cad-guy Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Greetings everyone.... my scout troop had the idea of creating a coin for the purpose of fundraising to go to summer camp. I know there are licensing issues with the BSA and I have already been in touch with an official coin maker that has a BSA license. Also been in touch with the local scout office and seem to have their blessing. My question is: would the folks here in the forum be up for purchasing a coin to help out some boy scouts? Where else would be a good place to try to sell coins? I have seen quite a few on ebay, but I don't have a feel for how good they sell there. I'd like to come up with a coin that would still pull a profit selling at 8-10 dollar each. We would probably only be able to make 200 or so because of cost. Hopefully we would have a great design that would generate interest. Sorry for rambling. cad-guy Quote Link to comment
+9Key Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I don't think coins are a good way to raise money, frankly. You might make a couple of bucks on each coin, but after you factor in the the time involved in making the coin, selling them, shipping them (buying mailers, trips to the post office, etc) you have a wash. Make a coin as a momento, not as a way to bring in cash. Just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment
+derschlings Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I agree with 9Key... (hey I made a rhyme ) geocoins really are not a great money-maker. Stick with carwashes. You'll come out way ahead. Quote Link to comment
QuigleyJones Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 If you mint it, people will buy it. If you make it beautiful and $8 it will sell out immediately. If its just another geocoin and costs $20 it will sell slowly. Also, people like icons, and icons requires and extra $1.5 per coin with at least 250 coins (It might be different now) You might email h_mtreasurecache as he just minted some to raise funds for his troop. Overall as a way to generate some funds I'd say it would work. Its just hard to get your scouts involved so a carwash would be better for them. PS, whatever you do, rethink putting the Scout law on the coins back Quote Link to comment
cad-guy Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 why no scout law? Just curious..... Quote Link to comment
+tokencollector Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I suspect that there is a demand for Quality scouting themed coins. A fair number of cachers are also scouters. In the [past, other reasonably priced issues appear to have sold briskly. I’ve purchased at least three issues (two of which were fund raisers). Some of the coins purchased have been released in the troop's name on camping trips and I have a LE that I am holding onto until my son makes Eagle. (beagle_camper, if you read this, pretend you didn’t) If you search the threads, you may be able to get in contact with the maker of the Hoxie scout coin and ask if it was worth it as a fundraiser. Speaking for myself, a good design offered at a reasonable price would be attractive. As with popcorn, I would be willing to pay a reasonable premium to help out a troop (a few bucks). I would also want a reasonable price so that I could afford to keep one and release another in the troop’s name on a future camping trip. Some folks collect coins and not icons. Many collect both (self included), so selling 250 and getting a custom icon would be desirable as well. Quote Link to comment
+Smort78 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 why no scout law? Just curious..... I know about two coins that got the scout law on the back already... Quote Link to comment
+tokencollector Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 why no scout law? Just curious..... A tongue in cheek reply . There is a recent discussion about another scout coin in which a potential copyright issue was raised over the presentation of the scout law on the back of the coin (the presentation is extremely similar to a coin on the market). Quote Link to comment
cad-guy Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 got it....thanks for the warning. The first thing I was going to do was come up w/ a way to put the scout law on it! No kidding! With the scouts, most of the phrases and images you see are copyrighted. We have to come up w/ a way to portray scouting w/o using copyright material. From what the scout office says, you CAN use copyrighted material for district wide fundraising, but not for the local troop. I'd welcome any ideas! We are a small troop. Any amount of dollars will be welcome that we make. I realize it wont be a huge fundraiser. I think I can get the boys involved in the artwork, and packaging/mailing if we decide to do this. Quote Link to comment
+ScoutingWV Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 (edited) hmmmmm ... would I buy a Scout themed coin? hmmmmm ... think, think, think ... If you can make money at it, go for it. Any profit is good profit, but you'll probably make more on a different activity. edit: If you can get the boys involved, take the opportunity to teach them some basic business, finance, and customer service skills. I bet there's a badge in there somewhere ... Edited January 15, 2008 by ScoutingWV Quote Link to comment
+Renegade Knight Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I sank 1500 + bucks into a fund raising coin. So far...I'm still in the hole and projected to be that way for many months. Quote Link to comment
+EScout Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I learned this week that BSA is very serious about licensing anything with Scout insignia or words. I do not think it is worth trying to go this route. There is a coin company that has a license and will sell you Scout geocoins with Tracking number and icon at a quantity discount so that you can resell them at a small profit However, I agree with the above comments that there are better ways. Being experienced in this, I have a couple suggestions. The car wash fundraiser is actually very good. Print up some tickets before the event and pre-sell them. This will add a lot of additional revenue. You can also sell hot dogs and sodas. A tire store that is closed on Sundays on a major road lets us use their parking lot and water. A multi-family yard sale also is good. We used a church parking lot on a major road, on a Saturday. Good luck. Quote Link to comment
+nielsenc Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 (edited) As for a fundraiser, if you make a coin, make it something Parents and Neighbors would also want to buy. You can make a scouting related without violating the trademark. This is a great way to introduce parents and neighbors to geocaching. Good Luck! Edited January 16, 2008 by nielsenc Quote Link to comment
+nielsenc Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Found the BSA Website: http://www.scouting.org/identity/contents/12.html Make a scouting coin, just avoid trademark issues. Quote Link to comment
+mousekakat Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Two suggestions, one coin related, the other not (sorry Earth, I'm trying to behave!) One suggestion would be to see if you could get coins donated or sold very cheaply (below cost) to your troop from some of the wonderful and generous folks here and eBay them... that way you don't have any initial outlay and you are at almost 100$ profit. The other thing would be to investigate things like "CafePress" and see if you couldn't come up with with your own design that is sellable and do it that way... Good luck, in any case! Naomi Quote Link to comment
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