Custom die-cut stickers and event badges for Melville, New York

The first decision on a Melville order is usually not the artwork at all: it is whether you would rather come and collect the box yourself or have it sent to you. Both are ordinary answers here, and people split fairly evenly between them. Pickup at our counter is free. Shipping goes anywhere in the United States, so if a trip is not worth making, you can skip it and pay for a label instead. Nothing about the stickers changes either way. The only thing that changes is who carries the box.

For the record, you are 6.8 miles due south of the shop in a straight line. The shop is at 205 East Main Street in Huntington, the one address where all of this is printed and cut. That figure is close enough that some people treat a counter pickup as routine, and far enough that plenty of others would rather not think about the trip at all.

Three ZIP codes, one order

Most of the places we cover sit inside a single ZIP code. This one carries three, 11747, 11760 and 11775, which matters more than it sounds like it should. If you are collecting addresses from a group of people, you will get all three back, and a few people will guess wrong about which one is theirs. When you are sending one box to one address, this is a non issue: use whichever ZIP code the post uses for that street and the order goes where it should. It only becomes awkward when someone assumes everyone in the group shares a ZIP code and builds a spreadsheet on that assumption. They do not. Check the ones you were given rather than correcting them to match each other. On Suffolk County paperwork the same group can look as though it is spread across three separate areas when everyone involved is really within a short hop of everyone else.

What twelve square inches actually costs

Die-cut stickers are priced by the square inch, and the rate per square inch falls as the quantity goes up. The bands are 35 cents from 1 to 24 pieces, 30 cents from 25 to 49, 28 cents from 50 to 99, 26 cents from 100 to 249, 24 cents from 250 to 499, and 22 cents at 500.

Take a badge at 3 inches by 4 inches. That is 12 square inches. At 24 pieces you are in the first band, so 12 square inches at 35 cents is $4.20 each, and 24 of them come to $100.80. Move up one piece to 25 and the rate drops to 30 cents. The same badge is now $3.60, and 25 of them come to $90.00.

Read that twice. Twenty five badges cost $10.80 less in total than twenty four, and you get an extra one. The bands do that at every step, but the first jump is the one that catches people, because 24 is a natural number to land on when you are counting volunteers and adding a couple of spares.

Where to stop counting and start rounding up

The practical advice is simple: when your count lands just under the bottom of the next band, go up. The arithmetic is the same whichever badge size you pick, because the rate applies to the square inch rather than to the piece.

There is a floor on orders, but it is not a price floor. An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces or at $10 of merchandise, whichever it reaches first. A small run of large badges can clear the dollar figure well before it reaches ten pieces, and a run of small ones usually clears the piece count first.

Shape, outline and what you send us

Die cut means the sticker is cut to the outline of the design rather than to a rectangle, so a badge shaped like a logo comes out shaped like the logo. If your group has a crest or a mascot, that outline is the shape. If the artwork is a plain square, you get a plain square, which is a reasonable thing to want when the design is mostly text.

Send the artwork at the size you want it printed, and tell us where the cut should fall if it is not obvious from the file. If two versions exist, one with a name band across the bottom and one without, send both and say which is which.

The places either side of you

We cover the ground around you as well. Wheatley Heights is 2.3 miles away in a straight line, South Huntington 2.8, West Hills 3.0, and both Old Bethpage and Wyandanch 3.1. If your committee draws people from more than one of those, you are all inside the same small pocket of the map, and it is common for one person to take delivery of the whole run and hand it out at the next meeting rather than everyone ordering separately.

Four people who order badges like these

The organiser running a community event. You have a headcount that keeps moving, a logo somebody made two years ago, and a budget line that has to survive a committee. Order to the next band up rather than to your exact headcount. The spares cost you nothing extra and the arithmetic above explains why.

The volunteer coordinator. You probably want one design with a blank band for a handwritten name rather than a personalised run. One design, one quantity, one box.

The treasurer who signs it off. You want a number you can defend. The per piece price is the square inch count times the band rate, so you can work out any quantity before you commit to it.

The group member who ends up doing the artwork. Usually the person with the crest on their laptop. Send it at print size, flag the intended outline, and say which file is the current one.

Questions people ask us

Can I collect a Melville order at the counter instead of having it sent? Yes. Pickup is free, and it is the option most people compare against a shipping label when they are weighing up the trip. The order is identical either way.

Which of the three ZIP codes should go on a Melville shipping address? Whichever one belongs to that specific street. Because 11747, 11760 and 11775 all serve this area, do not assume the ZIP code a colleague gave you applies to your own address as well. Copy it from the address you are actually shipping to.

We need badges for a Melville event and the count came out at 24. Should we order 25? Yes. At 24 pieces a 3 by 4 inch badge is $4.20 each and $100.80 in total. At 25 the rate falls a band and the same badge is $3.60 each, $90.00 in total. You pay less and you get a spare.

Our Melville group only needs badges for a handful of people. Is that enough for an order? Probably. The threshold is 10 or more pieces or $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first, so a short run of reasonably large badges can clear it on value alone without hitting ten pieces.

Do you cover the places right next to Melville as well? Yes. Wheatley Heights, South Huntington, West Hills, Old Bethpage and Wyandanch are all within a few straight line miles, so a committee drawn from across that pocket is still a single order to a single address if you want it to be.