Slate coaster blanks, by what the suppliers print
Slate is the blank that made the laser gift trade: it needs no coating, it engraves white against near-black with almost no setup, and it arrives ready to sell. It is bought by the piece and by the case, which makes it one of the few things in this trade where a published price means something straightforward. The suppliers read for this site show the same split as everywhere else, with the ones aimed at small shops printing figures and the trade distributors not.
- $3.54median of the published figures
- 7suppliers read
- 4material families
Every figure on this page comes from this site's own board: 7 US suppliers read across 4 material families, each figure with its page and its date.
- 7 suppliersevery figure quoted from the supplier's own page
- Word for worda quotation must be an exact substring of the kept page reduction, or the record is not written
- 4 familiesa family counts for a supplier only where its own page carries a figure for it
Material families
| # | Supplier | Cast acrylic, from | Engraving blanks, from · Sublimation blanks, from | Source | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AcrylicMeThat | $2.95/from, cheapest 1/8 in patterned cast sheet | acrylicmethat.com | September 2026 | |
| 2 | MakerStock | $2.99/sheet, cheapest thickness and size | makerstock.com | September 2026 | |
| 3 | 3D Universe | $3.54/sheet, 5 x 10 in | shop3duniverse.com | September 2026 | |
| 4 | Johnson Plastics Plus | $3.89/sheet | Engraving blanks, from $1.25/piece | jpplus.com | September 2026 |
| 5 | TAP Plastics | $15/from, size not stated | tapplastics.com | September 2026 | |
| 6 | Acme Plastics | did not answer on the last run | |||
| 7 | BestSub | ||||
| 8 | Coastal Business Supplies | Sublimation blanks, from $20.45/piece | coastalbusiness.com | September 2026 | |
| 9 | ePlastics | ||||
| 10 | eStreet Plastics | did not answer on the last run | |||
| 11 | Interstate Plastics | did not answer on the last run | |||
| 12 | JDS Industries | ||||
| 13 | MakerFlo | Engraving blanks, from $12.93/piece at the deepest printed tier | makerflo.com | September 2026 | |
| 14 | Professional Plastics | publishes no figure | |||
| 15 | Rowmark | ||||
| 16 | Swing Design |
What decides a slate blank's price
- The piece, not the sheet. Unlike acrylic, slate is sold finished: a coaster, a keyring, a hanging sign, a plant tag, each at a per-piece price. That removes the whole cut-to-size problem that makes sheet prices incomparable, and it is why the blanks half of this site has more usable figures in it than the sheet half despite having fewer suppliers. UK Blanks prints a price on every item in its slate collection, from £0.99 for a keyring upward.
- Case size and minimum order. A per-piece price is only half of what the first order costs. Most of these suppliers price in cases, and the figure on a collection page is usually the single-piece price with a case discount applied further in. MakerFlo, on the blanks side, prints three figures on the same item: the list price, a case price and a bulk price for twenty-five or more, which is the clearest disclosure in the whole read set.
- Finish and backing. Slate blanks differ in edge finish and in whether they arrive with rubber feet or a hanging cord. Those change both the price and the work: a coaster sold with feet fitted is a finished product, one sold bare needs a step added to every unit. The supplier's own listing is where that is stated, and it is worth reading before comparing two figures that look the same.
- No coating means no sublimation. Natural slate engraves under a laser and does not take sublimation, because sublimation needs a polymer coating to bond to. Coated photo slate is a separate product sold beside it, at a different price, and the two sit next to each other in most catalogues. Buying one for the other is the commonest mistake in this family.
Common questions
- How much does a slate coaster blank cost?
- UK Blanks, read for this site, prints £0.99 for a slate keyring and £2.95 for a coated photo slate frame. The US suppliers read publish per-piece prices in the same shape but not for slate specifically.
- Can slate be sublimated?
- Only if it is coated. Natural slate engraves under a laser; sublimation needs a polymer coating, and coated photo slate is sold as a separate line.
- Why are UK prices quoted here in pounds?
- Because that is what the page said. This site converts nothing and puts no foreign figure into any aggregate; the price board is United States suppliers only.
The prices by family
Sources
Cite or embed this figure
The published entry prices in all five families together was $3.54 in read in September 2026, across 7 suppliers recorded in Laser Materials Compare Laser material price transparency.
Cite as: "Laser Materials Compare Laser material price transparency", updated 2026-09-11, https://lasermaterialscompare.com/slate-coasters/.