Project record
A pin that needs someone else to complete it.
500 two-piece puzzle sets — the only pin here that cannot be finished on its own.
CTCooperstown confirmed
- Quantity
- 500 pins
- Size
- 3.0"
- Pin type
- Two-piece puzzle pins
- Process
- Die struck soft enamel
The brief
A pin that only makes sense when someone else has the other half.
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Fourth consecutive Cooperstown order from the same club
- Beat 2
A two-piece puzzle pin at 3 inch - 500 sets, a left half and a right half
- Beat 3
Counted as one pin per set, not two, which took a round of clarifying
- Beat 4
Customer questioned whether it was really a puzzle, since the join is a straight line
- Beat 5
Tooling is several times a standard pin's, because two halves means two moulds
- Beat 6
Dyed black metal, four proof rounds to V4C
The full account
Two halves
500 sets. Each one a left half and a right half that fit together into a single three-inch pin.
This is the only two-piece pin in the library and the most interesting object in it, because it changes what a trading pin is.
Why a puzzle pin is different
An ordinary trading pin is complete the moment you have it. You trade it because you want theirs, not because yours is unfinished.
A two-piece pin is not complete. You cannot finish it alone. To have the whole thing you have to find someone holding the other half and persuade them to trade — which means the pin manufactures a reason for two kids from different teams to actually talk to each other.
That is the entire social mechanic of pin trading, built into the object.
How it's counted
This took a round to settle, and it is worth recording because it is genuinely confusing:
"those prices were not correct for puzzle pins. you count the 2 pieces as 1 pin"
A set is one pin, not two. 500 sets is 1,000 physical pieces, and it is priced as 500. Anyone comparing a puzzle-pin quote against a standard one needs to be sure both sides are counting the same way, or the comparison is off by half.
The tooling is the catch
Two halves means two moulds. The tooling on this order is several times what a standard pin costs, and that is unavoidable — half a pin is still a whole die.
At 500 sets it is worth it. At 150 it would dominate the bill.
"It's a straight line"
The customer raised a fair objection during design:
"I see the order as 2 pins that fit together but it's a straight line so technically it doesn't have to be a puzzle"
A good catch. A straight join is easier to tool and stronger in the hand; an interlocking join looks more like a puzzle but creates thin protruding tabs — the same fragility problem that affects any die-cut shape. Four proof rounds went into settling the geometry.
The fourth year
This club ordered in 2022, 2023, 2024 and now 2025 — moving from a repeated design, to 2,500 pins with lights and spinners, to this.
Why this one is here
Because it is the most ambitious thing in the archive, and because "how do you price a two-piece pin" has a genuinely counterintuitive answer.
Specification
| Team | CT Crushers |
|---|---|
| Sport | Baseball |
| Quantity | 500 |
| Size | 3.0" |
| Process | die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Two-piece puzzle pins |
| Finish options | dyed black metal |
| Banner included | No |
| Event | Cooperstown |
| Event confirmed | Yes |
| State | CT |
| Inquiry | 2025-05-28 |
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
“those prices were not correct for puzzle pins. you count the 2 pieces as 1 pin”
Customer, CT Crushers · 2025-05-29 · on how a two-piece pin is actually counted and priced
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
Say so up front. Artwork is kept on file, so a repeat order can start from your existing design instead of a blank page, and a reorder that reuses the same die skips the mould charge.
Several accounts here have ordered across two, three and four seasons — and reference to a previous pin is often the fastest way to explain what you want.
Sourced — Multiple repeat accounts, 2022–2026
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 500 pins at 3.0". Send us your roster size and your event date and we will come back with a price.
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