No Minimum Order: Why a Small Lab Should Not Have to Buy a Case to Get a Fair Price

Ask a supplier for a price and you often get a price with a condition attached: this is the price at 100 discs, at a case, at an annual commitment. The single-disc price, if it exists at all, is worse.

That structure is so normal it stops looking like a decision. It is a decision, and it is worth seeing clearly, because of who pays for it.

What a minimum order actually moves

A minimum order does not reduce the cost of making a disc. It moves inventory risk from the supplier to the lab.

When you buy a case to get the case price, you have paid today for material you will use over months. You are now holding stock in shades you may not need, in a thickness that suited last quarter's mix. If a shade stops moving, that is your loss, not the supplier's.

For a large lab with predictable volume, that is a reasonable trade — the discount is real and the stock will turn. For a small or growing lab, it is the opposite: the labs least able to carry inventory risk are the ones the pricing structure pushes hardest into carrying it.

What do other companies usually do

Order minimums. "Minimum order five discs" means you cannot try one. It also means an urgent case in a shade you do not stock costs you five discs.

Tier pricing. A price that improves at quantity is not wrong in itself. What matters is where the first tier starts. If the single-unit price is significantly worse, the tier is not a volume discount, it is a small-order penalty.

Annual commitments. The deepest discount usually requires committing to a year's volume. That is a bet on your own next twelve months, made with a supplier you may not have used yet.

What we do instead

No minimum order. A lab can buy one disc, and the price for that disc is the same as the price when the same lab buys twenty. There is no tier table, no case requirement and no annual commitment.

Our published pricing is per thickness and per series, and it does not move with quantity: 3D PRO multilayer runs $47 at 10 mm through $76 at 25 mm, the same across every shade; ST preshaded starts at $27; HT white starts at $23. Shipping is flat — $12 standard or $20 express anywhere in the United States, the same rate whether the box holds one disc or twenty.

One more thing that matters more to a small lab than a discount does:

A free sample disc. US labs can request a 3D PRO sample disc before buying anything, with a first-order discount code in the box. Test it on your own mill, on your own sintering cycle, on a real case.

One Price for Every Client

We charge every client the same price. We know we could earn more by setting different prices for different customers, but that isn't the kind of company we want to be. Fair, transparent pricing matters more to us than squeezing out extra profit.

Every Client Matters

Whether you buy one block a month or fifty, you're equally important to us. We respect every client's choice, and we always want to hear from you. Your feedback helps us improve.

What to ask any supplier, including us

1. What is the price for one unit, and how does it differ from the case price?
2. Is there a minimum order, and does it apply per order or per shade?
3. Is there an annual commitment attached to the best price?
4. What does shipping cost on a single-unit order?
5. Can I test the material before I commit to anything?

If a supplier's answers to those five are clean, the price is the price. If they are complicated, the complexity is doing work — usually moving risk toward you.