Shipping Lots Of Coins

[+9Key]

Hi!

 

In the next few months I'll be shipping out about 4500 coins of various mintages and I was wondering if anyone has a system for keeping track of the orders.

Before I spend time building a db and web app I'd like to hear how others do it.

 

Thanks

Will

[+Ladybug Kids]

For the Alaska geocoins, I built a database (in MSExcel) with cacher name, mailing information, fields for each coin they were ordering (there were three types of Alaska coins plus our Ladybug Kids coin plus trades to keep track of), and fields for the day order was received, payed for, insurance, and shipped. Then I did a mailmerge to print the mailing labels with a "code" for the number of each type of coin and the amount of insurance (if desired). Having the coin codes on the mailing label itself made it easy for the volunteer envelop stuffers to know how many of which coin to ship.

 

If I'm involved in another Alaska geocoin production, I will put cachers into the database only upon receipt of payment because there was too much iteration with people who "preordered" but then required several "pings" to confirm interest and to get payment.

 

Other coin project managers have gotten increasingly sophisticated with their use of PayPal and I imagine going to a PayPal only system would streamline the process even further because the cachers in effect populate the database when they order rather than the coin project manager having to do it him/herself. I'd be very interested in hearing from the folks who have managed the data through PayPal's services.

[+team simpson]

I'm currently building a web site in php with a mysql database, for a coin that will be for sale in a few weeks.

If someone fills in the order form, the data is automaticly stored in the database.

When we need to send out the orders when the coins are here, I only have to print the generated list of orders, and the generated list of adresses (on stickers)

Another usefull thing of it is that it will automaticly close if 1000 orders are reached (so no over-ordering)

Edited September 29, 2005 by team simpson

[+KirklandExplorers]

We put everyone's mailing address in Word on a mailing label. Behind the name we put what they were receiving. For example on the kids coin we put (1s) for 1 silver (1G) for 1 gold, and (1N) for 1 wooden nickel. I entered this information after printing the page from Paypal (you can also do a spreadsheet directly from Paypal too). I would save the page of labels at the end of the day and then print it out. When it came time to ship I stuck the label on the package and verified what they were supposed to get. For the North Dakota coins I had an optional Insurance and stuck an I after their name if it was to be included. When we got to the post office we did delivery confirmation only ($.60) each I believe. This only requires you to write the zipcode on the slip and not the whole address.

 

Since mailng the coins we have had a few questions about packages and I can instantly verify what address I mailed it to and how much they received! If there ever was a question about a package being delivered I can pull up the confirmation number and see if it was delivered.

[+joefrog]

When we got to the post office we did delivery confirmation only ($.60) each I believe. This only requires you to write the zipcode on the slip and not the whole address.

It really depends on the guy or gal behind the counter. I've shipped hundreds of packages using delivery confirmation. Some take it with just the username/ZIP on it (that's all *I* need), while others will make me stand there and fill out the entire name and address before they'll take it.

[Dancingfool]

I managed the payment and shipping for the Maryland coin.I used a basic database and input the Cahers name if I knew it,# of coins ordered,type payment ,shipped or picked up, and the email address and real name from Paypal.I recieved notices of those who had paid.I cut and pasted the mailing address to another database and used that one to generate labels for shipping.95% of people paid through paypal so that made it easier.I also kept a seperate file of emails for payments.It was a lot of cross checking but worked pretty well

[+tin-ear]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, 4500 coins! Another New Mexico surprise in the offing?

[+team simpson]

Since this topic is about shipping lots of coins, I got one question.

In about a few weeks we are going to have a geocoin created in the Netherlands (Don't pm me for orders)

If they do not sell out within the Netherlands, we will also accept US orders.

 

I did already trade some coins with US cachers, but some took a real long time to get there (4 weeks) and some didn't arrive, while others did get there withing 5 day's.

It is possible to send coins insured, but it's a lot more expensive (about $8 for one coin, while normal shipping is $2)

 

So my question is, should I give people the chance to choose if they want insured shipping? or should I only use insured shipping?

[+Renegade Knight]

It's up to you and which you could better tolerate. People complaining about the cost of insurance or people complaining about the loss of the coin.

 

At least with insurance if there are exra coins people can group their orders together and lower the cost per coin of shipping and insurance.

[+pdxmarathonman]

If you do the math on total cost of insuring each shipment it seems it may make more sense to ship all the coins regular mail. Then mint the necessary number of coins to replace the lost ones

[+Ladybug Kids]

I am not aware of any Alaska geocoins (~1500 total, all three types) getting lost in transit, whether domestic or international, insured or uninsured. I haven't lost any trade coins, either.

 

I didn't insure any international shipments because one has to step all the way up to "Global Express" or something similar which has a minimum cost of around $14. I just took my chances and had deliveries make to Canana, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands without problem. I used the terms "geocaching tokens" or "geocaching gamepieces" rather than "coin" on the customs forms and that seemed to satisfy customs and avoided arousing too much curiousity by anyone handling the mail (not a comment about mail carriers...each piece of mail is handled by perhaps dozens of people in transit). Interestingly, most overseas shipments took less than a week, beating many of the domestic shipments, perhaps in part because Fairbanks is a hub for cargo carriers flying between Europe and Asia. There was one cacher in Calgary, though, whose payment took extra long to get to me and whose coins took extra long to get to back to him and neither one of us can figure why.

 

Regarding insurance: I left insurance for the domestic cachers up to the individual cacher and put a disclaimer out there that lost coins were not my responsibility. About 2/3 the cachers bought the insurance, the other 1/3 didn't, and no one lost a coin as far as I know. Domestic insurance is cheap--$1.30 for the first $50, $2.20 for the next $50, and then and additional $1.00 for each $100 increment after that.

 

Perhaps the key to successful delivery is the packaging. All coins I've shipped have been double packaged. We wrap the coins in bubble wrap or other padded packing material and put them in a standard mailing envelop with a return address on it. That envelop then goes into the padded mailing envelop. Orders more than 12 ounces shipped domestically in a "Flat Rate Priority Mail" envelop with the coins first packed into a padded envelop. I (and pdxmarathonman ) can vouch for the fact that the return address actually helps (I had three shipments come back due to address mistakes on my part). The only coins I've come close to losing are a pair of trade wooden nickels which arrived in a slit standard envelop and the nickels ended up on the floor of my wife's car after she retrieved the envelop from our mailbox.