Project record
"Not looking to add nets or sticks" — 200 pins, two designs, one round
A customer arrived with finished artwork and declined every suggestion to improve it. Approved the next morning, shipped in twelve days.
Mahopac · NY · Hudson Valley
- Quantity
- 200 pins
- Size
- 1.5"
- Pin type
- Standard pins
- Proof rounds
- 1
- Inquiry to ship
- 13 days
The brief
A customer who arrived with finished artwork and declined every suggestion to improve it.
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Opened by asking for two different designs, 100 pins of each
- Beat 2
Shop proposed adding hockey motifs — nets, sticks, the season years
- Beat 3
Customer declined: they wanted the artwork made, not embellished
- Beat 4
Approved the next morning, one round, no revisions
- Beat 5
Marked RUSH; approved 12 November, shipped 24 November
- Beat 6
Buyer arranged approval, team manager paid the invoice
The full account
The opposite of most orders here
Almost every project in this collection starts with someone who isn't sure. They have a logo and a rough idea and they ask us to lead. That's the common case, and it's a good place to start from.
This one started somewhere else. The customer wanted two designs, a hundred pins of each, and he had already drawn them.
We did what we usually do — suggested hockey motifs that tend to work at pin scale. Nets, crossed sticks, the season years. The reply was polite and completely clear:
"We were looking to get the pin design as I sent them, not looking to add nets or sticks with years. These are to trade at a hockey tournament."
So we made what he sent.
Why that's worth a page
Design guidance exists because most people want it. It isn't a requirement. A customer who arrives with finished artwork is not a customer who needs convincing — they need a manufacturer, and adding to their design is a way of getting in the way.
The proof went out, and the next morning:
"These are approved."
One round. No revisions. From first email to approved artwork in under twenty-four hours, which is the fastest turnaround in this collection by a wide margin — and it happened precisely because nobody was trying to improve anything.
Two designs, one order
A hundred of each. That's unusual: most teams pick one design and order the whole run.
Splitting the run costs more per pin, because tooling is per design and each one carries its own setup. What you get for it is variety at the trading table — two things to offer instead of one, which matters when everyone around you is holding a single design.
At 200 pins across two dies, this came in at $2.30 each.
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 handoff
The person who ran the design wasn't the person who paid:
"Can you send me an invoice so I can have the team manager pay it?"
Common in club hockey, and worth flagging on day one. Production doesn't start until payment clears, so if the invoice has to travel to someone else, that's a detail to mention at the start rather than at the end.
Marked rush, approved on the twelfth, shipped on the twenty-fourth.
Specification
| Team | Danbury Hat Tricks |
|---|---|
| Sport | Hockey |
| Quantity | 200 |
| Run split | 100 design_a / 100 design_b |
| Size | 1.5" |
| Pin type | Standard pins |
| Banner included | No |
| City | Mahopac |
| State | NY |
| County | Putnam County |
| Region | Hudson Valley |
| Inquiry | 2025-11-11 |
| Artwork approved | 2025-11-12 |
| Shipped | 2025-11-24 |
| Proof rounds | 1 |
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
- November 11, 2025
- For quantity
- 200 pins
- At size
- 1.5"
- 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
“We were looking to get the pin design as I sent them, not looking to add nets or sticks with years. These are to trade at a hockey tournament.”
Customer, Danbury Hat Tricks · 2025-11-11 · on declining the shop's proposed design additions
Questions this order answers
Two inches or larger is the working floor for tournament trading — smaller pins get passed over. Sizes run from 2 inches up to 6.
One little league's four orders across three years show the migration in practice: they started at 1.25 inches and moved to 2.0. Larger sizes also unlock the banner threshold, which is why the bigger pin often costs less in total.
Sourced — Sizing guidance across multiple orders; Northern Virginia little league, 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
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
Before the order goes to production, yes — changes are normal, and most designs go through two to four rounds.
Late roster changes are the common one. Tell us as soon as a number needs to come off; recomposing the layout is straightforward while the file is still open and expensive once tooling has started.
Sourced — Cooperstown 2026 order — mid-cycle roster change
Size first — two inches or larger, or it gets passed over. Then movement and texture: spinner, slider and dangler pin types, plus glitter finishes, all raise a pin's trade value.
Teams notice the difference. One parent came to us precisely because their program's standard pins weren't being sought after in trades.
Sourced — Cooperstown single-player order, 2026; sizing guidance across orders
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 took one proof round, and every round was free while the file was still open. Tell us your in-hands date and we will tell you what is possible.
Request a free quote