Custom Die-Cut Stickers for Setauket, New York

Port Jefferson is 2.4 miles off, Stony Brook 2.8, Port Jefferson Station 3.1 and Terryville 4.2, which packs four of the places we cover into a tight ring around one another. A school group here almost never draws from only one of them. A roster for a spirit run pulls families in from across that ring, and the sticker order that reaches our bench is usually a single design, a single quantity, and one mailing address that could sit in any of the five. We print and cut all of it ourselves at 205 East Main Street in Huntington.

Two names sharing one root

The name is the first thing worth sorting out, because it comes in halves. East Setauket is 2.2 miles away and carries the same root, so a design meant for one reads naturally to people in the other. When a PTA puts a place name across the bottom of a mascot sticker, half the families who buy one live on the other side of that root, and they still read it as theirs. Setauket groups often ask us to set the shared part of the name larger and drop the directional word to a smaller line underneath, which keeps one design serving both sides. Others skip the place name and let the school crest and a year do the work. Either approach cuts the same way on our machine.

What 120 stickers actually costs

Die-cut stickers are priced by the square inch, so the shape and the size set the price rather than the complexity of the art. A 1.5 by 1.5 inch sticker is 2.25 square inches. At 120 pieces the rate is 26 cents per square inch, which puts that sticker at $0.58 each and the run of 120 at $70.20. Push the same design to 250 pieces and the rate steps down to 24 cents, so each one is $0.54 and the 250 come to $135.00. That is a little under twice the money for a little over twice the stickers, which is the arithmetic most fundraising chairs want on paper before a committee meeting.

Where the rate steps down

The per square inch rate falls as the quantity climbs. It is 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. The bands are worth looking at before you settle on a number, because a run of 240 and a run of 250 are separated by ten stickers and a whole price step. There is also a minimum: an order qualifies at 10 or more pieces, or at $10 of merchandise, whichever it reaches first. That is a qualifying threshold, not a floor on what you spend.

Drawing a crest that still reads at an inch and a half

Most school art was drawn for a banner or a jersey, not for something the size of a stamp. Hairline outlines, a motto in small type, and a four colour gradient all behave differently once the whole thing is 1.5 inches across. Thicken the outlines, drop the motto or move it to its own line, and let the mascot carry the design. Send the largest version of the file you have and tell us what the sticker needs to say at a glance, and we will cut the outline to the shape of the art rather than boxing it into a rectangle. If the crest has a thin banner ribbon, we usually suggest the cut line follow the solid body of the shape instead of tracing every flourish.

Fifteen miles east, or the mail

Setauket is 15.3 miles east of the shop in a straight line. That is close enough that plenty of groups collect at the counter, which is free, and far enough that plenty of others would rather have the box addressed to a home or to the school office. We ship anywhere in the United States, so either works. If a parent volunteer is collecting, put that person's name on the order.

Who these tend to get made for

A PTA fundraising chair is usually working backwards from a target. Tell us what the committee wants to clear and at what sale price, and the square inch rate will tell you which quantity band and which sticker size get you there. It is easier to size the art to the budget than the budget to the art.

A team parent running a table at a spirit run wants something a child will stick on a water bottle without being asked twice. Bright, simple, one mascot, no small type. These are the ones that sell off a folding table.

A classroom teacher or club advisor usually orders in the low bands, often only a couple of dozen, which is why the 35 and 30 cent rates exist. Reward stickers, reading club badges and end of year tokens all sit here, and the minimum of 10 pieces or $10 of merchandise is low enough that one classroom is not shut out.

A grade level or graduating class committee is the one most likely to land in the 250 and 500 bands, because the run has to cover everybody plus siblings plus the families who ask later. If you are close to a band edge, ask us before committing to the lower number.

Questions that come up before an order goes in

Our group ordered 120 stickers for a Setauket spirit run last season and wants

250 this time. Does the price per sticker change? Yes, and in your favour. At 120 the rate was 26 cents per square inch, so a 1.5 by 1.5 inch sticker was $0.58 and the run was $70.20. At 250 the rate is 24 cents, so the identical sticker is $0.54 and the 250 come to $135.00.

Can a Setauket order be collected at the counter instead of sent? Yes. Local pickup at the Huntington shop is free, and it is a common choice for groups at this distance. Choose pickup at checkout and name the person who will be doing the collecting.

Our families are split between Setauket and the place next door, so which name should go on the sticker? Either, and the shared root is why. Most groups set the common part of the name in the larger type and either drop the directional word or run it small underneath, so one design covers both sets of families. If the stickers are being mailed rather than collected, the address and the 11733 ZIP on the label are a separate matter from whatever the art says.

How small can a Setauket school crest go before it stops reading? The 1.5 by 1.5 inch size in our worked example, 2.25 square inches, is about where a typical crest starts losing its fine detail. A mascot and a single word hold at that size. A crest with a motto, a date and a thin ribbon wants to be larger, which raises the square inch count and therefore the price.

Is there a minimum on a Setauket order if one classroom only needs a handful? An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces or at $10 of merchandise, whichever it reaches first. A count of 10 clears it on its own, and a smaller number of larger stickers can clear it on the $10 instead. The threshold does not oblige you to spend more than the stickers themselves come to.