tsunrisebey

Me I believe I'm your GCF neighbor! Lucky Koin Sea of Treasures Nutella ET Merlin's Falcon Extras of stuff lying around tsun

Congratulations! Sorry, it's been quite some time since I've checked in on the forums.

No, I have not even done the color scheme yet. I couldn't afford to do more because I did the reservation route which usually kills my savings account. The next round will have the 'tsun' version which will be ready just prior to GCF and I will get them mailed out. I will be concentrating on GCF versions of coins/desings now, so hang tight. I also need to get the icon done for this coin too. I'm behind. tsun

What a shock Much too young to be taken so soon. A unique geocoin designer and will be missed by many. Thank you for your contributions to geocaching and geocoins. I had hoped to get to meet you at GCF in CO this year. My condolences to family and friends, you will be missed by many. You will live on in memories and through your coins. tsun

I'm glad they have started arriving to their new homes Thanks again everyone for the support. tsun

You guys are too funny, I'm swamped with orders to fill and you're already trying to get me to launch reservations for these, lol. I won't open reservations until I get all ET's out and take a deep breath. So I will probably be packing orders into this weekend. I am glad there is excitement over this coin. Everyone at work and my family all thought the Koin was very sharp. tsun

Earth Turtles are here and I'm working on emailing invoices. Whatever I can't finish tonight, I will wrap up tomorrow after work. If you don't have an email/invoice by Wednesday morning, please send em an email tsunrisebey@gmail.com Ok, back to work. So many turtles and so many homes to swim to

ET's are done I am sending payment tomorrow and anticipate them to be here by Monday or if I'm real lucky by Friday. I'll be posting to FB and here when in hand and will start the invoice process shortly after receipt of coins and a quick once-over. tsun

Oh this paragraph alone has brought many a discussion. Just what is "geocaching related"? What is the intended purpose? The first one made was non-trackable and meant as swag, so who decides what the purpose of a geocoin is for? Would it not be the person who has either left it in a cache, the buyer of the coin or the person who trades, etc.? When I design a geocoin, I design with Mother Nature in mind because when I cache, I am always taking pictures of wildlife or my surroundings. I am in touch with that part because that's what I like about caching. My gallery perfectly shows my interest. I could care less about the cache itself quite honestly. So because you or someone else who doesn't cache with the same intent I do make my designs non-geocaching related? Who gets to decide. I get tired of seeing this said because it's so subjective. I've read all the posts here and it makes me chuckle a little bit. Ok, I'm done, didn't mean to get too side-tracked here. tsun edit for spelling errors.

Make sure to attend the event the night before, that's a great way to meet avid coiners and get a feel for things. My first GCF was in PA, I found it overwhelming just because I'm not big on crowds but I got to meet some of the big guns of the geocoin world The part I find most amusing is watching people try to decide what to buy and fondling coins like precious treasure. You'll have fun and you will probably buy more than you should, almost everyone does See you there. tsun

Oh a fun thread! Kinda like the "old time" threads Here's my take. As a collector my interests have lessened. The novelty wore off and I try to be smarter. I used to buy 1 of each version and at least 2 traders. These days I do trade but am much more selective, I have way more coins than I need or even want for that matter but for purposes of helping people get what they want in their collections, I continue to trade as necessary. A couple of reasons I quit buying as much: dishonesty from a couple of vendors and more than I care to get into as far as discussions. Certain designers/vendors pumping out coins once or twice a month (I can't keep up with that). I also have the ability to trade versus having to buy. My tastes have also changed as far as what designs I like. Someone mentioned the threads here and strict policies, I agree. I feel like our hands are tied to a certain degree and it just became less fun to post here. Most vendors have FB pages now and you can follow whoever you are interested in and they are free to post what they want. Besides too many whiners here I still check in here but it's only once every 2 weeks or so. If you were to judge by the forums, it does appear that interest has subsided but I'm not sure how true that really is. My other perspective is as a vendor. I still find people are very interested in coins but 99% are collectors/resale. I totally get why, who wants to release a coin into the wild only to have it come up missing? I have found I still have roughly the same amount of buyers as I kind of always had. The changes I see are people coming and going due to interest level, economy or whatever. I try to pay attention to the patterns just because I find it interesting. Many people who have been with me since the beginning never post to the forums. Let me also say as a vendor my interest in designing has gone down, shoot in 2011 I did almost nothing in designs. It happened to be a crazy year for me and I was burned out so I just didn't have the desire to come home and draw and do all the work this coin stuff takes. It was a good break for me though. It gave me time to think about my role in the geocoin world, if I wanted to continue and some time to let my imagination and creativity get its spark back. I'm definitely still interested but I'm stream-lining myself. I believe this will be my last US Geocoinfest as a vendor this year unless it's some place I really want to go. Too much work and $$$ to do all of it. Might try it in Europe at least once. I hope that there will always be interest in geocoins, there are many designs that I think are awesome and creative, I also think there is alot of junk but it's all subjective. I've enjoyed what geocoins have brought into my life. I've made some good buddies and received some inspiring letters along the way. In the end I think it's cyclical and with more avenues to speak about coins or more options, Groundspeak isn't the place of "where it's at" anymore in regards to coins/trackables and unmentionables Ok, those are my random thoughts. Collect what speaks to you and don't get over your head. tsun

I've updated FB but not here. I just received the tracking numbers today and supplied them to the manufacturer. I'm hoping these will be ready to swim by end of next week or the week after. Seems like forever! tsun

Thanks for the additional responses, I've decided to extend my stay by 2 days so I can fit some more stuff in So many things to see and do and so little time. tsun

After GCF in Colorado, I'm heading straight down to the Taos and then Santa Fe areas. I'm pretty excited to visit your beautiful state, especially these areas. I've been doing some research but I'd like some advice from the "locals". I'm going to try and spend 2 days in each area and then I'll head back home to Montana. I'm just going to leave it open to any/all suggestions. First I'll tell you my interests and maybe you could make suggestions based off that? I'm an outdoorsy gal and I spend time hiking in the mountains here, so that is my first love. Anything outdoors and nature related would be of interest to me. Drives, caverns, rock formations, lakes, you name it I'm interested. I also love artsy stuff, so if there is something I need to see, throw it out there. Places to eat, places to stay, I would like to hear it all. Must do caches even better. Santa Fe I hear is a great community for the arts and to be inspired, so where do I need to go and what do I need to see? Thank you in advance for helping me plan ahead and sharing your knowledge, it's much appreciated. I'll be traveling in my Jeep Wrangler which is well equipped for mountain/snow driving conditions, so if you have a great mountain "loop" I should be driving, I'm game. Stephanie/tsun

I've been a bit slow to posting this only because I haven't opened my mail until today. It appears the coin I received belongs to this thread. Congratulations to those who have received the coin. Thank you to the kind giver of the coin, it's much appreciated. It will be put with all my special collection coins. Nice sentiment and nice design! tsun

The first round will be reservations, I can only imagine the angry mob that might show up at my door if someone missed out

Samples arrived today, here are a couple of pictures. I don't believe I ever revealed both sides so here is Koin both sides These coins in hand turned out amazing, very beautiful in my opinion. If you're even contemplating getting one of these, spring for 1 version. Glow Koin is stunning in person. tsun

I tell people I live in Montana but I'm actually retired and living in Bora Bora off the wealth of my geocoin mintings On a more serious note, so many people seem to think they know about the people minting geocoins. No one has ever said anything about using this venture as a tax loss huh? Anyone ever think of that? You could do something you love, take a smaller loss to offset other parts of your taxes. If I had it to do over, I'd let other vendors mint my designs and I'd take AE's and sell them on ebay because that seems to be where the big $$$ is. All anyone seems to think about are the $$$ when a vendor sells a geocoin but no one thinks about what goes into having a custom website, monthly hosting fees, business liability insurance and all the other expenses to this. There is so much more behind the scenes than the average joe realizes. I'm not complaining or whining as I choose to do this for my own reasons but anyone who thinks they know why vendors do this does not know why every person who sells a coin does it. How many people have come and gone that produced geocoins for profit? In the 6 years I've been here, most people don't last more than 2 years, I wonder what that says about this get rich scheme I'm just here yapping with no one in particular to address. Ok, logging off and getting off the soapbox tsun

Very nice

Took forever but here are a couple versions that I finally received sample pictures of. There are 2 of the 4 I had made. These will not go up for reservations/sale until the Earth Turtle 2012 orders have all been shipped, so we're looking at a good month from now. So something to look forward too in the meantime. I really like how these turned out tsun

Final numbers for those of you who like to know This isn't 100% but my cursory count is as follows: Gaia Gold: 165 Gaia Nickel: 130 Haka Gold: 135 Haka Nickel: 130 Total: 560 Earth Turtles will eventually make their way to the sea to swim to their new homes across the globe Thanks everyone! tsun

I will double-check my emails, check your spam folder too. You can also send me another email, I'm tallying up the coins now and will send in the order soon. I always order extras anyhow. tsun

Reservations are now closed, thank you very much to all who supported the design! I'll post updates on progress to this thread and Facebook. tsun

*** If you plan on reserving an Earth Turtle, plan to submit your order by this evening or tomorrow morning please *** I'm wrapping up reservations and getting an order placed by end of this weekend. Thanks! tsun

I've replied back to everyone, so if you didn't hear back from me, I didn't get your reseervation. Thanks to everyone who has placed an order, much appreciated Please let me know if you have any questions, I'll be placing the order with the manufacturer on Sunday evening which means I will wrap up reservations on Saturday evening. tsun