Custom Die-Cut Stickers for North Bay Shore, New York

Brentwood is about a mile and a half from North Bay Shore, Baywood is a shade further at 1.6 miles, Bay Shore itself is 2.5 miles on, and Brightwaters and Deer Park close the ring at 2.8 and 3.2 miles. Those are straight line figures rather than road distances, and the practical point of listing them is that a group whose members are scattered across three or four of those names is still buying die-cut stickers from one bench, one press and one cutter. Nothing about an order changes because the people receiving the stickers live on different sides of a line on a map.

## Two names with one root between them

The first thing worth sorting out is the name. Bay Shore is a separate place a couple of miles off, the two names share a root, and the pair of them turn up in the same sentence often enough that people hesitate over the address field at checkout. The answer is simpler than the confusion suggests. Type the address exactly as the post office has it for the recipient, with 11706 on the ZIP line, and the label prints what you typed. We do not correct it, second guess it, or quietly map it to whichever of the two names we think you meant. If your group has always written its name one way on flyers and another way on mail, use the mail version. Everything else in the order, artwork, size, quantity, price, is untouched by which of the two appears on the box.

## Cutting to the outline rather than to a rectangle

Die-cut means the blade follows the shape of the art. A round badge comes off the sheet round. A badge shaped like a pennant comes off shaped like a pennant. That changes what a usable file looks like. The art wants a clean outer edge, so a logo sitting on a flat background with an obvious boundary cuts well, while a photograph that dissolves into its background at the border leaves us guessing where to put the line. Leave a little breathing room between the edge of the art and anything you care about, since a cut line is a physical thing with a physical tolerance, and a name set two points from the border will eventually meet it. If your group has a wordmark with thin strokes or long descenders, send it at the size you want it printed rather than at the size it happens to exist in, and we will tell you if something is going to close up.

## What the square inch rate means for a badge run

Price is per square inch of the sticker, and the rate steps down as the quantity goes up. It is 35 cents a 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. There is no separate charge hiding behind that. A badge measuring 1.75 by 2.75 inches is 4.8125 square inches. Order 500 of them and the rate is 22 cents, which puts the badge at $1.06 each and the run at $529.38. The same badge in a smaller batch costs more each, because the rate band is higher, not because anything about the badge has changed. If you are weighing one size against another, multiply the two dimensions, then multiply by the rate for the band you expect to land in. That is the whole calculation.

## The ten piece line, and why it is not a price floor

An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces, or at $10 of merchandise, whichever arrives first. Those are two separate doors into the same room. A committee that wants a dozen badges walks through on the count. A group that wants six of something larger walks through on the value. The distinction matters because people assume a minimum means a minimum spend, then pad an order with pieces they do not want in order to clear a number they had cleared on the count alone.

## Sent to you, or collected from the counter

The shop is at 205 East Main Street in Huntington, and North Bay Shore is 10.9 miles south east of it in a straight line. Everything is printed and cut at that address. Orders can ship anywhere in the United States, and local pickup at the counter is free if somebody in the group is passing anyway. Checkout will take you through as a guest if you would rather not keep an account.

## Four ways a badge order tends to arrive

The organiser running a season rather than a single date usually orders one design that carries across every event, with the group name and no year on it, then adds a smaller run of dated badges for whichever occasion actually needs them. That keeps the bulk of the order sitting in the cheapest band.

The volunteer who has inherited the job from somebody else usually arrives with last season's artwork and no idea whether it is usable. Send it anyway. A file that will not cut cleanly is far easier to diagnose from the file itself than from a description of it.

The small committee buying badges for its own members is the order that runs into the minimum question most often, and it is the most common first order we see from North Bay Shore. Ten badges is an order. Twelve is an order. The count is low enough that the top rate band applies, so the per piece figure will look high next to the numbers quoted for 500.

The group buying swag alongside badges, laptop stickers and bottle stickers and the rest, should count the whole thing as a single order when working out which band applies, because that is how the band is read.

## Questions we get about orders from this corner of Suffolk County

**Our flyers say one thing and our mail says another. Which version of North Bay Shore should go in the address field?** Whichever one the post office uses for the recipient, with 11706 on the ZIP line. The label reproduces exactly what you enter at checkout.

**We want badges in two sizes for a North Bay Shore event. Does the quantity band count each size separately?** The band is read off the order, not off each design or size. Two hundred of one size and three hundred of another is five hundred pieces, so the 22 cent rate applies to both, with each size priced on its own square inch figure.

**Does the 22 cent rate in that worked example only apply to a rectangle like the one priced above for North Bay Shore?** No. The rate depends on quantity alone. Shape only affects the square inch figure, which is why a round badge and a rectangular badge of similar area land at similar money.

**Our North Bay Shore committee only needs a dozen badges. Is that too small to place?** No. Ten or more pieces qualifies on its own, and $10 of merchandise qualifies on its own. A dozen badges clears the first of those without needing the second.

**Can somebody from our North Bay Shore group collect an order at the counter instead of having it sent?** Yes. Choose local pickup at checkout and collect it at 205 East Main Street. Bring the order number and we will hand it over.