Project record
"Does that become too girly for a boys' pin?" No.
A Pennsylvania 12U team ordered three designs against two mould fees, after asking every question a first-time pin buyer should ask.
Beaver Valley · PACooperstown confirmed
- Quantity
- 875 pins
- Size
- 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0"
- Pin type
- Three-design set pins
- Process
- Die struck soft enamel
The brief
A parent who kept asking whether her own taste was the right taste - and designed a better pin because of it.
How the design got made
- Beat 1 · pivot
Opened with a clear brief: a 2" main pin, a 2.5" special pin carrying roster numbers, and a 3" rare pin with a spinner
- Beat 2 · pivot
Listed the roster numbers to be set into the special pin
- Beat 3
Asked whether glitter would read as 'too girly for a boys' pin' - and was told it would not
- Beat 4
Queried whether 'Cooperstown' belonged on the pin at all, or just the team name and year
- Beat 5
Iterated colour and lettering across four proof rounds, including a sibling pin
- Beat 6
Ordered three designs against two mould fees rather than paying three
The full account
A brief that already knew what it wanted
Three pins, three jobs:
"need a 2" main Pin / need a 2.5" Special Pin (with roster numbers) / need a 3" Rare pin with spinner"
A main pin for general trading, a special pin carrying the roster numbers, and a rare pin — the one that is hard to get, so it is worth something to the kid who gets it.
The questions were the good part
This customer asked things most first-time buyers wonder about and do not say out loud.
On finishes:
"A few of the designs I'm sending you include a spinner, and I also really like glitter...but does that become too "girly" for a boys' pin????"
It does not. Glitter on a trading pin reads as catches the light on a table of two hundred other pins, which is the entire point. It is one of the cheapest upgrades on the sheet at ten cents a colour.
On convention:
"We definitely want it to say Beaver Valley Black - 2026 - do most people put the word "Cooperstown" on theirs?"
Most do. The year and the event are what make the pin a record of a specific week rather than generic team merchandise.
Three designs, two moulds
Each new design needs its own mould, and that is the fee that surprises people. This order carried two mould fees totalling $130 across three designs, because two of the pins shared tooling.
Price shown is what this order was quoted at, for this quantity, size and specification, on this date. It is not a current price list.
The quoted split came back as:
- 450 at 2.5 inch — $2.40
- 225 at 3 inch with one glitter and one spinner — $4.15
- 200 at 2 inch with one glitter — $1.50
quoted for this order only — quoted for that order only.
Against the published ladder at a thousand pieces — $2.00 at 2.5 inch, $2.63 at 2.75, $2.99 at 3 inch — with glitter at ten cents a colour and the spinner at sixty-five.
quoted for this order only — quoted for that order only.
Four proof rounds
The design went round four times. Lettering colour, background colour, whether the siblings pin was too busy, whether one element needed to be bigger to "pop more." None of it was difficult. All of it was the customer being specific before the moulds were cut, which is the correct time to be specific.
Why this one is here
The team is 12U, from Beaver Valley, about forty-five minutes north of Pittsburgh, and went to Cooperstown that July. The record is here because it shows what a pin order looks like when the customer treats the rep as someone to think with rather than someone to buy from — and gets three designs for two moulds as a result.
Specification
| Team | Beaver Valley Black |
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Quantity | 875 |
| Size | 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0" |
| Process | die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Three-design set pins |
| Finish options | 1 glitter colour, 1 spinner |
| Banner included | No |
| Event | Cooperstown |
| Event confirmed | Yes |
| City | Beaver Valley |
| State | PA |
| Inquiry | 2026-03-16 |
What this price was quoted under
- $2.00 / pin2.5" · 1,000 pins
Price shown is what this order was quoted at, for this quantity, size and specification, on this date. It is not a current price list.
- Quoted on
- April 1, 2026
- For quantity
- 1,000 pins
- At size
- 2.5"
- Build
- die struck soft enamel
- Finishes
- 1 glitter colour, 1 spinner
- Excludes
- delivery charge, rush fee, import tariff
The banner threshold
This order sat under the threshold, so no banner was included. At the time the line fell at 1,000 pins at 2.0 inches or larger: the size step cost $0.20 more per pin — $1.07 to $1.27 — and brought a free 3ft × 6ft banner plus 100 bonus gold-metal or blackout pins with it.
Worth checking before you commit to a quantity: the bigger pin is frequently the cheaper total order.
quoted for this order onlyAbout the prices on this page
Every figure here is taken from a real quote for a real order. That is the point of it — and also the reason it will not match what you are quoted.
- Quantity moves the price more than anything else
- Size and build are priced separately
- Turnaround changes the total
- Import tariffs apply and are disclosed on the quote
- These are historical
What the customer said
“A few of the designs I'm sending you include a spinner, and I also really like glitter...but does that become too "girly" for a boys' pin????”
Customer, Beaver Valley Black · 2026-03-20 · on asking whether a finish choice suited the team
Questions this order answers
Pins are trading currency there, not souvenirs, and the difference between a pin that gets traded and one that doesn't is size and finish. Two inches is the floor.
Not every player relies on the team's pin. One parent came to us specifically because their team's supplied pins, in their words, 'aren't really sought-after' — and had a single-player pin made for their kid instead.
Build in time. Rosters change between ordering and travelling; more than one design has needed a number pulled late because a player left the program before the trip.
Sourced — Two confirmed Cooperstown orders, 2026 season
Glitter is a finish, so it applies to any pin type — standard, spinner or slider alike. It is mixed into the enamel of a chosen colour rather than applied on top, so it will not rub off.
It is specified per colour: one glitter colour, or several. Commonly it lands on a single accent area — the shape of a state, a star, a puck. A 1,500-pin association order ran one glitter colour across the whole run; another design used gold glitter only on the state-shaped element.
Sourced — Multiple 2025–26 orders
A spinner pin is a construction type, not an accessory. An element of the design — usually a round logo, a puck or a ball — is mounted on a rivet so it rotates in place. It reads as a fidget as much as a badge, which is exactly why players trade for them.
Because it changes how the pin is built, it carries its own per-pin price. On a 2.5-inch soft enamel order at 250 pieces the quote was $3.44 per pin standard against $4.09 per pin as a spinner. That team chose standard construction and spent the difference on putting every player's number on the pin instead.
Sourced — Philadelphia 13U AA order, December 2025
No. Every figure in this library is what one team was quoted for one order, on the day they asked. It is published as a record, not as a price list.
Quantity and size move it most: the break runs about $0.20 per pin for every hundred pins, and the range here goes from a 1,500-pin corporate run at 1.25 inch to a 3 inch dangler with glitter. Pin type and finish are priced per pin on top of that — a spinner was $0.65 more per pin on one order, glitter is $0.10 per pin per glitter colour.
Timing is separate again. Six weeks ahead of your date carries no delivery or rush charge; four weeks adds a $40 delivery charge; three weeks adds $40 plus a $75 rush fee. The pins are manufactured in China and are subject to US import tariffs, disclosed on the quote rather than at invoice.
For a price that applies to your order, send your quantity, size and in-hands date and we will quote it.
Sourced — Quoted ladders and fee schedule across the AP Pope, Corona Avengers and Brainerd AHA threads, 2025–2026
Heading to Cooperstown?
This order was 875 pins at 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0". Send us your roster size and your event date and we will come back with a price.
Request a free quote