Project record
Inquiry at 4:48pm, approved artwork by nine the next morning
A Scottsdale softball team with three weeks until travel. Quoted, paid and approved inside seventeen hours — and the customer had ordered before under another team's name.
Scottsdale · AZ · Phoenix metro
- Quantity
- 300 pins
- Size
- 1.5"
- Pin type
- Standard pins
- Process
- Iron die struck soft enamel
The brief
An inquiry at 4:48pm, a paid invoice the same night, and approved artwork by nine the next morning — because the team travelled in three weeks.
How the design got made
- Beat 1
Inbound with a design already attached and a hard travel date
- Beat 2
Rep answered in minutes with three sizes priced side by side and one constraint: 'teams don't trade pins under 1.5"'
- Beat 3
Customer volunteered that she was a returning customer — under a different team name
- Beat 4
Chose 1.5 inch, 250 pins, and paid the invoice that evening
- Beat 5
Design approved 08:57 the next morning: 'perfect! all set to order'
- Beat 6
Quantity raised from 250 to 300 after the order had already gone to the factory
- Beat 7
Shipped by FedEx against a 23 June in-hands date; the team travelled on the 24th
The full account
Seventeen hours
The email arrived at 4:48 on a Saturday afternoon with a design already attached and a travel date three weeks out.
The reply came back in minutes — three sizes, priced side by side, and one piece of guidance stated as a fact rather than a suggestion:
"teams don't trade pins under 1.5""
Then: 1.5 inch at $1.91, 1.75 inch at $2.05, 2 inch at $2.30, all at 250 pins. Pick one, the artwork goes to the art team, and the order goes in once the invoice clears.
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.
She picked the 1.5 inch and paid that evening. The design went out at 8:22 the next morning. By 8:57:
"perfect! all set to order. thanks so much for the help!"
Invoice paid, artwork approved, order placed — inside seventeen hours, on a weekend.
What made it possible
Not urgency on our side. Three things on hers.
She already had the design. She answered the in-hands question immediately and precisely — "the latest date would be the 23rd of June. we travel on the 24th." And she paid the same night, which is the step that actually gates production.
A rush order isn't a promise to work faster. It's the removal of every delay that isn't manufacturing.
The line worth reading twice
Buried in her second email:
"you created our Cooperstown pins last year for moon valley monarches!"
Different team. Same customer.
Nothing in a customer list would connect AZ Sting to Moon Valley Monarchs — different name, different roster, different sport even. The only reason we know is that she mentioned it.
This is the third way a customer comes back in this collection, and it's the least visible. One Philadelphia program kept its account because the coach stayed. A Northern Virginia league kept its account through a complete handoff of the buying role. Here neither the team nor the role persisted — the person did, and she brought the vendor with her to a different team.
Three hundred, not two fifty
After the order was already with the factory, the quantity went up:
"PLEASE INCREASE TOTAL QTY TO 300"
Worth knowing that's possible, and worth knowing it's easier before tooling than after. The window is real but it isn't wide.
Specification
| Team | AZ Sting |
|---|---|
| Sport | Softball |
| Quantity | 300 |
| Size | 1.5" |
| Process | iron die struck |
| Fill | soft enamel |
| Pin type | Standard pins |
| Banner included | No |
| City | Scottsdale |
| State | AZ |
| County | Maricopa County |
| Region | Phoenix metro |
| Inquiry | 2026-05-31T16:48 |
| Artwork approved | 2026-06-01T08:57 |
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
- May 31, 2026
- For quantity
- 300 pins
- At size
- 1.5"
- 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
“you created our Cooperstown pins last year for moon valley monarches!”
Customer, AZ Sting · 2026-05-31 · on volunteering that she was a returning customer
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
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
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
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
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 300 pins at 1.5". Send us your roster size and your event date and we will come back with a price.
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