Project record
The deadline had nothing to do with the tournament.
320 pins ordered in a single day — because the factory shut for Chinese New Year eleven days later.
- Quantity
- 320 pins
- Size
- 1.75"
- Pin type
- Standard pins
- Process
- Die struck soft enamel
The brief
"Is it possible to order an off number of 320 pins?" Yes — and the reason the deadline was tight had nothing to do with the team.
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Customer asked for 300 pins, then asked whether 320 was possible
- Beat 2
It is - quantity breaks are thresholds, not fixed steps, and you pay the rate your quantity reaches
- Beat 3
Three sizes quoted at 300: 2 inch $1.95, 1.75 inch $1.70, 1.5 inch $1.50
- Beat 4
Design put the club logo on a puck with crossed sticks
- Beat 5
Green matched to the tournament's own shade from a supplied swatch
- Beat 6
The real constraint was the factory calendar: Chinese New Year shutdown from 24 January to 9 February
- Beat 7
Quoted and ordered the same day
The full account
The date nobody plans around
Pins are made in China. Every Chinese factory closes for Chinese New Year, and the closure is not a long weekend:
"shutdown for CNY on 1/24 and don't return till 2/9"
Sixteen days with nothing moving, and a backlog on both sides of it. An order placed on 20 January does not get made on the 25th; it gets made in mid-February, and it queues behind everyone else who missed the same window.
This order went in on 13 January — quoted and confirmed the same day — because eleven days of runway was what there was.
If you are buying pins for anything between February and April, this is the single most important date in the calendar, and it moves every year with the lunar calendar.
"Can we order an off number?"
"We would like to do 300 x 1.75" pins (is it possible to order an off number of 320 pins?)"
Yes. Quantity breaks are thresholds, not fixed steps. You are not choosing from a menu of 100 / 200 / 300 — you order the number you need and pay the rate that number reaches. Ordering 320 does not round you up to a 400 price or down to a 300 one.
Teams ask this more often than you'd think, usually having assumed they must pad the order to a round figure.
Three sizes, one quantity
| Size | 300 pins |
|---|---|
| 2.0" | $1.95 |
| 1.75" | $1.70 |
| 1.5" | $1.50 |
Forty-five cents from top to bottom. They took the middle.
The design and the green
Club logo on a puck with crossed sticks — a shape that reads as hockey instantly, which matters on a trading table.
The green was matched to a swatch the customer supplied, to sit with the tournament's own colour rather than approximately near it. Silver lettering was discussed against it.
Why this one is here
For the shutdown date. Everything else on this page is ordinary good practice; the Chinese New Year window is the thing that turns a comfortable timeline into a missed tournament, and almost nobody knows about it until it has happened to them.
Specification
| Team | Lakeland Hawks |
|---|---|
| Sport | Hockey |
| Quantity | 320 |
| Size | 1.75" |
| Process | die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Standard pins |
| Banner included | No |
| Inquiry | 2025-01-13 |
What this price was quoted under
- $1.70 / pin1.75" · 300 pins
- $1.95 / pin2.0" · 300 pins
- $1.50 / pin1.5" · 300 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
- January 13, 2025
- For quantity
- 300 pins
- At size
- 1.75"
- Build
- 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
“We would like to do 300 x 1.75” pins (is it possible to order an off number of 320 pins?)”
Customer, Lakeland Hawks · 2025-01-13 · on whether quantities have to be round
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
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
Starting your team's pins?
This order was 320 pins at 1.75". Send us your roster size and your event date and we will come back with a price.
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