Cashmere Thoughts — Packaging Sign-Off

The decision

One choice per format: how Cashmere Thoughts records and merch arrive at the customer's door. Three routes, costed below. Routes can be mixed per format — e.g. Gold on vinyl, Bronze on CDs.

Bronze

Stock packaging, no printing. The brand arrives on the CT branded tape that seals every parcel. Lowest cost, fastest to order.

Silver

Same stock packaging, plus custom CT logo stickers (100 × 150 mm) applied to the front. Branded feel for pennies per unit.

Gold

Fully custom-printed packaging — CT artwork printed directly on the mailer. The strongest unboxing moment, at a step-change in cost and order quantity.

Vinyl

Base carrier for all three routes: rigid book-wrap vinyl mailers. Bubble sleeves were considered and ruled out — too flexible without added stiffeners, risking breakage.

Plain mailer · CT tape seal

Bronze

Mailer + CT tape

Strong vinyl book-wrap mailers (Lil Packaging)
No customisation to the mailer itself
Sealed with branded Cashmere Thoughts tape

£708

1,000 units · £0.71 per unit

+ CT tape — quote pending

Supplier: Lil Packaging — Book Wrap CLP

Plain mailer · CT sticker

Silver

Mailer + CT stickers

Same strong vinyl mailers as Bronze
Custom CT logo stickers, 100 × 150 mm (Bizay)
Sticker applied front-of-parcel

£758

1,000 units · £0.76 per unit · (£708 mailers + £50 stickers)

Supplier: Bizay — custom stickers

Custom print · 1-colour black

Gold

Custom-printed mailer

CT artwork printed on front of mailer, one colour (black)
Minimum order 6,000 units
£0.67 per unit — cheapest per-unit rate of the three

£4,020

6,000 units · £0.67 per unit · ex VAT

6× the stock commitment of Bronze/Silver

CD

Base carrier: bubble mailers. Bronze and Silver use plain black metallic envelopes (165 × 165 mm); Gold moves to custom-printed bubble mailers (191 × 267 mm).

Black bubble mailer · CT tape

Bronze

Black mailer + CT tape

Plain black metallic bubble mailers, 165 × 165 mm (Kite)
No customisation to the mailer
Sealed with branded CT tape

£159.50

1,000 units · £0.16 per unit

+ CT tape — quote pending

Supplier: Kite Packaging — metallic bubble envelopes

Black bubble mailer · CT sticker

Silver

Black mailer + CT stickers

Same black bubble mailers as Bronze
Custom CT logo stickers (shared spec with vinyl run)
White sticker pops on the black envelope

£209.50

1,000 units · £0.21 per unit · (£159.50 mailers + £50 stickers)

Supplier: Bizay — custom stickers

Custom-printed bubble mailer

Gold

Custom bubble mailer

Custom-printed bubble mailers, 191 × 267 mm (Sticker Mule)
CT artwork across the full face
Standard 1,000-unit order — no volume step-up

£622

1,000 units · £0.62 per unit

Supplier: Sticker Mule — custom bubble mailers

Soft merch

Tees and clothing ship in mailing bags. The tier logic is identical; supplier quotes for the bags are the one open cost line in this deck.

Plain mailing bag · CT tape

Bronze

Plain bag + CT tape

Stock poly mailing bags, no printing
Sealed with branded CT tape

TBC

1,000 units · stock bags typically the cheapest line in this deck

Bag + tape quotes pending

Plain mailing bag · CT sticker

Silver

Plain bag + CT stickers

Same stock bags as Bronze
Custom CT logo stickers — same £50 / 1,000 run rate as vinyl and CD

TBC + £50

1,000 units · sticker run £0.05 per unit on top of bags

Bag quote pending

Custom-printed mailing bag

Gold

Custom-printed bags

Custom printed mailing bags (Davpack)
CT artwork printed on the bag itself
1,000 units — price per Davpack rate card

TBC

1,000 units · per Davpack quote

Supplier: Davpack — custom printed mailing bags

Costs side by side

Format	Route	What ships	Units	Per unit	Total
Vinyl	Bronze	Book-wrap mailer + CT tape	1,000	£0.71	£708 + tape TBC
	Silver	Book-wrap mailer + CT sticker	1,000	£0.76	£758
	Gold	Custom-printed mailer, 1-colour black	6,000 minimum order	£0.67	£4,020 ex VAT
CD	Bronze	Black bubble mailer + CT tape	1,000	£0.16	£159.50 + tape TBC
	Silver	Black bubble mailer + CT sticker	1,000	£0.21	£209.50
	Gold	Custom-printed bubble mailer	1,000	£0.62	£622
Soft merch	Bronze	Stock mailing bag + CT tape	1,000	TBC	TBC
	Silver	Stock mailing bag + CT sticker	1,000	TBC + £0.05	TBC + £50
	Gold	Custom-printed mailing bag (Davpack)	1,000	TBC	TBC
Route total — vinyl + CD (merch quotes pending)					B £867.50 · S £967.50 · G £4,642

All costs approximate, ex VAT unless stated, at supplier list prices July 2026. Bronze totals exclude the pending CT tape quote (applies to Bronze across all formats and remains a shared cost with Silver if tape is used there too).

The real shape of the decision: Silver buys a branded parcel for roughly £100 more than Bronze across vinyl and CD combined. Gold’s cost jump is driven almost entirely by the vinyl mailers’ 6,000-unit minimum — a £4,020 outlay and 6× the stock commitment, though it is the best per-unit rate. A common middle path: Gold on CDs (£622), Silver on vinyl (£758) — branded everywhere without the 6,000-unit lock-in.

Notes & open items

Ruled out: bubble sleeves for vinyl. Protective, but too flexible — they’d need packaging stiffeners on top to prevent breakage, eroding the saving.

1 — CT branded tape quote. Needed to complete Bronze pricing in every format. Tape should carry the CT wordmark (white on burgundy).

2 — Soft merch bag quotes. Stock poly bags (Bronze/Silver base) and the Davpack custom-print rate for Gold.

3 — Sticker price confirmation. The £50 / 1,000 Bizay figure was reached via a promo code — confirm it holds at re-order.

4 — Gold vinyl stock plan. If Gold is chosen for vinyl, confirm 6,000 mailers matches the pressing/repress schedule before committing.

Pick the route

One call per format — and they don’t have to match. Reply with a route per line: vinyl, CD, soft merch.

Bronze

£867.50 + tape

Vinyl + CD, 1,000 units each. Brand carried by the tape alone.

Silver

£967.50

Vinyl + CD, 1,000 units each. Branded sticker on every parcel.

Gold

£4,642

Custom print everywhere. Includes 6,000 vinyl mailers (minimum order), ex VAT.