"Can 75 of them say league champs?"

A simple brief

The Foothills Soccer Club came in through the quote form from Portland, Oregon, wanting something straightforward: the FSC shield, in the club's green, red and white.

Two sizes came back at the same quantity so the difference was visible:

Size	Quantity	Per pin
1.0"	200	$2.02
1.25"	200	$2.07

Four cents apart. At this size and quantity the metal barely moves the price, so the choice is about how the design reads rather than what it costs.

Then the interesting question

"Is there anyway to have 75 of them say league champs or anything like that on them?"

A good question, and one worth answering properly rather than with a flat no. Two things stood in the way, and both were put on the table:

The writing would be too small. At 1.25 inches, "league champs" alongside a shield leaves very little room. The honest recommendation was to go up to 1.5 inches if the text had to be there.

A variant is a second design. Different text means different artwork, different artwork means a second mould:

"it will be really small writing on the 1.25" better if it was 1.5" it would also be a 2nd mold adding $65 to the order"

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 part most people don't expect. The mould is the fixed cost in a pin order, and it is charged per design rather than per pin. On 200 pins, adding $65 to put different text on 75 of them works out to nearly ninety cents extra on each of those seventy-five — before the larger size adds its own cost.

quoted for this order only — quoted for that order only.

She did the maths and said no

"Okay I think we will stick with the 1.25 with no extra writing that I requested just the FSC logo. Let me know how to order and pay"

No persuading, no upsell. The constraint was explained, she weighed it, and she decided. That is the whole exchange.

The finish

The design was proofed in gold and in black metal. She liked it, with one change:

"Can we change the background color to silver instead of gold? Otherwise it looks great"

Silver it was. 200 pins, 1.25 inch, die struck iron with soft enamel and nickel plating.

Enquiry, two proof rounds and order all inside thirty-six hours.

Why this one is here

Because "can part of the order be different" is a common question with an unintuitive answer, and this is the clearest worked example of it. The answer is yes, and the cost is a whole second mould — which on a small order lands on very few pins.