Custom boxes with no minimum: what a small run really costs

Custom boxes with no minimum do exist, but the price per box at ten or twenty is several times what the same box costs at a hundred, because the setup for a print run costs the same whether one box comes off the press or a thousand. Our minimum is 100. At that quantity, a printed one colour mailer runs about $2.87 a box, and at 250 it drops to $1.82. Below 100, a plain stock box with a printed sticker is usually the better buy, and this guide explains why and shows the numbers.

Why custom boxes with no minimum cost more per box

Every printed box run starts with work that has nothing to do with how many boxes you order. Someone checks the artwork against the dieline. A cutting die or a plate is set up for your size. The press is loaded, inked, and run until the colour is right, and the first sheets off it are waste. Then the machine is cleaned for the next job.

That work is a fixed cost. Spread across 1,000 boxes, it's a few cents each. Spread across ten, it's most of what you pay. The trade publication Inbound Logistics puts it plainly in its guide to minimum order quantity (opens in a new tab): a supplier sets a minimum so that each order covers its fixed costs. Packaging is a textbook case.

So when a site offers custom packaging with no minimum order, or custom printed boxes with no minimum, one of three things is true. The price per box at low quantity is high, and you'll see it at checkout. The print is digital, which skips the plate but still carries setup and runs slower per sheet. Or the "custom" part is a stock size with your logo on it, which is a perfectly good product with a different name.

None of those is a scam. It's just worth knowing which one you're buying.

What custom boxes cost from 100 upward

If you have been asking how much custom boxes cost in a small quantity, these are the prices our own estimator gives for a medium box, 9 x 6 x 3 inches, with no finish. They're per box, before shipping and tax.

Look at the jump from 100 to 250. On the mailer, it takes more than a third off each box, and that's the setup being shared across more boxes. Now look at 500 against 1,000 on the kraft box and the carton: nothing moves. Board, ink, and freight cost the same per box, however many you order, so past a point a bigger run just means more boxes in your storeroom.

In total money the gap looks different. A hundred one colour mailers is about $287. Two hundred and fifty is about $454. You pay $167 more and get two and a half times the boxes.

Why our minimum is 100 and not 10

A low MOQ is what most small brands are really after, and 100 is ours. Why not 10? Because at ten boxes you'd be paying mostly for setup, and a box that should cost two or three dollars would cost several times that. That's a poor first order, and it's a poor way to find out whether the packaging works for your product.

A hundred is roughly where the price per box starts to look sensible and a real test becomes possible. You can ship a month of orders in it, see how it survives the courier, watch how customers react, and change the size or the artwork before you commit to more.

We'd rather say that plainly than advertise no minimum and hope nobody reads the unit price.

When a stock box and a sticker is the better buy

If you need fewer than about a hundred boxes, don't order printed boxes from anyone. Buy plain stock boxes in the nearest size and a roll of printed stickers or a custom stamp.

That route is right when:

• You're sending samples or a first batch of fewer than a hundred orders.
• You haven't settled on your product size yet, so any box you size now may be wrong in a month.
• Your launch date is soon, and you'd rather ship this week than wait for a print run.
• The box goes inside another carton at a fulfilment centre, so nobody opens it as a first impression.

A good sticker on a clean white or kraft box looks deliberate, not cheap. Plenty of brands do exactly this for their first few months, then move to printed boxes once they know what sells. It isn't a lesser choice. It's the right one for that stage.

How to order a small first run without wasting it

Small batch custom packaging works when the first run is treated as a test. If you've decided a printed box is worth it, the goal of the first run is to learn, not to save a few cents. Here's the order we'd do it in.

1. Measure the product as you'll actually pack it. Include tissue, an insert, or a card. Our guide on how to measure a box shows which side is the length.
2. Pick the format that suits a small run. A kraft box is the cheapest printed option in the table above and forgiving of a simple one colour logo. A printed mailer box costs more and ships on its own as the gift, and it is the format most people mean when they look for custom mailer boxes with a low MOQ.
3. Choose one colour unless your artwork really needs four. It takes about 39 cents off a mailer at 250, and a wordmark in one strong colour often reads as more premium, not less. If you want custom boxes with your logo and no minimum, that trade is usually worth making, and there's more on it in our piece on custom boxes with a logo.
4. Order 100 if you're testing, 250 if you're sure. If you know your size and you'll sell through 250 in a few months, the lower unit price is worth taking.
5. Skip every extra on run one. Printing inside, soft touch and foil can all wait until the size and the outside are proven.

The mistakes that make a small run expensive

Ordering big to chase the unit price. A thousand boxes at $1.15 looks better than 250 at $1.82 until you change your product and 700 of them no longer fit. The most expensive box is the one you throw away. Our list of first packaging order mistakes goes further on this.

Splitting a small order across several sizes. Four sizes at 25 each is four setups on a hundred boxes. If your products vary, choose the size that fits most of them and use an insert or filler for the rest. The guide to custom mailer box sizes lists the sizes that cover the most products.

Paying for finishes nobody will notice on day one. Foil adds about 35 percent to the price of a box and soft touch about 22 percent. On a hundred boxes you're still testing, that money is better spent on a second run once you know the box works.

Treating the first order as permanent. It's a draft you can hold in your hands. Plan to change something on the second run, and you'll make better choices on the first.

When a bigger order does make sense

Once you've shipped your first hundred or two and the box is right, the maths changes. You know the size, you know it survives the courier, and you know how quickly you go through them. At that point a run of 500 or more saves real money, and you can see exactly where the savings stop in our guide to wholesale custom boxes.

The one rule we'd hold to: order roughly what you'll use in three to six months. Boxes take space, board soaks up damp in a garage, and a rebrand can make a whole pallet obsolete overnight.

Our pick

For a brand that wants its own printed box and doesn't need thousands: a medium one colour mailer at 100 boxes for about $287 if you're still testing, or 250 for about $454 if you already know the size. If you need fewer than a hundred, buy a stock box and a sticker now and come back when you're ready.

If you're torn between formats or boards, ask for a sample pack and put your product in real board before you spend anything on a run.

Key takeaways

• Printed boxes carry a setup cost that doesn't change with quantity.
• That's why custom boxes with no minimum get expensive per box at low volume.
• Our minimum is 100, where a one colour mailer is about $2.87 a box.
• The biggest price drop is between 100 and 250, then the curve flattens.
• Under 100 boxes, a stock box with a printed sticker is usually the smarter buy.
• On a first run, one colour and no finishes keep the learning cheap.

Common questions