Custom Die-Cut Stickers for Merrick, New York

What does a run of badges for a community group actually come to before anyone has to commit to it? Here is the arithmetic on the request we get most often. A 2.5 by 2.5 inch die-cut sticker works out to 6.25 square inches. At 250 pieces the rate is 24 cents per square inch, so each badge is $1.50 and the full run of 250 is $375.00. Nothing is added to that figure for cutting the outline of your own shape rather than one off a shelf.

A lot of what we cut for community groups is not one sticker. It is a box of the same thing, going to a folding table at the front of a room where somebody hands them out one at a time. Name badges carrying a group logo. Shape stickers for a fundraising table. Something for the children's side of a family day. An order like that is large enough that the per piece figure decides whether it happens, which is why the whole rate ladder is published here rather than behind a form.

## The rate ladder in full

Die-cut stickers are priced per square inch, and the rate falls as the piece count rises.

1 to 24 pieces: 35 cents per square inch

25 to 49 pieces: 30 cents 50 to 99 pieces: 28 cents 100 to 249 pieces: 26 cents 250 to 499 pieces: 24 cents 500 pieces and up: 22 cents

To price anything, multiply width by height for the square inch figure, then multiply that by the rate for the band you land in. The same 2.5 by 2.5 inch badge at 100 pieces sits in the 26 cent band, which is $1.62 each and $162.50 for the hundred. Step up to 250 of the identical artwork and it is $1.50 each. Size moves the total as hard as quantity does, so if a committee has a fixed figure to work to, shaving a quarter inch off each side is often a stronger lever than arguing about how many to print.

## The minimum is a doorway, not a floor

An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces or at $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first. That is a threshold for placing the order, not a charge and not a rounding up of your total. A group needing a handful of badges for the sign in desk clears it on the piece count. A group ordering one large shape clears it on the merchandise figure instead. Either way the ladder above still governs what you pay, and a small run simply sits in the 35 cent band.

## Two names sharing one root

North Merrick sits 2.4 miles away and carries the same name root, so order forms, shipping labels and volunteer sign up sheets routinely end up holding one name where the other was meant. Put the address you want the box to arrive at, compass point included if it belongs there, and put the group's name in the company field so the two never get crossed. The ZIP we see most on orders from this side of the pair is 11566. None of this changes a cent of the price. It matters only at the point where a carrier reads the label, which is exactly the point where a one word difference costs somebody a box.

## Getting the box to the right table

Merrick is 17.8 miles south west of the shop in a straight line. Everything is printed and cut at one address, 205 East Main Street in Huntington, and an order can either ship anywhere in the United States or be collected there at no shipping charge. Plenty of groups take the pickup option because somebody on the committee is making the trip anyway. We cut for the places immediately around you as well, so if your organization draws people from Bellmore at 1.2 miles, Freeport at 1.7, Wantagh at 2.1 or Roosevelt at 2.5, one order can carry designs for all of them instead of splitting into four.

## What the artwork needs to do

A die-cut shape needs two things from your file: the design itself, and a clear sense of where the cut should fall around it. If you want the badge cut to the outline of a logo rather than to a square, say so and show us the outline you mean. Keep any text you care about away from the edge of that outline, because a cut line has to sit somewhere and text crowded against it reads as a mistake. Fine detail generally reads better on a slightly larger badge, and since the price moves with square inches you can weigh that decision in advance.

## Four people who tend to place this order

The organizer with a logo and nothing else. You have the group's mark in one file, from whoever made it years ago, and no designer on the committee. Send it, tell us the badge size you have in mind, and we work to the outline it has.

The treasurer working backwards from a number. You have been given a figure and told not to exceed it. Start from the ladder, pick the band, then size the badge to fit. Two decisions, both yours, and no surprises at checkout.

The volunteer coordinator running two tiers. Committee badges one size, everybody else another. That is one order with two sizes, not two jobs.

The person handling the children's table. Small shapes, handed out freely. This is where the higher piece counts earn their keep, because the drop from 26 cents to 22 cents is the difference between a table that runs out and one that does not.

## Questions we get asked

Our group in Merrick cannot justify 250 badges. What do 100 come to? One hundred pieces lands in the 26 cent band. At 6.25 square inches that badge is $1.62 each and $162.50 for the hundred. Worth knowing first: 250 of the same badge is $375.00, so two and a half times the pieces costs a little over twice the money. If the group will use the design again, look hard at the larger band.

Can a Merrick order be collected at the shop instead of shipped? Yes. Choose local pickup at checkout rather than a shipping method and no shipping is charged. It is held at the counter under the name on the order, so whoever comes for it needs only that name.

Can you cut badges for a group that meets in North Merrick rather than in town? Yes, at the same rates. The 2.4 miles between the two changes nothing on this page. Put the address where the box should land on the order.

Our Merrick order needs two sizes, a large badge and a smaller logo sticker. How does the band work then? The band is set by the total piece count on the order, and each size is charged on its own square inch figure at that rate. Splitting a run across two sizes does not push you into a worse band, so keeping it on one order is usually cheaper.

Is a dozen badges even enough to place a Merrick order? Yes. An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces or at $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first, and a dozen clears the piece count on its own. A run that size sits in the 1 to 24 band at 35 cents per square inch.