The mold fee would cost anywhere from 50$ ~ 500$. Depending on the quantity of the order and the details of the mold itself, that number can always increase or decrease.

In essence, manufacturers want to encourage customers to order more pins to cover the cost of the mold. Unfortunately, the cost of the mold simply can’t be avoided.

Though some pin suppliers claim that they offer free design services for you, it may not come without the cost for the supplier. They will often be required to hire an graphic designer to ensure that your design is production-ready.

And this does require a good deal of work; everything from finding a suitable Pantone color, to turning the jpg file into an ai file, or even transforming your doodle or drawing into a good graphic for production will cost money.

And again, this simply cannot be avoided.

As most of the pin suppliers import from overseas or invest in factories overseas, this type of infrastructure costs money.

Although, the freight fee for 1 pin or 100 pins is roughly the same. And depending on if the package is shipped by express companies, such as DHL, FEDEX, UPS, they often charge freight fees by Kilogram, with the minimum weight being 1/2 kilogram.

So, regardless of your package is just 10 grams, [ 1 pin ] or 500 grams, [100 pins], manufacturers will always be charged on 1/2 kilogram.

The cost amounts to 20$ ~ 40$.

The estimated cost lies anywhere between 10$ ~ 100$ for 1 ~ 100 pins.

The truth is:

If you order 1 custom pins, the cost for the factory would be over 100$.

This is precisely why most of the pin suppliers cannot or do not offer custom enamel pins at a without a small or no minimum criteria.

In fact, most suppliers in the market require an order of at least 100 pieces. If you order 100 pcs, you would see a price of about 200$, which still only makes a small profit for the pin supplier.

This is why only a few suppliers can fulfill custom lapel pins with no minimums or in small quantities.

However, the total cost is still well over 150$.

For smaller quantities, the cost will always be higher for the customer, to help offset some of the costs for the manufacturer. And with big orders, this trend is reversed.

You also can test in the online ordering system,

You’ll see that the price for 30 or 100 custom pins does not differ tremendously.

In fact, companies who accept no minimum orders do not make money from small quantity orders.

Sometimes, they can even lose money if your design is complicated. But then again, why do they accept small quantity orders?

Lifetime Values!

While they may lose money on your small orders, they do so under the assumption that you’ll become a repeat buyer.

So if you ask me, should I work with those companies who offer small order services?

Well, sure why not?

I think that the best companies are the ones who are looking for long-term business, not short-term profits.