Deal Toys & Deal Tombstones

Custom deal toys and financial tombstones

Mark the close of an M&A deal, acquisition, IPO or financing with a deal toy your client and deal team will keep. Choose crystal, acrylic or Lucite, as a classic tombstone, an embedment, a block or cube, or a custom shape. The price table above prices four of them at 1 to 50 pieces, and single pieces are welcome. Send your logos and deal details for a mock-up in 24 to 48 hours. Rush is available on most pieces.

What deal toys are

A deal toy is a keepsake made to mark a closed transaction: an acquisition or merger, an IPO, a debt or equity financing, a fund close or a real estate sale. Bankers also call them financial tombstones or deal tombstones, after the tombstone advertisements that announced new offerings in the financial press. A deal toy usually carries the logos of the parties, the deal name or code name, the amount and the closing date, and it stays on a desk or a shelf long after the deal is done.

The firm that led the deal usually gives them to the client, the deal team and the advisers who worked on it. Companies also order them for their own milestones, such as an acquisition, a major approval or a new financing.

Materials and formats

Most deal toys are crystal or acrylic. Acrylic is light, hard to break and takes full-color printing; Lucite is a well-known brand of acrylic, and the name many bankers use for the whole category. Optical crystal is heavier and clearer, and it suits a premium piece.

Financial tombstones

The classic format: an upright crystal or acrylic block with the logos and deal details on its face. Clean, traditional and easy to read across a room.

Lucite embedments

An object set inside a clear acrylic block: a logo, a signature, deal documents, currency, a certificate or another flat or display-ready piece that tells the story of the deal. In this collection, the Embedment Award encases medallions, badges, pins, raw materials and keepsakes.

Crystal blocks and cubes

Logos and text are engraved on the surface, filled with color, or etched in 3D inside the crystal. A cube gives you more faces for more of the deal story.

Custom shapes

Acrylic cut to an outline, such as a state, a building, a product or your logo, and layered for depth. Finance-themed pieces, such as bulls, bears and globes, suit capital markets and cross-border deals.

How ordering works and how long it takes

Send us your logos, the deal name and closing date, the amount if you want it shown, how many pieces you need and the date you need them in hand. A photo of a past piece or a rough sketch helps; we can match an existing design. We send a digital mock-up within 24 to 48 hours, and you can ask for changes before you approve it.

Standard production is 5 to 10 business days after you approve the proof. Rush is available on most pieces when a closing dinner or presentation is close: tell us the date up front and we will confirm what is possible before you order. We ship across the United States and internationally, to one address or to each recipient.

What deal toys cost

The price table above this guide gives four deal toys' prices per piece at 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 pieces, read from the catalog. The price depends on the size and material (crystal costs more than acrylic of the same size), how the artwork is applied (engraving, color printing or 3D etching), whether an object is embedded, whether the shape is a stock block or cut to order, and how many pieces you order, since the unit price usually drops as the quantity goes up.

Each product card above shows that piece's price range. For an exact figure, send your deal details and quantity and we will quote per piece. Single pieces are welcome, so a one-off for a client or a founder is never too small to ask about.

Who orders deal toys

Investment banks and M&A advisers order them for clients and deal teams after a close. Private equity and venture capital firms mark acquisitions, exits and fund closes. Companies celebrate their own acquisitions, IPOs and financings; law firms commemorate the transactions and cases they worked on; and lenders, developers and real estate investors mark loans, sales and closings.

An order can be one piece for a client or one for everyone on the deal team.