Project record
"Do you have some in stock?" — 400 reorder pins for Dayforce
An executive assistant reordered 400 company pins from an existing design. No proof rounds, no design cycle — just artwork already on file.
Burnsville · MN · Twin Cities metro
- Quantity
- 400 pins
- Size
- 1.25"
- Pin type
- Standard pins
- Process
- Iron die struck soft enamel
- Inquiry to ship
- 4 days
The brief
“Barb Hilsabeck gave me your name and contact info. I would like to order 400 Dayforce pins like the one Barb is showing below (I have also included her invoice from her last order).”
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Inbound came by internal referral — one colleague passed the vendor to another
- Beat 2
Opened by asking whether pins were in stock; the answer is that every order is custom
- Beat 3
Buyer already held a previous invoice and the existing design
- Beat 4
Reorder of an earlier purchase order, so no proof rounds at all
- Beat 5
Six-week lead time quoted and accepted without pushback
- Beat 6
Routed by freight forward to avoid the tariff
The full account
How a corporate order actually starts
Not with a quote form. With a name passed across a desk.
"Barb Hilsabeck gave me your name and contact info. I would like to order 400 Dayforce pins like the one Barb is showing below (I have also included her invoice from her last order)."
That's an executive assistant at a software company, holding a colleague's old invoice, asking for the same thing again. Every part of that sentence is different from how a youth sports order begins.
The first question was whether we had them in stock. We don't stock anything — every order is custom, including this one. But the artwork already existed, which changes what "custom" costs in time.
No design cycle at all
This is a reorder of an earlier purchase order. There were no proof rounds. No concepts, no revisions, no "can you take the net out of the background." The file was on record, the customer confirmed it was the right one, and it went to production.
That's the single biggest difference between a corporate reorder and a first-time team order. A team spends four days deciding what the pin should look like. Dayforce spent that time on nothing, because the decision was made the first time.
Keep your artwork on file. Or rather — we keep it, and a reorder starts from there.
The price and the pace
400 pins at 1.25 inches, $1.25 each. Soft enamel on iron, nickel plating, two Pantone colours, single butterfly clutch, individually bagged.
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.
Six weeks quoted, and the response was:
"Yes, that works fine."
No deadline pressure, no rush fee, no tournament date. That let the order take the freight-forward route, which avoids the import tariff entirely — the slower, cheaper path that a team with a fixed in-hands date usually can't use.
Why the pin is small
An inch and a quarter, well under the two-inch floor we recommend for sports.
That's correct here. A trading pin has to compete for attention on a table full of other pins. A corporate pin goes on a lapel, a lanyard, or a laptop sleeve, and it's read at conversational distance by one person at a time. The job is different, so the size is different.
Specification
| Team | Dayforce |
|---|---|
| Quantity | 400 |
| Size | 1.25" |
| Process | iron die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Standard pins |
| Banner included | No |
| City | Burnsville |
| State | MN |
| County | Dakota County |
| Region | Twin Cities metro |
| Inquiry | 2026-01-28 |
| Artwork approved | 2026-01-29 |
| Shipped | 2026-02 |
What this price was quoted under
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
- January 28, 2026
- For quantity
- 400 pins
- At size
- 1.25"
- Build
- iron die struck soft enamel
- 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
“Yes, that works fine.”
Customer, Dayforce · 2026-01-29 · on the six-week lead time and price
Questions this order answers
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
Production runs 12–14 business days after artwork approval. Design adds anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks depending on how many rounds it takes — one order went from first contact to approved art in five days across three rounds.
Shipping is the variable that costs money. 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.
Sourced — Standard quote language, 2025–26 season
The pins are manufactured in China and are subject to US import tariffs. This is disclosed on every quote rather than surfacing at invoice.
Shipping method changes the exposure: the fastest air options are tariff-subject, while a roughly two-week freight-forwarding route avoids the tariff entirely. On a deadline with room in it, the slower route is usually the cheaper one.
Sourced — Shipping options quoted, October 2025
Soft enamel leaves the colour slightly recessed below the metal lines, so you can feel the design. It's the standard for trading pins and it's what nearly every order here uses.
Hard enamel is polished flat and level with the metal for a smoother, dressier finish. It costs more and loses the tactile quality that makes trading pins feel like trading pins.
Partly sourced — Soft enamel confirmed across orders. Hard enamel pricing NEEDS TPC CONFIRMATION.
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
Starting your team's pins?
This order was 400 pins at 1.25". Send us your roster size and your event date and we will come back with a price.
Request a free quote