Most of the questions we get from collectors are about display: will it fit, will it look right, will it protect. The questions from brand and retail buyers are about supply: what is the minimum, can we see a sample first, can our logo go on it, can we re-skin it for the next drop. Those are the questions this guide answers, in the order they actually come up.

Start with the format you already sell

A retail display programme fails when it is designed around artwork instead of around the product inside it. Before anything is drawn, we need to know the exact formats and their sizes: standard blind boxes, figures at a known scale, sleeved and slabbed trading cards, booster packs, enamel pins, photocards. Where a format has more than one thickness in the market — a sleeved card and a graded slab are nowhere near each other — that difference decides how many inserts the line needs.

This is the difference between a display case and a display system: one case holds one format, while a system holds a wall of them from a handful of parts — which is what makes a retail order worth tooling at all.

MOQ is a tier, not a wall

The number buyers ask about first is usually the least useful one to quote in isolation. On our standard systems the published break is Sample 1 set · small batch 30–50 · mass 100+. Those tiers exist because the cost of a run is front-loaded: setup, cutting file preparation, insert tooling, packing design and the sample itself are largely fixed, and they are amortised over the units in the batch. A 100-piece order is not ten times the work of a 10-piece order; it is closer to one and a half times.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a sample set at the top tier is a serious way to start — you can put the enclosure, the insert and the panel in your hand before committing to a production batch. Second, mixed orders are usually cheaper than they look: several SKUs from one programme share the setup, so a shop stocking three formats does not need three minimums.

What a sample has to prove

A sample is not a formality, and it should not be approved on a photo. In a retail programme it has four jobs:

  • Fit under real conditions. Put the actual product in it, not a ruler. The difference between a figure that clears the front panel by 4 mm and one that binds is visible only with the figure.
  • Closure feel. Magnetic, sliding or press-fit — the mechanism is judged by the person restocking the shelf at 8 a.m., not by the buyer.
  • Branding legibility. How a logo reads on a clear panel, at the distance it will actually be seen, and whether it distracts from the product.
  • Survivability. Drop the sample in its packing, or ship one box to a distant store, before you approve the run.

Anything you want changed here is inexpensive. The same change after a production run is a write-off, so the sample round is where a programme is really decided.

Inserts and artwork: the part that gets you reorders

The outer shell is the visible part, but the insert does the work. It is what holds the product level, what lets the same shell carry a different format, and what protects the piece in transit. Buyers send us what they already have — PSD / AI / PNG with layered breakdown service. We take that artwork and return engineered cut-lines, because a beautiful layered design still has to be manufacturable at the thickness involved.

On our layered acrylic diorama and standee line, that review happens before anything is cut. It is also where most of the cost difference between two similar-looking designs lives: a design with three layers and separate foreground pieces needs more assembly than one flat panel.

Branding: on the piece, on the box, or both

Branding options are usually stated rather than discussed: UV protection, custom insert, batch logo. In practice there are three places a brand puts its identity, and they sell differently.

On the case. A discreet logo or event mark etched or printed on the corner, base or back panel — the version that works for retail stock, because the product inside stays the hero. On the insert or backdrop. The back panel is where a brand can be loud: patterns, colour, a character scene, a collaboration mark — and it is the cheapest part of the assembly to change. On the packing. The box a store unpacks is the first thing a buyer sees, and for distributors retail-ready packing is often worth more than any change to the acrylic itself.

Design rights are the buyer's job — and we ask about them

This is the question that separates a professional programme from a risky one. Any structure we build can be produced, but only the artwork that goes on it needs rights — and those rights belong with the buyer, not the workshop. Our position on this is deliberately plain: Original geometry base art — structure sold, not IP images.

In practice that means a brand sends us artwork it owns or is licensed to use, and if a licence has a territory, a term or a print run attached, tell us at the brief stage so the quantity on the order matches the licence. We will ask; a maker that does not ask is a risk to your programme, not just to ours.

Build the line to be re-skinned

The economics of a display programme turn on the second order, not the first. A design that has to be rebuilt for a seasonal drop never gets cheap. A design where only a panel or an insert changes does — and that is how our showcase line is specified: Replaceable UV-printed back panel for seasonal re-theming.

So when we specify a retail line, three things get separated on purpose — the structural shell, the replaceable panel, and the insert. A sound-and-light showcase can be re-themed for a new character set, and a card line can be re-run for a tournament season, from the same outer parts. Our CARD-VAULT card and slab cases are built on that logic: standard shells, plus custom inserts and batch logo work for repeat customers and OEM.

Packing, and who unpacks it

Where a display case ends up decides how it is packed, and a retail order has two audiences: the distributor's warehouse and the store that finally shelves it. A flat-packed programme ships more units per container and is unpacked by staff who know the product. A retail-ready programme ships assembled, and pays for the volume in the carton.

Tell us which of the two you are, and how many times a unit is handled before it reaches a shelf. Acrylic survives a workshop easily; what damages it is a corner taking a direct hit inside a box that looks untouched from the outside.

Talking numbers honestly

Two things cannot be quoted from a chart: a display case with new tooling, and a programme that mixes formats. The price moves with the shell size, the number of inserts, the closure type, the panel printing, the branding method and the packing — so we would rather look at your formats and quantities than publish a per-unit figure that turns out to be wrong for your mix.

What can be said up front is the structure: MOQ tiers, a sample set you can hold in your hand, and a shell that keeps working when the artwork changes.

What to send with a retail or private-label brief

  • The formats you stock, and the exact size of each — including thickness
  • Volume per SKU for the first order, and roughly what you expect to repeat
  • Whether the case ships flat-packed or assembled, and to which country
  • Where the brand should appear: case, panel, packing, or all three
  • Your artwork, and confirmation that you hold the rights to use it
  • Whether the line needs lighting or a sound module, or room for one later

Send that through our project enquiry form and we will come back with the shell and insert specification, the MOQ tier that fits your quantities, and a quotation. If the line is still being planned, the format list is the one item worth getting exact first — everything downstream is sized from it.