geoSquid

That is correct.

$16 is for 1 coin. It's huge and trackable as noted, an the run is only 129 total coins. The small run drives the price up, unfortunately as there are fixed charges that are divided over a much smaller pool of coins than you usually see.

My coins start out as concept, pencil drawings on scraps of paper and the backs of napkins. From there, I use Adobe Photoshop to get the concept into artwork that is useable. If I'm doing it with Keeper of Maps, he refines it using Adobe Illustrator and converts to PNG format. If it's just me I just save in PNG directly. I list colours as Pantone numbers for the most part. My monitor is calibrated using a Spyder II.

What would be the cost of these envelops if they shipped to me then I ship them to you? Will it still be cheaper that Staples? I'll have to check that as one of the options. It's not just envelopes that have this issue. I am a CPAP user (the details of CPAP don't matter if you don't know what it is, it's medical equipment). Because Canada subsidizes CPAP purchases, teh prices are jacked up stupidly. In most cases, it is actually cheaper to buy in the US and pay full shipping (even FedEx) to Canada, even if you count the fact that you don't get the subsidy if you buy in the US. However, some of the best prices are at places that won't ship to Canada. I don't know what the deal is about places not shipping to Canada. If the customer is paying the shipping, the only excuse can be "we don't want to stick a customs form on it", which is pretty lazy IMO. The only thing worse than not shipping to Canada is requiring the use of United Parcel Service for shipping. I'll drive to New York or Vermont to pick something up before I'll pay for UPS shipping.

That's only true if your envelopes cost less than 12 cents each. I've yet to find a provider of padded mailers that can do it for under 46 cents each (Staples) and delivers to Canada, so it's still cheaper to send 199g in one envelope for me. Although, that said, if some Canadian is on to a secret store of ultra inexpensive padded envelopes, feel free to share the secret. I've found a place in the US that sells them for as low as 10 cents (US) in quantity, but they don't ship to Canada.

Each of the Go and Get 'Em coin runs had a small number that were produced solely as mementos for the coin design team. When activated, I've been referring to mine as "Creator's Reserve" but they are, in effect, "artist editions" GAGE 8: 5 in Satin Gold GAGE9: 5 in polished silver GAGE 10: 4 in reverse finish (Gold outside, silver centre) AFAIK, none of these have ever been traded or sold. For my geoSquids, I didn't produce artist editions, but I have kept the highest and lowest serial numbers in each finish. I also have mint samples that are non trackable and not serialized, two of which are in a finish that was never released as a coin, and three of which aren't sparkly: Copper, Chrome, and satin silver: sparkly Copper, Chrome, and satin silver: not sparkly The serial number of all six is "P!"

I charge postage plus $0.50 for the envelope. This is because shipping overseas costs me postage plus $0.50 for the envelope. That works out to around $4.00 for a single geocoin. So if you're getting a package from Canada and you're paying more than about $4.25 in shipping for a single coin, the seller is hosing you. On multiple geocoins it's a bit hard because ebay, for example, has a per-item charge thingy when you list shipping... unfortunately postage seldom goes up "per item", so it always ends up that you're hosing someone a little bit. When i was flogging my coins on eBay I weighed packages up to 15 coins and used the numbers to calculate what the "per item" shipping additional charge was, but that either meant *I* got ripped at some numbers of purchase or the customer got ripped. So the real shipping on 1 coin or 2 is about the same, but 3 nearly doubled the price... there's no way to do that in eBay. There is on a Paypal store though, so people who bought coins on my web site got very fair and accurate shipping charges. On ebay they got "best I can do". Limitations of the ebay listing system aside, eBay sellers are terrible for overstating postage, even though doing so is a reportable offence. The reason people jack shipping on ebay is because shipping charges aren't subject to ebay's fees. So if I sell you a $1 item with $25 shipping charges, I keep more money than if I sell you a $25 item with a $1 shipping charge. It's against the ebay terms of use, though, so if you catch someone doing it, you can report them and they should end up in whatever fecal matter ebay bestows upon its miscreants. Personally, I've taken it up with a number of sellers (of more than just geocoins) and will pay appropriate postage or courier fees, but won't pay $6, for example, to ship a single geocoin to Canada. That's crap. No negative feedback yet, but the first time someone does I'll be going straight to ebay to complain.

It looks like the proofreader is 'amost there' , but still has some work to do! Nah, they're just spelling it the way Americans pronounce it with their funny accent <ducking>

That all gets put in the mix and helps set 'value'. Right now the geocoin market is not very efficient. If it were you could not spend 20.00 on eBay, 10.00 in the forums, or trade your 5.00 coin for it with a person who got extras. Part of why it's inefficient is that a lot of people have their heart and souls invested in coins. They like the community, they like trading with others, they like the signature coins, and their coins are not just something they bought but something they designed. I tend to like and keep the coins that have a little more heart and soul than the rest though my criteria for those coins is different than you may have. Actually that angle is why I even like geocoins at all. Believe me, my happy-squid *IS* me But I also recognize that they are geocoins, not cures for cancer.

Although I agree with what you're saying as far as "yes people think that way", it's probably worth noting that I don't think that way and don't trade that way. I'm not interested in the rarest coins, I'm interested in coins that I think look nice... it's a bonus if they're rare in some way, but that's not an overriding factor for me. To me, a coin is a coin is a coin. I either like it or I don't. A Moun10bike coin, for example, is worth no more to me than a damenace. Personally, I have preferences for the things I want to look at, but no coin has a higher intrinsic value to me (except the pure silver american flag geocoin). At the end of the day, they're all travel bugs or ornaments The multiple finish "LE Chrome" of the first geoSquid was a n00b thing that I have only repeated once (with GAG8), and that was a coin done about the same time. It's not something I'll do again (GAG9, GAG10, v2 geoSquid are 1 finish but for some designer specials on the GAG coins). The V2 is a different finish because I wanted a gold coin. The number made reflects my budget. Sometimes I think geocoin hobbyists are looking for some kind of angle in what other hobbyists are doing. Me, I trade in 1:1 ratio. I don't give up 2 or more coins to get 1, ever. There's too many nice coins out there to bother with those coins that people value too much to trade 1:1

Arrrrr matey... double post!

I have to admit... When I saw the subject "Pirate's Booty" I immediately conjured an image of Jennifer Lopez in a pirate queen get-up. Looks like a cool coin design though, even if it doesn't have a pirate queen on it

Realistically, if you don't want it sold on eBay, don't let it out of your physical possession. it's a fact, that pretty much anything that isn't physically attached to you has a good chance of ending up on ebay eventually

the first of the geoSquids have already started to arrive at trade destinations! Go Go Canada Post / USPS!

One thing I am learning is that it seems to be cheaper to make your own coins and trade to build a collection than it is to buy a collection coin-by-coin. I have to admit, I wouldn't have thought that possible, but it seems to be the case.

To me, geocoins are, and always have been, cool versions of travel bug tags. That's why I started getting them (with some track-on-another-site Canada geocoins back in 2005ish). Look at the threads in this very forum - some people think that geocoins are as precious as gold embossed diamonds (<cough> moun10bike coins <cough>). The shark got put in the water when people started thinking like that. The specific moment jumped that shark was when custom icons were allowed, which caused people to want them for the sake of the icon - thereby simultaneously reducing the collectibility of non-trackable, non-custom-icon coins, while creating a beany-baby market of speculators on the demand of the icon enviers, AND increasing the cost of coins to the marketplace.

If you don't like the cost, don't buy on ebay. Nobody OWES you a geocoin. Sometimes you won't be able to get one with terms you like. That's the way of things. As long as people just absolutely *MUST* have a coin, people will sell them. As for profit, well, profit makes the world go round. You don't have to like it, but I, for one, can't blame anyone making a profit on this stuff. Again, if you don't like someone's price, nothing forces you to pay it.

For everyone who has arranged a trade: All geosquid coins involved in trades have been shipped either Thursday or today, so keep an eye on your mail!

102 geocoins activated on my account 30 have been moved in the past year 4 confirmed stolen, er missing. 12 are in someone's inventory other than mine 14 are in a cache Highest mileage on a coin is 12769 km

I had another batch of pins made, but they're silver and blue. I didn't think about getting another run of coins done until after I did the pins. A pin has gone in with every trade, however.

Maybe you have other coins to trade I seek pretty much everything released in the last 6 months, and a lot of stuff older than that.

I've done my own geoSquid coin, as well as the Go and Get 'Em 8, 9, and 10 coins. I work with Keeper of Maps for the GAGE coins, although I did my own for geoSquid. Usually I work out the concept and rough it out, and KoM does the translation of my napkins and bits of paper into the artwork

I've been getting a great response to this coin, thanks all! The coins literally shipped from the mint Tuesday night, and arrived on my door yesterday, and as of this moment fully 1/5 have gone back out the door in bubble mailers Oak Coins hasn't got the activation codes up on the web site yet in such a short time, so if you get one of these and it doesn't activate right away, be patient I expect that by the time the first mailers weave their way through the postal system this won't be an issue, but off the odd chance that someone gets one tomorrow and Oak hasn't quite caught up yet, I thought you should know.

many people have asked about the numbers. They're numbered from 501-600, carrying on from where the v1 left off, although 501 and 600 have been spoken for already Actually 501 and 600 are the specific coins pictured in the photo

The v2 geoSquid... trade only (or find in a geocache). 100 made, trackable on geocaching.com, custom icon ( but smaller ), individually numbered. Satin gold with red sparklies. If you're interested in a trade, drop me a line!