Die Cut Stickers for Blue Point, New York

Can a band order stickers without committing to a thousand of them? Yes, and the floor is lower than most people expect. An order qualifies at ten or more pieces, or at ten dollars of merchandise, whichever you reach first. That is a qualifying line rather than a price floor, so a short run for a merch table, a demo drop, or the inside of a few guitar cases is an ordinary order and not a favour.

Everything is printed and cut at one storefront at 205 East Main Street in

Huntington, and an order addressed to Blue Point moves through the shop the same way every other one does.

A neighbour barely a mile off

The first thing worth knowing about the 11715 ZIP is how tightly it sits against the places around it. Bayport is 1.0 miles away in a straight line. Patchogue is 1.3, North Patchogue is 2.2, East Patchogue is 2.8, and Sayville is 3.0. We cover all of them, which means the people on a single order often are not all on the same street.

For a group of musicians that is practical rather than trivia. The person who handles merch is rarely the person whose laptop the artwork lives on, and neither is necessarily the person with the card. When your bass player is a mile from where you practise, folding everybody into a single order is simple: one address, one quantity, one rate. Splitting the same artwork into two smaller orders at two addresses costs more per sticker, because the rate is set by the quantity sitting on the order, not by how many people chipped in.

What a square inch actually buys

Die cut stickers are priced by the square inch, and the rate falls as the count climbs. It is 35 cents per square inch at 1 to 24 pieces, 30 cents at 25 to 49, 28 cents at 50 to 99, 26 cents at 100 to 249, 24 cents at 250 to 499, and 22 cents at 500.

Work a real one through. A 1.5 by 1.5 inch sticker is 2.25 square inches. At 50 pieces the rate is 28 cents, so each sticker is $0.63 and fifty of them come to $31.50. Push the same design to 100 pieces and the rate drops to 26 cents, which puts each sticker at $0.58 and the hundred at $58.50. You spent $27 more and walked away with twice the stickers at a nickel less apiece.

Two things follow. Size moves the total as hard as count does, because the square inch figure is what the rate multiplies against: a 2 by 2 inch version of the same logo is 4 square inches, barely different in the hand but nearly twice the area on the invoice. And the band edges are worth a look before you commit. Sitting at 45 pieces means paying 30 cents; five more pieces moves the whole order to 28.

Where the order comes from, and where it goes

Blue Point sits 20.9 miles south east of the shop in a straight line, inside Brookhaven township in Suffolk County. That figure is a measured line on a map and not a route. Local pickup at the storefront is free if you would rather collect the box in person, and anything not collected is posted within the United States. Checkout works as a guest, so there is nothing to set up first.

Drawing something that will cut the way you drew it

A die cut follows the outline of the art, so the outline is worth thinking about before the file leaves your hands. A shape with deep notches and narrow spurs will cut, but those spurs are the part that gets handled, so give them width. Lettering is where people get caught out: a wordmark that looks confident on a laptop screen can be a hairline once it lands at 1.5 inches across.

Build the art at the size you intend to hold, not at whatever size the logo file happens to be, and leave a little colour running past the cut line so a fraction of movement does not show as a white sliver on one edge. If you want the paper colour to show through part of the design, say so, because that is a decision about the cut path rather than something to guess at.

Who tends to order these

A group putting out a first release usually wants two sizes: a small one that goes in every mailer and on every case, and a larger one for the merch table. The small one is where the square inch rate is kindest, so that is normally the piece to buy deep.

A small label carrying three or four acts has a different problem. Each act wants its own design, and each design is its own quantity. Buying one act deep and the rest shallow is usually cheaper than buying all four at the same middling count, because only the deep one reaches a better band.

A solo artist ordering for themselves often lands in the 1 to 24 range, and that is fine. Ten pieces clears the minimum, and there is no obligation to order into a discount you do not need.

Whoever ends up running the table at the end of a set cares most about size. Something that fits in a shirt pocket moves; something that has to be carried flat does not. Ask that person before you settle on dimensions.

Questions we get asked

My bass player lives in Bayport and I live in Blue Point. Can the two of us go in on one order?

Yes, and you probably should. The rate is set by the total quantity on a single order, so sixty pieces bought together sit at 28 cents per square inch while two separate orders of thirty each sit at 30 cents. Have it sent to one of the two addresses and split the box by hand. There is 1.0 miles between you in a straight line.

If I order 100 of the 1.5 by 1.5 inch sticker from your example, does a Blue Point order get the 26 cent rate automatically?

Yes. The rate follows the piece count, not the destination. One hundred pieces falls in the 100 to 249 band at 26 cents, so 2.25 square inches works out to $0.58 each and $58.50 for the hundred. Nothing about the address touches the arithmetic.

We only need a dozen stickers to go out with one seven inch release. Is that enough for a Blue Point order?

It is. Twelve pieces sits in the 1 to 24 band at 35 cents per square inch, and even if the merchandise total lands under ten dollars, the piece count clears the minimum on its own. Either condition is enough, whichever one you reach first.

Can I collect a Blue Point order instead of having it sent?

You can. Pickup at the Huntington storefront costs nothing, and since the printing and the cutting both happen at that address, holding an order for collection involves no extra step. If the trip does not suit you, it goes out by post instead.

At 1.5 by 1.5 inches, will a logo with thin lettering still cut for a Blue Point order?

That depends on how thin the strokes are once the art is scaled down, and it is better checked than assumed. Send the file and we will look at the stroke weights against the finished size. The usual fixes are to thicken the strokes, drop a word, or go up a size, and going up a size changes the square inch total, so it is worth settling before the quantity is.