Wholesale Custom Medals
Buying at Factory Price, Selling Under Your Own Name
This page is for the buyers who resell: promotional distributors, trophy and engraving shops, event agencies, sports clubs that supply their own leagues, and sellers who list custom awards on marketplaces. You do not need a container load to start, and you do not need to become a medal specialist to quote one.
Sinoawards has manufactured custom medals, challenge coins, lapel pins and keychains in Dongguan since 2008, with our own casting line and a team of about 100 staff shipping more than 60,000 pieces a month. We sell to the trade at factory price, which means the markup between our invoice and your invoice stays with you.
Three things make a wholesale relationship different from a one-off order: the price has to hold across repeated orders, the product has to carry your brand rather than ours, and the mold has to be there when the next season starts. This page covers all three, plus the terms.
Wholesale Price Bands, Published Rather Than Hidden
Most factories treat pricing as a negotiation. We publish the working bands, so you can estimate a job before you ask. These are typical factory-direct prices per piece for standard zinc alloy products with standard plating and poly bag packing; the mold and the digital proof are already included in the figure, and freight is quoted separately by destination and weight.
| Product | 100 – 299 pcs | 300 – 999 pcs | 1,000+ pcs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom medals | $1.80 – $3.50 | $1.20 – $2.20 | $0.60 – $1.50 |
| Challenge coins | $2.50 – $4.50 | $1.80 – $3.00 | $1.00 – $2.00 |
| Lapel pins | $1.50 – $3.00 | $0.90 – $1.80 | $0.50 – $1.20 |
| Metal keychains | $1.80 – $3.50 | $1.20 – $2.20 | $0.70 – $1.50 |
What moves a price inside the band: size and weight, the material (zinc alloy, brass or iron), the process (die casting or die striking), the plating (gold, silver, nickel, antique finishes), enamel type, and whether each piece is individually packed or in bulk. The full breakdown sits on the pricing guide, and the quoting guide explains how to read a quote line by line so you can compare suppliers on the same basis.
Built to Carry Your Brand, Not Ours
A wholesale order is judged by what your customer sees, so the branding on the parcel matters as much as the branding on the medal.
- OEM, ODM and private label are standard, not a special request. Your artwork, your name, your part numbers.
- Packaging under your brand — printed boxes, hot stamping, labels, backing cards and inserts can all carry your logo. See packaging options.
- Neutral packaging is available when the parcel should arrive with no factory branding at all.
- One named contact carries the order from quotation to delivery, instead of handing it between departments — which is what our reviews point to most often.
Reorders Without Re-Tooling
The expensive part of a first order is the tool, not the metal. We store the mold after the batch ships, so the second order runs from the same tool: same shape, same edge profile, same size, and no tooling charge again. That is the difference between a supplier you can build a catalog on and one you re-negotiate every season.
Two habits make reorders fast. First, keep the mold reference we send with the first invoice, and quote it on every later order. Second, keep the plating and enamel reference from the approved proof — a "gold" medal is not one color, and the closest match to last season's gold is the one written on that proof. If the artwork changes between runs, tell us early: a new tool is a new cost, and it is better to price it before your customer has signed.
Lead Times You Can Pass On
You are quoting a date to someone else, so these are the production windows to build your own promise on. Shipping is a separate stage on top of each one.
- Medals, coins, pins and keychains: 10–15 business days after proof approval and payment.
- Race bibs: 4 days after the vector file is approved.
- Running t-shirts: about 25 days.
If your customer's event date is fixed, work backwards from the delivery date rather than the order date, and tell us the deadline with the brief. Event deadlines are the normal case for us, not an exception, so a tight date is a scheduling question rather than a reason to decline.
Payment Terms for Trade Buyers
Standard custom orders run 30% deposit and 70% balance before shipment. Small orders may be quoted at full payment upfront, because each additional transfer adds processing cost on both sides. Payment methods include Alipay, WeChat Pay, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, bank transfer (T/T), Western Union, Wise, MoneyGram and Sigue. Prices are quoted at the factory; freight is quoted separately against your address, so you always see the product cost and the shipping cost as two lines rather than one blended number.
How to Open a Trade Account
There is no application form and no annual commitment. The first order is the account.
- Step 1 — Send the list. Product, quantity, size, finish, deadline and destination. A sketch, a logo or a photo of something similar is enough to start.
- Step 2 — Get the price and the proof. We send back a quote with a digital proof, usually within one business day, showing the artwork as it will be produced rather than as it was sent.
- Step 3 — Approve and run. On approval and deposit we cut the tool, run the batch, inspect every piece and ship. The mold is stored for your reorder.
If you are supplying a race, a league or a school district rather than a single store, send the whole list at once — medals, pins, bibs, shirts and bags can be quoted together on the race kit basis, with one proof and one shipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a minimum order for wholesale?
Each line has its own minimum: 100 pieces per design for medals, challenge coins and lapel pins, 70 pieces per color for running t-shirts, and 1,000 pieces per order for race bibs. That lets a distributor test a design with a single run of 100 rather than a season's volume. Pricing still moves with quantity — the bands above show how much — and bags, bottles and packaging are confirmed per style.
Can you ship under our own brand?
Yes. The product carries your design, and packaging can be printed with your logo, hot stamped, labeled, or delivered in neutral packaging with no factory branding, so the parcel your customer opens is yours. OEM, ODM and private-label work is standard for us rather than a special project.
Do you keep our mold between reorders?
Yes. The tool stays with us, so a reorder runs from the same mold as the first batch instead of being re-cut. That keeps the shape, the edges and the size identical across seasons, and it removes the tooling charge from repeat orders. Ask us to confirm the mold reference on your first order so it can be quoted correctly later.
What are your payment terms?
Standard custom orders run 30% deposit with a 70% balance before shipment. Small orders may be quoted as full payment upfront, because each additional payment adds processing cost. We accept Alipay, WeChat Pay, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, bank transfer (T/T), Western Union, Wise, MoneyGram and Sigue.
How fast will I get a price?
A quote and a digital proof usually come back within one business day of a clear brief — the design, the quantity, the finish and the destination. If your brief is a sketch, a logo and a sentence, we will send back artwork options with the price rather than a list of questions.
Send a List, Get a Factory Price
Product, quantity, finish and destination is enough for a quote and a digital proof — usually back within one business day.
Request a Wholesale Quote See Price Bands