If you’ve never ordered custom lawn signs before, the pricing can feel like a moving target — one site quotes $21 a sign, another quotes $1.30, and neither tells you why. The gap almost always comes down to three things: how many signs you order, how thick the plastic is, and whether a stake is bundled in. Once you know those variables, pricing a real order takes about five minutes.
This guide walks through actual per-sign costs at different quantities, the difference between 4mm and 10mm coroplast, what a wire stake adds to the bill, and how long production realistically takes once you approve a proof. The goal is to get you from “I need signs for my yard sale, campaign, or open house” to placing an order without overpaying or under-ordering.
How much do custom lawn signs cost?
The single biggest lever on price is quantity. For a standard 18″x24″ custom lawn sign printed in full color on corrugated plastic, pricing typically lands somewhere between $1.30 and $2 per sign once you’re ordering 50 or more, with volume discounts kicking in noticeably between the 50- and 100-unit tiers. Below 50 units, expect to pay closer to $2–$4 per sign, since setup and small-batch printing costs get spread across fewer units.
Single-sign orders exist too — most printers dropped hard minimums years ago — but you’ll pay a steep premium per unit for the convenience of ordering just one or two. If you’re buying for a yard sale, an open house, or a single campaign yard, it’s usually cheaper to order the smallest bulk tier (often 25 or 50) than to buy exactly the number you think you need.
| Quantity | Total Price | Price Per Sign |
|---|---|---|
| 50 signs | $80.00 | $1.60 |
| 100 signs | $130.00 | $1.30 |
4Mm vs. 10mm coroplast: which one do you actually need
Nearly every custom lawn sign is printed on coroplast — the same corrugated plastic used for political yard signs and real estate placards. The number that matters is thickness, and it’s usually listed in millimeters. 4mm is the default for a reason: it’s light, cheap to print and ship, and holds up fine for the two to twelve weeks most lawn signs are actually in the ground, whether that’s a listing, a garage sale weekend, or an election cycle.
10mm coroplast is roughly double the thickness of the standard stock. It resists bending, holds up better in high wind, and stays flatter in large formats, so it’s the better call if your sign will sit out for a full season, gets reused year over year, or goes somewhere exposed and gusty. The tradeoff is cost and weight — 10mm typically costs more per square foot to print and ship than 4mm, so it’s worth the upgrade only when the sign actually needs to survive rougher conditions.
If you’re not sure which to pick, default to 4mm for anything temporary — real estate, yard sales, birthday and welcome-home signs, single-cycle political signs — and reserve 10mm for signs going up in an open field, a coastal or high-wind area, or anywhere they’ll be reused across multiple seasons.
Stakes, mounting, and what a full order actually costs
Sign price and stake price are often quoted separately, and it’s easy to under-budget if you only look at the sign line item. A basic single-sided sign with no stake sits at the low end of the range; add double-sided printing and a wire stake and the per-unit cost climbs noticeably, since you’re now paying for two printed faces plus hardware.
If you’re sourcing stakes on your own rather than bundling them with the sign order, wire H-stakes run roughly $1.70 each at wholesale in carton quantities. That makes bundled sign-and-stake packages worth comparing directly against buying blanks or signs-only and stakes separately — shipping two packages instead of one usually erases any savings from splitting the order.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| 50-pack, 1 side, no stake (A.G.E. Graphics) | $1.90 / sign |
| 50-pack, 2 sides, with stake (A.G.E. Graphics) | $3.20 / sign |
| Wire H-stake alone, 50-ct carton (Uline H-8856) | $1.70 / stake |
Lead times: how fast can you actually get signs
Turnaround varies more by printer than by sign complexity. Several shops advertise 24- to 48-hour production once you approve a proof, which is realistic for standard coroplast signs in common sizes like 18″x24″ or 24″x18″. Others quote a flat 3 business days as their standard, non-rush production window, with small orders (four signs or fewer) sometimes moving faster than larger runs.
Rush service is common if you’re on a deadline — an election, an open house this weekend, a yard sale tomorrow. Same-day or next-business-day rush production is widely available, usually with an order-by cutoff time (often early-to-mid afternoon) and either a flat rush fee or a per-sign upcharge. If timing is tight, call or check the checkout page before you submit art, since rush cutoffs and fees aren’t always shown until you’re deep into checkout.
Shipping is separate from production time and adds its own 1–5 business days depending on how far you are from the printer and which shipping speed you choose. Build in both numbers, not just the quoted production window, when you’re planning around a specific date.
What to check before you submit your design
A few details cause the most reorders and delays. First, confirm bleed and safe-zone requirements — most printers want text and logos kept a half-inch or more from the edge so nothing gets trimmed off. Second, check whether the price you’re looking at includes printing on one side or two; a sign meant to be read from both directions on the lawn needs double-sided printing, which typically costs more than single-sided even at the same quantity.
Third, confirm the stake style matches your ground. Standard wire H-stakes work for grass and soft soil; if signs are going into gravel, mulch beds, or hard-packed ground, ask about heavier step stakes or ask whether the printer sells a compatible alternative. Finally, double check the finished size against where the sign is actually going — an 18″x24″ sign reads fine from a sidewalk, but if it needs to be visible from a road at 30+ mph, a larger format is worth the extra cost.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the cheapest way to order custom lawn signs?
Order at the smallest bulk tier a printer offers rather than the exact quantity you need — pricing usually breaks meaningfully at 50 and again at 100 units, so 50 signs at the bulk rate can cost less in total than 30 at the small-order rate. Sticking to one color, one side, and a standard size like 18″x24″ also keeps the price down.
Do I need 10mm coroplast or is 4mm enough?
4mm is enough for the vast majority of lawn signs — real estate, yard sales, single-season political signs, event and welcome signs. Upgrade to 10mm only if the sign needs to survive high wind, gets reused across multiple seasons, or is being installed somewhere it can’t easily be checked on and reset if it blows over.
Are stakes included when I order custom lawn signs?
It depends on the package. Many printers sell signs and stakes as a bundle, but some list the sign price alone and add stakes as a line item at checkout. Read the package description closely — a bundled sign-and-stake price is usually cheaper overall than ordering blanks and stakes from two different sources.
How fast can I get custom lawn signs printed?
Standard production commonly runs 24 hours to 3 business days after you approve your proof, plus shipping time. If you need signs faster, ask about rush production — same-day or next-business-day turnaround is widely available for an added fee, usually with an early-afternoon order cutoff.
Is there a minimum order for custom lawn signs?
Most printers no longer enforce a strict minimum, so ordering a single sign is possible. That said, per-sign pricing only gets competitive once you’re ordering in bulk — 50 units is a common first price break, with another break around 100.
What size lawn sign should I order?
18″x24″ is the standard size for real estate, political, and yard-sale signs viewed from a sidewalk or driveway. If the sign needs to be read from a moving car on a road, size up — 24″x18″ oriented horizontally or larger formats read better at speed and distance.
The bottom line
Pricing custom lawn signs comes down to answering three questions before you check out: how many do you need, how long do they have to survive outside, and do you need stakes included. Get those right and a standard 18″x24″ coroplast order should land in the $1.30–$3.20 per-sign range shown above, with production wrapped up in a few days unless you pay for rush. Get a proof approved early, and you’ll have signs in the ground well before your deadline.