+xixao3d Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I've seen a lot of people whining about coins costing too much when they're priced above $10. Mint costs are higher than they used to be, guys. Even at this price point, first runs aren't profiting much. Here's the latest quote I received just last night: SPECIFICATIONS Item: Coin Type: Geo Caching Size: 1.75" Plating: Silver Finish: Shiny Front side: Photo Insert Back Side: 2D color Option: Full Epoxy Color: Soft enamel Option: Engravings Quantity: 100 QUOTE 11811 Price per coin: $6.65 100 x 6.65 = $665.00 Die Charge 123.00 Geo Coding 150.00 Engravings 25.00 Shipping 55.00 $1018.00 TOTAL So, look at that. 100 coins = $1,018. That's $10.18 per coin on the first batch. Reorders reduce the per coin cost significantly, as the die charge no longer applies, but first runs are expensive. So, the next time you feel like whining about the sale price, keep this quote in mind. The people offering coins for sale are putting their time and effort into getting the coins produced... deciding on how the coins should be minted, working out the design, going back and forth with the mints... and sinking $1k+ into the manufacturing of it. Not to mention the wait time while they're nervously biting their nails, wondering how it will turn out. You sit back and place an order. If there was no profit to be made, most people would never mint them, and the community would have much smaller collections to share. Think about it. Quote Link to comment
+LadyBee4T Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think that you realized that in the other thread where you talked about people whining about the cost of the coin, the thread was started 4 YEARS ago? Back then that coin was priced to high and even now it is for such a simple concept. Your coin price should be higher than that one because your coin is more elaborate and larger than the purple heart coin from the other thread. I also don't think they were whiners. They were just stating that the cost was too high. Quote Link to comment
+AlliedOz Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think you will find that whining is not happening in this forum so much, unless I have missed some new topics on my daily read. We here are all aware of how much coins cost to produce and the regular forum posters and lurkers are in tune with how much work goes into producing coins. After all we are addicted to geocoins I like so many here have paid a premium for many coins due to how much work went into them, but of course we love the magical $10 mark but that is not always possible and I believe it is understood for the most part. sorry I just do not see the whining you speak of here, maybe elsewhere? Quote Link to comment
+xixao3d Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think that you realized that in the other thread where you talked about people whining about the cost of the coin, the thread was started 4 YEARS ago? Back then that coin was priced to high and even now it is for such a simple concept. Your coin price should be higher than that one because your coin is more elaborate and larger than the purple heart coin from the other thread. I also don't think they were whiners. They were just stating that the cost was too high. I was not only referring to the comments made in that post. In that specific case, yes, I agree that the cost was too high for what the coin was. However, I see these comments made often, and was told by several people that $12-13 on my coin would be asking too much. Funny, though, that non-geocachers are telling me that they would pay a lot MORE than I was going to ask, and plan to buy more than one because they think it is worth $20+. Quote Link to comment
+xixao3d Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 I think you will find that whining is not happening in this forum so much, unless I have missed some new topics on my daily read. We here are all aware of how much coins cost to produce and the regular forum posters and lurkers are in tune with how much work goes into producing coins. After all we are addicted to geocoins I like so many here have paid a premium for many coins due to how much work went into them, but of course we love the magical $10 mark but that is not always possible and I believe it is understood for the most part. sorry I just do not see the whining you speak of here, maybe elsewhere? Thanks for the reply. I'll admit that it may be possible that I'm crossing forums. I frequent several GC sites, so it's a good possibility. I'm just a bit bitter about the comments that have been made to me directly regarding the pricing of my own coin, considering how much I'm investing in getting them made for me. And, believe me, I'm not doing it just for profit. I am ordering 40 more coins that I'll be releasing into the wild, because I enjoy this community and want to help further the game along. I would just hate to see this turn into a situation where I've sunk over $1,000 into something that returns nothing Quote Link to comment
+Kealia Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 This is a bit of a double-edged sword here. Most people make coins to make money. Fact of life. If they didn't, they'd offer them AT COST. Sure, you can try to figure out what your time is worth to design, mail, etc. but at the end of the day you (general, not YOU) are going to end up with money in your pocket as the result of having a coin made. If it didn't make people money, coins wouldn't be made. The exceptions to that are when people make (made??) personal coins to either trade or leave in caches exclusively. In those cases, no money changed hands and it wasn't really anybody's business how much a coin cost to make. Now that I think about it, it doesn't really matter what a coin costs to mint - the price is generally based on what people are willing to pay for it. If Moun10Bike were to offer his coins for sale at $50/each I doubt there would be many people who came in and said "..but it only cost $x to make, I'm not paying that". Demand, interest, design, desirability and availability drive the price - not the cost to mint. The double-edged sword is: If anybody is making a coin and making money from it, expect to be questioned about the logistics of it. There have been far too many instances of people coming in here and simply trying to make a buck on coins for people to not do so. I have no idea which coin is yours and in question, but since you spoke in general terms I'm doing the same. Quote Link to comment
+Droo Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 How could you be so bitter about comments made about the pricing of your coin when you've only been caching for 10 days with 17 caches found to date? The beauty of the Internet is you can be anything you want to be and I can choose to believe only that which I find plausible. A lot of people come through here trying to sell anything and everything. Many get into the geocoin "racket" because of the apparent high prices posted on Ebay. I don't know which you are but given your tone I'm taking you with a large grain of salt. You have a right to price your coins any which way you want and respondents have the same right to voice their opinion about it. As Kealia said, it's a double edged sword.... if you want to use Forums for free advertising expect comments that may not be entirely flattering. Pay for advertising, on the other hand, and no one gets to say a word. Your choice. BTW.... if people say they'd pay $20 for your coins why are you making a stink about it? Just sell it to them.... and be done with the drama. Quote Link to comment
+xixao3d Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 How could you be so bitter about comments made about the pricing of your coin when you've only been caching for 10 days with 17 caches found to date? The beauty of the Internet is you can be anything you want to be and I can choose to believe only that which I find plausible. A lot of people come through here trying to sell anything and everything. Many get into the geocoin "racket" because of the apparent high prices posted on Ebay. I don't know which you are but given your tone I'm taking you with a large grain of salt. You have a right to price your coins any which way you want and respondents have the same right to voice their opinion about it. As Kealia said, it's a double edged sword.... if you want to use Forums for free advertising expect comments that may not be entirely flattering. Pay for advertising, on the other hand, and no one gets to say a word. Your choice. BTW.... if people say they'd pay $20 for your coins why are you making a stink about it? Just sell it to them.... and be done with the drama. My profile is 10 days old. That doesn't reflect how long I've been doing this. My brother introduced me to geocaching 3 years ago. Recently, my freelance income has exploded, so I bought a GPS, backpack and gear, premium membership, and decided to mint a coin. If the prices were lower, I'd just buy a handful of personal coins and call it a day. Since it doesn't make sense to buy less than 100, though, I'm hoping to recover some of that investment through sales. I agree with Kealia's post, too. It was thought out, and I appreciate the response. I had considered selling them to the community that feels they're worth more, but I don't want to leave out this community in doing so, and it wouldn't be right to charge one group one price and change it for the other. I'll just wait til the coins come in, and decide then. If a moderator would please close and/or remove this thread, I'd appreciate it. I didn't post this to make anyone mad or start an argument. Just trying to stick up for individuals who are investing large sums of money into this hobby. I'm looking at minting 2 designs at $1,000 each, and 3 geotags (not pathtags), for a total expense of around $2,600. I would hope that would entitle me to speak about such things. Quote Link to comment
+tsunrisebey Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 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 Quote Link to comment
+xixao3d Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 What are AEs? Quote Link to comment
+LadyBee4T Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 What are AEs? AE = Artist Edition The artist takes a unique metal and/or color scheme and calls it the AE. Most often very small number minted and can only be obtained through them. Quote Link to comment
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