product review: QuickTrophy Dog Tags

A couple of weeks ago, I was presented with an opportunity to review a product from QuickTrophy, an online store that offers custom trophies and plaques for sports teams and social organizations. At the time, I had been having some trouble with my toddler. His older sister has started to wear jewelry around the house, and he has managed to break just about every one of her bracelets and necklaces in an effort to be more like "big sis."

So I figured that doing a product review for a customized dog tag might be just the thing to cure his sibling possessiveness. After all, dog tags are strong - strong enough for the army and to accompany soldiers into battle. They ought to survive my toddler, right?

Ordering the product was fairly straight forward. You go to the Quick Trophy homepage and click on the "What's New" category to see their new line of customized dog tags. You select a sport to get a small graphic printed on the tag, along with your personal engraving. Since this wasn't for sports or a team, I decided on the pinecar derby image, which was a set of racing flags. Then I borrowed a passage from one of his favorite movies (Cars), and personalized it. It turned out great:



Overall, I was pretty pleased with the transaction. My only complaints had to do with their shopping cart sequence and the shipping charges. Once you have entered your engraving, there are two buttons at the bottom of the page - one for checkout and one to continue shopping. I kept clicking on the continue shopping button by accident. I'm not accustomed to seeing that button until you've seen the item placed in your cart. Maybe it's just me, but I like to know that the item has been placed in the cart before I am given the option to continue shopping. Otherwise, I feel like it didn't "stick". I also never received an email confirmation for my order. If this wasn't for a product review, I would have been on the phone with them asking if the order went through or not.

My only other concern is that the cheapest shipping option is USPS priority for $8.70, which seems a bit steep for a single dog tag. In my case, since this was for a product review, they simply stuck it in a 55 cent letter-sized envelope and I paid no shipping. But I'd be interested in seeing why they charge that much to ship a dog tag for a regular order. I guess part of it must be "handling" charges.

The price of the tag was reasonable - $3.50 each, with discounts for ordering in bulk. It was cheaper than a custom engraved dog tag at the local pet store, if you don't count the shipping. It appears to be of good solid quality. The edges weren't sharp, and it's been taking a beating from my toddler already. Even the necklace has survived so far. If they combine shipping for bulk orders, this would be a great little inexpensive morale booster for sports teams. I may even have to get a pink one for my daughter, as she is now jealous of my son's.