Project record
"That must have been a mistake on our end."
A 1,160-pin Cooperstown order across five designs, including a glow-in-the-dark run — and a quoting error the customer caught and the rep owned.
Beaver Valley · PACooperstown confirmed
- Quantity
- 1,160 pins
- Size
- 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0"
- Pin type
- Five-design set pins
- Process
- Die struck soft enamel
The brief
The order where a quoting error was corrected out loud rather than quietly absorbed.
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Customer came in with uniform imagery and the phrase 'Cooperstown debut' as the design direction
- Beat 2
Priced four designs against a 700-pin order, with three mould fees
- Beat 3
Customer spotted a 2.5" figure that did not match an earlier email and asked about it
- Beat 4
Rep answered plainly: 'that must have been a mistake on our end', and restated the correct base rate
- Beat 5 · pivot
Late artwork change requested - move 2026 beneath Cooperstown - and accepted
- Beat 6
Order grew to five designs including a glow-in-the-dark run and a blackout run
- Beat 7
A team banner was designed and ordered alongside the pins
The full account
The design direction was two words
"I'm guessing maybe to say Cooperstown debut / Beaver Valley"
A debut. First trip. The artwork came from the team's own uniforms, sent as a photograph.
The correction
Partway through, the customer checked a figure against an earlier email and found it did not match. The reply did not explain it away:
"I am sorry, that must have been a mistake on our end. 2.5" pin base rate is $2.30 + $0.10 for glitter +$2.40"
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.
That is the whole exchange. Error found, error owned, correct number restated in the same message.
It is worth putting in the library because the alternative — quietly honouring the wrong number, or quietly correcting it and hoping nobody re-reads the thread — is how customers stop trusting quotes.
Five designs
Quoted against a 700-pin order:
- $1.60 — 2 inch with one glow-in-the-dark colour
- $2.00 — 2.5 inch with one glitter colour
- $3.50 — 3 inch with one glitter colour
- $1.50 — 2 inch with one glitter colour
quoted for this order only — quoted for that order only.
Three mould fees, two at $75 and one at $65.
quoted for this order only — quoted for that order only.
The order that actually went in was larger — 1,160 pins across five designs:
- 465 at 2.0 inch with glow in the dark
- 275 at 2.5 inch with glitter
- 240 at 3.0 inch with glitter
- 80 at 2.0 inch with glitter
- 100 at 2.0 inch in blackout
The glow-in-the-dark one
Glow gets quoted often and ordered rarely. This is one of the few orders in the library that carried it through — 465 pins, the largest single run in the order, on the main team pin rather than as a novelty extra.
The banner
A team banner was designed alongside the pins:
"Here is what our artist came up with for banner. He had to fix the sides to make it fit."
Late change, accepted
One last artwork request came in after proofs:
"The proof V1B- they're wondering if we could have the 2026 under cooperstown instead of together? this should be last chng"
It was, and it was.
Why this one is here
Marked urgent, shipped express rather than economy, five designs, a glow run, a blackout run and a banner — and the thing most worth remembering is a one-line admission that a price had been quoted wrong.
Specification
| Team | Beaver Valley Red |
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Quantity | 1,160 |
| Size | 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0" |
| Process | die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Five-design set pins |
| Finish options | 1 glow in the dark colour, 1 glitter colour, blackout |
| Banner included | Yes |
| Event | Cooperstown |
| Event confirmed | Yes |
| City | Beaver Valley |
| State | PA |
| Inquiry | 2026-04-06 |
What this price was quoted under
- $2.30 / pin2.5" · 700 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 20, 2026
- For quantity
- 700 pins
- At size
- 2.5"
- Build
- die struck soft enamel
- Finishes
- 1 glow in the dark colour, 1 glitter colour, blackout
- Excludes
- delivery charge, rush fee, import tariff
The banner threshold
This order cleared it. At a thousand pins over two inches, the banner and the bonus pins came with the run — the twenty cents a pin bought a larger pin as well as the banner.
- Pins only
- Trades poorly at tournament tables
- Free 3ft × 6ft banner — 13oz vinyl, CMYK, grommets every 2ft
- Free 100 gold-metal or blackout pins
- The size players actually trade
Threshold met at 1,000+ pins · +$0.20 per pin
About 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
“The proof V1B- they're wondering if we could have the 2026 under cooperstown instead of together? this should be last chng”
Customer, Beaver Valley Red · 2026-04-08 · on a final artwork adjustment before sign-off
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
Tell us the in-hands date first, before anything else. Rush orders are possible and we've protected tight dates by escalating directly with the factory mid-production.
It costs more, and the fastest shipping is also the tariff-exposed shipping. Three weeks out means a $40 delivery charge plus a $75 rush fee.
Sourced — Brainerd AHA rush, November–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?
At 1,160 pins and 2.0" / 2.5" / 3.0" the banner is included. Send us your quantity and we will show you where the line falls.
Request a free quote