Jump to content

Bc Geocoin


Half-Canadian

Recommended Posts

The first meeting of the new BCGA board of directors took place last night, and one of the items for discussion was the minting of a British Columbia geocoin. Before we pursue this further, we thought it would be a good idea to see if there were enough people interested to make it worthwhile.

 

No thoughts yet on design, but this would be an enamelled metal coin, possibly with tracking available. Cost would likely be in the same range as other similar coins recently issued -- around $7.00 CDN or $5.00 US plus shipping.

 

Let us hear from you -- post a note here if you would be interested, and how many you might like to order to give us some idea of whether or not to pursue this further.

Link to comment
Instead of minting up geocoins, isn't there a better way to spend the BCGA funds?

Thank you for your opinion.

 

Nowhere did I indicate that BCGA funds would be spent on this project. If you had bothered to take the time to see how other regional or state coins have issued, pre-orders are taken and payment remitted from each individual who is interested before the coins are minted.

Link to comment
Would they show up as other geocoings do in user stats?  :laughing:

If so then I'd be interested in a couple.

 

Murfster

( Ontario )

They won't show up on your stats page. There are so many different coins out there that it would be very difficult to incorporate all these into the statistics page. There has been dicussion of them possibly being trackable.

 

How do people feel about the trackable feature? Individually numbering the coins increases the minting cost.

Edited by Chillibusher
Link to comment
Nowhere did I indicate that BCGA funds would be spent on this project.  If you had bothered to take the time to see how other regional or state coins have issued ....

Why are you getting defensive? I certainly wasn't attacking you at all. I have nothing but respect for you as a geocacher and as a director of the BCGA. That said, did you want opinions or not? Or did you only want opinions that state: "Yes, I'll take six!"

 

I have no interest in Geocoins, so why would I bother to check how other jurisdictions issue theirs? And even so, why would I assume you'd be doing the same? Maybe it would be better to have stated up front that payment for a Geocoin would simply mean a pre-order, and that once ordered it could take several weeks or months before the coins would be sent out.

 

Since this is a BCGA initiative, shouldn't it be something that serves all BC geocachers? Something that will benefit all BC geocachers? Like I said, events best do that.

 

Why not start a thread that asks for interest in a Cache Machine event in the Lower Mainland this summer?

Edited by dogbreathcanada
Link to comment
Nowhere did I indicate that BCGA funds would be spent on this project. If you had bothered to take the time to see how other regional or state coins have issued ....

Why are you getting defensive? I certainly wasn't attacking you at all. I have nothing but respect for you as a geocacher and as a director of the BCGA. That said, did you want opinions or not? Or did you only want opinions that state: "Yes, I'll take six!"

 

I have no interest in Geocoins, so why would I bother to check how other jurisdictions issue theirs? And even so, why would I assume you'd be doing the same? Maybe it would be better to have stated up front that payment for a Geocoin would simply mean a pre-order, and that once ordered it could take several weeks or months before the coins would be sent out.

 

Since this is a BCGA initiative, shouldn't it be something that serves all BC geocachers? Something that will benefit all BC geocachers? Like I said, events best do that.

 

Why not start a thread that asks for interest in a Cache Machine event in the Lower Mainland this summer?

That must be a "No I'm not interested"

 

Geocoins are usually funded by the people that buy them. The BCGA if it's similar to other orgs would neither make money, nor lose money on the coins. Once made though the coins do tend to spark a lot of interest from the people who don't read forums and don't learn about them until later.

 

As for a cache machine, good luck with that. I hear they are a lot of fun and you can organized one as well as anyone. It doesn't have to be a BCGA function to be a BC event.

Link to comment
As for a cache machine, good luck with that. I hear they are a lot of fun and you can organized one as well as anyone. It doesn't have to be a BCGA function to be a BC event.

 

Sure I could ... but since the BCGA mainly caters to the Lower Mainland, they could certainly do a far better job than I organizationally ... they have a website, a ready legion of volunteers, prize support, etc.

 

If in the end, they want to make coins, they're certainly within their rights to spend time and effort on that endeavor. I just won't support it, because I have no interest in geocoins. I do have an interest in BC geocaching and the BCGA. Hopefully more than "geocoins" came out of their first meeting.

Link to comment

Well I have an interest in Geocoins and I would gladly buy a few if you mint them! thanks! Oh and regarding tracking, it does add cost to the coins and it seems like most collectable items go missing I am not a fan of it. I personally woudl use them as trade items. But having said..your coin = your choice, I would buy them regardless.

Edited by XRN95
Link to comment
Sure I could ... but since the BCGA mainly caters to the Lower Mainland, they could certainly do a far better job than I organizationally ... they have a website, a ready legion of volunteers, prize support, etc.

 

If in the end, they want to make coins, they're certainly within their rights to spend time and effort on that endeavor. I just won't support it, because I have no interest in geocoins. I do have an interest in BC geocaching and the BCGA. Hopefully more than "geocoins" came out of their first meeting.

 

Well, in response to your last line:

 

... and one of the items for discussion was the minting of a British Columbia geocoin. Before we pursue this further, we thought it would be a good idea to see if there were enough people interested to make it worthwhile. (bold emphasis mine)

 

That's all this thread is at the moment....to see if there are others who are interested. If there isn't significant interest, then case closed, move on....

 

As others have already mentioned, this endeavor would be funded by those who are interested in creating and buying the geocoins.

Link to comment
Well, in response to your last line:

 

... and one of the items for discussion was the minting of a British Columbia geocoin. Before we pursue this further, we thought it would be a good idea to see if there were enough people interested to make it worthwhile. (bold emphasis mine)

 

That's all this thread is at the moment....to see if there are others who are interested. If there isn't significant interest, then case closed, move on....

 

As others have already mentioned, this endeavor would be funded by those who are interested in creating and buying the geocoins.

Well, if you discussed organizing an event for this summer in the Lower Mainland, I'd like to volunteer my time to help that cause. Therein lies some interest from moi.

Link to comment
Well, if you discussed organizing an event for this summer in the Lower Mainland, I'd like to volunteer my time to help that cause. Therein lies some interest from moi.

Erm, yes, but this thread is about what kind of interest there is in creating and minting a BC geocoin.

 

Perhaps if you would like to discuss events, and how the BCGA invests their resources, you might post in the BCGA Thread :laughing:

Link to comment
The first meeting of the new BCGA board of directors took place last night, and one of the items for discussion was the minting of a British Columbia geocoin.  Before we pursue this further, we thought it would be a good idea to see if there were enough people interested to make it worthwhile.

 

No thoughts yet on design, but this would be an enamelled metal coin, possibly with tracking available.  Cost would likely be in the same range as other similar coins recently issued -- around $7.00 CDN or $5.00 US plus shipping.

 

Let us hear from you -- post a note here if you would be interested, and how many you might like to order to give us some idea of whether or not to pursue this further.

If the outcomes and discussions of BCGA board meetings are only to be listed on this site and not even show up as news items on the Association site - why not just shut down the BCGA website completely and save the money?

Edited by craggers
Link to comment
Let us hear from you -- post a note here if you would be interested, and how many you might like to order to give us some idea of whether or not to pursue this further.

We would probably take 5, but like Gorak mentioned, it would depend upon the final design.

Link to comment

First of all, cache machines are not events nor are they caches. You can organize a cache machine if you want, but do not place an event cache to organize it. The guidelines do say:

In addition, an event cache should not be set up for the sole purpose of drawing together cachers for an organized hunt of another cache or caches. Such group hunts are best organized using the forums or an email distribution list.

 

That said, the subject is off topic. The topic is regarding geocoins. I think just expressing your opinion as a "no" or "yes" and sticking to the topic is what is being looked for here. Semantics about the BCGA should be dealt with in the other topic as suggested.

 

Now, I would buy some if you do mint them. We just got done with ours for the GGA and they looked fantastic. We chose not to track them. You can pay (I think it is $1.50 per coin US) and have them tracked on the GC.com web site. The do not get a special icon, but they are tracked separate from other coins. If you click on my name and go to my statistics on my profile page you will see that I have found several different geocoins. The Moun10Bike coin has a special icon, but the USA, the German Geocoin and the GeoWoodstock coins all have separate categories but have the same icon. If you pay the extra cost to GC.com they will make them trackable on the site. The GGA chose not to track them because most people keep them as collector items anyway. I bought a bunch of GGA coins just so I could swap them with other cachers.

 

Please keep on topic.

Link to comment

I would be interested in 5-10 (maybe more), but ultimetly it depends on the design.

 

(edit)Oh. I almost forgot. About tracking. Any GeoCoins that I put out, I pretty much am going to assume they end up in someones personal collection. If I plan to track one, I would drill a hole in it and attach a travel bug.(/edit)

Edited by Circle of Confusion
Link to comment
Well, if you discussed organizing an event for this summer in the Lower Mainland, I'd like to volunteer my time to help that cause. Therein lies some interest from moi.

You don't need the BCGA to organize an event. Instead of derailing a thread about BC geocoins to suggest that the BCGA organize events, why don't you organize an event yourself - the type of event that you would want to attend. I'd be sure to attend if I'm available.

Link to comment

I don't know what group that Dagg is part of but Nurse Dave's coin group is probably good for 100+ and the GBA geocoin group would probably buy a batch as well. That's just a heads-up, I don't speak for either group.

 

On top of that, I might by extras but I just can't give any kind of number until the details (price, appearance, tracking, etc.) have firmed up.

 

Please consider starting a list of names/email addresses to notify when you're ready to start taking orders, it will mean that I and others don't have to keep watching this thread for weeks. (Especially given how it's gone so far! LOL :ph34r:)

Link to comment
I know Dagg and some others had made some drawings, those would be cool to see.

Hmmm. Looks like the OLD BCGA forums are not only closed but gone forever. I was going to link to the old (closed) thread. Is the association open to input for the coin design?

 

I had submited a couple of ideas. Since it seemed like for a while that BCGA wasn't interested in a coin I had been tossing the idea of making my own BC GeoCoin myself, and selling it...

Edited by Circle of Confusion
Link to comment
as with anything collectable the more there is of it the less valuable it is.... do we really want to saturate the market with orders of 60, 80 or 100+ coins per head??

 

Just a thought...

I couldn't imagine there's much longterm investment potential with any geocoin, especially since it appears that coins are traded 1-1 with other coins no matter their rarity. I don't see that printing 500 coins or 2000 coins is going affect the value of the coins, 5 or 10 years from now, all that much.

Link to comment
Is the association open to input for the coin design?
We'll start another thread for design ideas once we've determined that there is enough general interest in persuing. It looks like we are getting close to that point.

 

I had submited a couple of ideas.  Since it seemed like for a while that BCGA wasn't interested in a coin I had been tossing the idea of making my own BC GeoCoin myself, and selling it...
Nothing stopping you from doing this, or even creating a CoC geocoin. I'd buy one of those. :)

 

Our (the BCGA executive) thoughts on this is that the coin is a BC geocoin and not a BCGA geocoin. While the BCGA is willing to facilitate the creation of the coins, it's up to the geocaching community to continue show enough interest to move this forward. While there was some discussion on the former BCGA forums about BC geocoins, this discussion went in fits and starts and never moved beyond some casual discussion.

Link to comment
as with anything collectable the more there is of it the less valuable it is.... do we really want to saturate the market with orders of 60, 80 or 100+ coins per head??

 

Just a thought...

These are orders for groups of people. This just makes the whole process easier than a bunch of people placing individual orders.

Link to comment
as with anything collectable the more there is of it the less valuable it is.... do we really want to saturate the market with orders of 60, 80 or 100+ coins per head??

 

Just a thought...

Also, some of these large orders are for very 'high density' areas, such as California, where a 100 coins would disappear very quickly into cachers hands. I would suspect they would be more coveted because they would be hard to get hold of in caches.

 

I would take buy a few, they would be great trade items when doing caching on vacation outside of BC.

Link to comment
as with anything collectable the more there is of it the less valuable it is.... do we really want to saturate the market with orders of 60, 80 or 100+ coins per head??

 

Just a thought...

These are orders for groups of people. This just makes the whole process easier than a bunch of people placing individual orders.

My order of 60 coins is for a group of 20 avid coin collecting geocachers in the SF Bay Area(theGBA.net), as is done in Nurse Dave's group(33 members scattered around the world) the members buy 3 coins each but I consolidate the order into one, saves on shipping, saves forum thread space and makes it easier for the vendor in terms of tracking one order versus 20 individuals and the time saved to pack and ship all of those orders. When combined with NDs group it also allows most people doing a coin to be bumped up into lower pricing for higher volume orders.

 

Most people in the club keep one in their sig/coin collections and then trade with others locally or afar, some even drop them as very cool trade items or FTF prizes.

Link to comment
Also, some of these large orders are for very 'high density' areas, such as California, where a 100 coins would disappear very quickly into cachers hands. I would suspect they would be more coveted because they would be hard to get hold of in caches.

 

I would take buy a few, they would be great trade items when doing caching on vacation outside of BC.

but if every cacher has one in hand, you aren't going to get much for your trade. That was my point.

 

The trade value will be gone because the covet-factor doesn't exist.

 

I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. I just thought it'd be kinda cool to be able to travel someplace with something that someone may want but it seems like anywhere I might go, i'll bump into someone who will already have one :)

Link to comment
Also, some of these large orders are for very 'high density' areas, such as California, where a 100 coins would disappear very quickly into cachers hands.  I would suspect they would be more coveted because they would be hard to get hold of in caches. 

 

I would take buy a few, they would be great trade items when doing caching on vacation outside of BC.

but if every cacher has one in hand, you aren't going to get much for your trade. That was my point.

 

The trade value will be gone because the covet-factor doesn't exist.

 

I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. I just thought it'd be kinda cool to be able to travel someplace with something that someone may want but it seems like anywhere I might go, i'll bump into someone who will already have one :)

But there are always new collectors coming into it all the time, right?

 

There might not be any initial demand in the months immediately following the issuance of the collectible, but a year or two down the road, you'll start seeing new collectors who would love to get their hands on the coin.

Edited by dogbreathcanada
Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...