Lemon Fresh Dog

Well.... I collect many things - stamps, comics, little planes and these coins. The main reason I collect is because of the sense of community and the stories behind the coins. Geocaching still remains on the "fringe" of outdoor activities - and these little coins represent that fact that I'm not alone in this strange obsession. Also - I always had a hard time figuring out what I could use as a calling card or signature item - coins are fun like that. So I like the personal coins and the thought of camaraderie they invoke. In only collect coins that mean something to me because of personal interest or because the represent another cacher or community.

That's my ignorance of the scenario then. When a vendor fails to deliver - it's a little different. If someone decides to become a geocoin vendor, then they are running a business. They should have enough working capital to mint coins and THEN offer them for sale. I'd be wary of ANY business that needs the money "up-front". My comments were more geared towards individuals and geocaching organizations that are not representing themselves as commercial enterprises. (I think my edit must have crossed your post in the cyber-sphere)

Again - just to play Devil's Advocate When you agree to a pre-order purchase - adjust expectations on time-frames. If you can't wait for a coin to be made, if you are worried about the seller in any way - then don't pre-order it. You need to have realistic expectations about what you are buying BEFORE you buy it. It is naive to think that when you buy a "picture" you are going to have a coin in less than 20-24 mailing days or 30 days. There are many cases where a coin is offered for sale on a pre-ordered basis - for several reasons. In some cases, you might need to do some research. Especially on a personal coin or a coin that some person just designs and has nothing but a sketch of. You're buy "air" until it is a physical item. I once had someone win an eBay auction and then start sending me e-mails asking why they didn't have it - 4 DAYS after the auction closed. That's extreme, but unlike the internet, the postal service takes a little more than that to deliver a package. There's certainly a seller obligation that I hope people take seriously - but there is also a responsibility on the part of the buyer to be wary of whom they are buying from. The policies of PayPal are really designed for the sale of goods and services that take place in real time. This doesn't work for pre-order items very well. In fact, it's actually not what PayPal is supposed to be for. At any rate - we are all, to some extent, victims of our own making. We are obsessed with "getting the coin" and not "missing" it - that we can fall prey to those with poor ethics. For that, I am sad. The safest route is to buy coins that are already minted from business' that have been around for awhile. ADD: Of course, none of the above applies to poor vendors. I haven't been here awhile and I assume that some vendors have closed shop and left folks hight and dry? That's always a bummer.

Frozen browser double-post o rama!

It's always important for seller and buyer to agree what "on-time" is. For retailers it should be very quick - ship after the order is received. It's a little harder for groups and pre-sales. The key here is to ensure constant dialogue. I've only ever sold two coins here and in both cases the announcement to delivery time was more than a few weeks! However, in both cases there were constant updates, status reports, and the like. The time you need to worry is when there is no new news or no response to your queries. Coins can take 3-5 weeks to go from idea to physical reality, and then they take whatever time the postal system takes to deliver them. Of course, one solution is to never buy pre-sales. That would eliminate the 3-5 idea to coin time. Of course, that might stop some coins for groups even progressing off the idea stage (which might not be a bad thing either). Something we probably need to remember is that 90% or more of all coin sales go well. You need to ensure you are buying from folks that you know or are known.

We have a local cacher by the handle of PeanutButterBreadandJam (yes...the world's longest caching name) He doesn't collect coins that I know of, but he sure does a lot in terms of creating a Calgary Cachers "identity". He organizes: CITOs Christmas Parties Corporate and Park Services training sessions (just trained the Zoo staff) Create stickers and labels with our "logo" Designs coin designs Liason's with the city about our "adopted" park (Calgary cachers have adopted a giant park right by my house!) Wow.... just writing this down makes me realize how much he does..... this list isn't even close to complete.

We have a local cacher by the handle of PeanutButterBreadandJam (yes...the world's longest caching name) He doesn't collect coins that I know of, but he sure does a lot in terms of creating a Calgary Cachers "identity". He organizes: CITOs Christmas Parties Corporate and Park Services training sessions (just trained the Zoo staff) Create stickers and labels with our "logo" Designs coin designs Liason's with the city about our "adopted" park (Calgary cachers have adopted a giant park right by my house!) Wow.... just writing this down makes me realize how much he does..... this list isn't even close to complete.

I hope your dog doesn't bite the mailman carrying it! - poor dog would lose all its teeth!

Then it's settled. We all meet in Alberta.

Ta-Da! Here's a "size chart". They are also quite thick. Nice and heavy!

Bones! Boxes of bones.... which makes this puppy happy.

I could tell you....but then I'd have to kill you. I've been fortunate to find a couple in the area and even once got one "mysteriously" in my bag while at an event! It was there when I got home.

Ga! Sorry - I can't shut up on this. Geocoins as investments are a problem in the hobby. That's my opinion. Keep minting the popular designs exactly as the first version was .... mint, mint, mint!

Oh - for an example of this in action. I buy "geek" T-Shirts off a site called jinx.com They have a little bar showing the number of each shirt in each size available. If a shirt "sells out", they let you enter an e-mail address and you get an e-mail when they print more. This is cool. There was a shirt I wanted and I entered my e-mail. A short while later, the e-mail arrived, I ordered, and now I'm all "geek chic" This would be awesome with geocoins. Oh. The folks that buy to resell on eBay will hate you

Two Words: Open Minting Two more words: Free Market As a vendor, your goal is really simple - make money by providing your customers with the products they want and are willing to purchase. I've long complained (in the constructive use of the word) that one of the problems with coin theft and lack of coins in caches is due to scarcity and demand. This increases value on the secondary market and perceived value to the thieves. Open minting will decrease this theft and allow most people that want a coin to get one. It also has the added benefit of allowing people to budget for coins they want and not "panic" to get some when they come out. It would also allow better designs to be rewarded by long-term sales. Maybe even paying for larger up-front costs in the design phase. So. Mint 100/200/300 of a coin (based upon your market projections). Offer it for sale. When it is sold out, mint more and let folks decide to reserve or not. Repeat.

Nice! Worker of Wood also had a wonderful coin made with a little magnetic part that came off. The prayer flags are very, very cool as well. To me - these things really "speak" to the exploration part of caching that I like. I'm not sure how many of you are both armchair explorers and real-world explorers locally or when you can. Items like this remind me of the special joy I get when I read National Geographic, look at a map, check out a documentary. Caching at it's best does the same.

We love Glacier - saw some grizzlies the last time we were in the area and the place with the old buses is pretty cool! If you ever come across the border - make sure to check out the "northern" part of Glacier - Waterton Lakes. One of the nicest parks I've ever been to (I've lived/worked in a couple National Parks - Waterton wasn't one of them, but I wish it was). Of course, If you ever do make it north, let me know if you're in the Calgary area - I'm always happy to meet cachers from around the globe! You free during the Stampede? Yup! My Stampede schedule is: 1) Wake-up 2) Eat free breakfasts from one of the giant outdoor company events 3) Get to work...sometime... leave work ... sometime.... 4) Attend networking events, parties, events, parties.... 5) Repeat For those that haven't been to Calgary during the Stampede....it's .... different...

Not to rain on anyones parade, but that is a perfect example of something I would not consider a "geo" object in any way. - there's no attachment to a specific cacher or organization - there is no relationship to GPS, exploration, or "caching" It has a barely existent connection to the concept of "treasure hunting", but that's weak at best. The whole "caching as a treasure hunt" is something that is pretty tentative to begin with. It's more hide and seek in most cases. If it brings joy to the folks that find/collect it - then that's cool. Personally, it would be no different from any trackable I would find - matchbox car, fuzzy bunny - it's just minted rather than attached.

To me that seems rather far fetched to be called a coin so it would just be a trackable item in my eyes. Well...this opens a can of worms If we break it into two parts "Geo" and "Coin" - define each separately, and then attempt to combine.... There are many "shaped" "coins" - they aren't really coins are they? Yet they tend to fall into the category of geocoins and are recognized as such within the hobby of geocoin collecting and caching. From what I understand, the first shaped "coin" was created as a bit of a joke and was intended as a signature item and not strictly a "coin", but was a play-on-words based upon the cachers name. I guess it depends on how you define the "hunk" of metal. Is it minted with a cachers name on it? Is it minted with a fuzzy bunny and nothing at all to do with geocaching? At least in theory, it would be impossible to get a hunk of metal with a tracking number on it - you need to get any minted products design approved by Groundspeak and then get the tracking numbers for them. You could, of course transfer the tracking number from a TB Tag or an existing coin to the hunk of metal, but you couldn't buy a bunch of numbers for whatever item you want. This is probably a quality control issue to prevent tracking numbers on "questionable" designs or items. (yes...you *could* attach a TB tag to almost anything) Kealia has a point. A geocoin is whatever the person looking at it decides it is. For me at least, there are many "so-called" geocoins that don't meet my personal criteria for what I want. Some are even in my collection!

Update: The coins were sent to me via ExpressPost on Thursday of last week - so I will have them in my hands on Monday or Tuesday in the most likely scenario. I'm looking forwarding them all to you!

We love Glacier - saw some grizzlies the last time we were in the area and the place with the old buses is pretty cool! If you ever come across the border - make sure to check out the "northern" part of Glacier - Waterton Lakes. One of the nicest parks I've ever been to (I've lived/worked in a couple National Parks - Waterton wasn't one of them, but I wish it was). Of course, If you ever do make it north, let me know if you're in the Calgary area - I'm always happy to meet cachers from around the globe!

Haha! If you attach it to a cow it'll be even harder to find one - there's more cows up here then caches! Seriously though - this really is one of the nicest coins I've seen. In the "real" world (or at least the non-caching part of it), I would love to collect a set of globes from each planet in the solar system. Last summer, I ordered a bunch of moon, earth and mars marbles from one of the science sites and placed them into caches. They were pretty cool - I should order some more of those.

Well...well.... I'm pretty jaded when it comes to coins lately, but I'll go ahead and say that THIS one is one that I really, really want....wow. I'm a sucker for all things astronomy related, geography related, and map related (okay...and a dozen other areas related to exploration and travel). This is just way cool and I officially declare my absolute envy at anyone that has this one!

Hey! Let's meet-up at Glacier National Park or Waterton Montana is great. I haven't been for awhile, but I remember camping in the middle of nowhere by a river. A cow came through my camp at night and made me fear for my life. I also pulled over to check a map in the middle of nowhere and while I was there a UPS truck came flying out of nowhere and told me "you don't want to park there...you REALLY don't want to park there" and took off again! The coin is great and really reminds me of the western world of Montana! Looking forward to trying to find one on my next trip.

Some of my favourites are: Keila's shotglass Team 360's kokopelli rock The Geolens (very cool) In the days of HAM radio, it was common to send a "calling" or "signal" card to the folks you spoke with. In many radio rooms, the walls were filled with these cards. I'm not sure if they still do this - I haven't really ever gotten into HAM radio - maybe I should. I've always wanted one of the staffs or wands that I used to see on the forums about 4 years ago. Some of the "coins" that I like are ones like the Kootney Pirates wooden ones. I don't have a complete set, but they used to do 4 a year for a number of years (not sure how many years). They were lot's of fun! (actually, their "real" coin they did in 2005/6 is really stunning as well).