than stopping at a hard border, so the wrap does not read as a mistake.

For a fundraiser, the test is whether the cause is legible at a glance. A name and a year on a 1.5 inch button reads. A name, a year, a sponsor list and a slogan on the same button does not.

## Four organisers, four different problems

If you are running the walk and registrations are still open, your problem is that you do not yet know your final count. Price per button will not punish you for guessing either way, so anchor the decision on the shipping tiers and pick a number that sits under a ceiling rather than just over one.

If you are a team captain ordering only for your own team, your problem is the opposite: a small count where shipping is a real share of the total. Fold it into the main order if one exists rather than placing a second one alongside it.

If you are handling the money and need a figure to put in front of a board, the two step sum is what belongs in the document. Per button price times quantity, plus the one shipping figure for that quantity band, plus tax.

If you are ordering for a single table rather than for every attendee, the 2.25 inch or the 3 inch tends to be the better call. A table giveaway is picked up by choice, not handed over, and a larger face does more of the work of getting it picked up.

## Questions that come up before you order

**We are running a fundraiser walk in West Hills and want one button per registrant. How should we settle on a quantity?** Count your registrations, then look at the shipping tiers before you round. The per button price is identical across the whole 1 to 99 band, so the only thing your number changes is which flat shipping charge applies.

**Our West Hills event draws volunteers from the neighbouring places you cover. Can that all go on one order?** Yes. One artwork and one order is normally the right structure, because the shipping tier is set by the total buttons on the order. Several separate small orders means paying shipping on each of them.

**Does the per button price drop if our West Hills group orders more than 100?** No. A size's own count picks its rate, not the order total. Nothing about the rate changes until one size reaches 100.

**Our West Hills walk needs 100 of the 1.5 inch button. What is the total?** $151.00 for the buttons, $9.99 flat shipping, so $160.99 before tax.

**Can a West Hills order mix the five sizes, and what does that do to shipping?** It can. Each size keeps its own rate, worked out from its own count, and the shipping tier is worked out from the total number of buttons on the order regardless of which sizes make up that total.