Metro NY Geocaching Society Geocoins!

[addisonbr]

PM on the way...

[addisonbr]

Just a quick update. We are sitting somewhere close to 100 pre-ordered coins - assuming that our original quote from Oak Coins is still valid (it's possible that it's not - commodity metals have moved around a bit in the past four months), that gets us to about the halfway point on being able to place our minting order.

I have approached four of the sister geocaching organizations close to us - LIGO (Long Island), SJG (South Jersey), CJG (Central Jersey) and NNJC (Northern New Jersey) and they've all been cool about us posting about pre-order availability on their site. There seems to be some real enthusiasm for the design, so a tip of the hat to childofatom (and the rest of who who participated in that process).

I'm holding off on posting to the general groundspeak forums for now - if we can hit our minting minimums locally I'd prefer to keep things regional and less complicated. In a week or two we'll have a better idea if we need to make that one last push.

(One quick note - we planned to make the antique gold finish available only to Metro members, while anyone can order the antique silver. There is no price difference as long as we order at least 100 (of the 250 total) in each finish. As it stands we have orders for about 30-40 in gold and about 50-60 in silver. Obviously if we only take silver orders from the "outside world" we aren't going to hit 100 coins in gold, but I'm not inclined to stress out too much about that. If we don't hit the minimums the added charge is only 10c per coin, so no big deal. Metro members will have a few coins that are a bit rarer and only very marginally more expensive to mint.)

[halijusapa]

You may want to contact the close, but not adjacent to us NEPAG (Northeast PA Geocachers) too. There's a small-moderate amount of contact between the 2 groups; besides MarkSun and my family team going to an event of theirs (because my in-laws/MarkSun's folks have a "2nd house" up that way....in fact my family did a little caching up there this weekend....I was also going to go to a 2nd event of theirs but circumstances changed at the last minute), quite a few of them (like fox-and-the-hound and Captain Math) are active at the Pirates of Harriman event, and consequently, NNJC had a trip to Centralia earthcache recently that many people from both NEPAG and here went to. I think Paladin8 often goes to gatherings of a subgroup of that group that consists of the portion of that area near the Delaware River, but that may be a different group entirely.

At the NEPAG event Mark and we went to, we bought their gorgeous geocoin (he kept his, I sent mine in the field....though now I wish I bought two of them), so they're very into geocoins and may be interested. Just my 2 cents. Also, maybe you want to contact the org that covers southern Connecticut, many of them cache in our area, particularly the Westchester County portion.

[addisonbr]

Good ideas - I'll reach out to NEPAG - hey, according to the Feds, Pike County is even a part of Metro! Is it okay if I mention you and Mark?

If anyone has a contact at the Connecticut group that includes Westchester - or even knows which group it is - I'd be happy to talk to them as well.

[lekogm]

Brett, check out http://www.ctcachers.com/

[halijusapa]

[Hushovd]

I spoke to Addisonbr about pre-ordering 1 last night.. Though I might up that to 2 coins.

[addisonbr]

[dhenninger]

If you are having trouble getting enough orders to reach 250, It is possible to mint less and still have it be trackable.

You would still need to purchase 250 tracking numbers if you want a custom icon.
But you could mint less coins and use the remaining tracking numbers at a later time. For instance if you wanted to use some of the additional tracking numbers for an event coin or if you decided you wanted to remint more at a later date.

Selling 250 coins is getting harder with the softening economy and the softening geocoin market.

I put in an order for 6

[addisonbr]

[halijusapa]

If I did the email right, I just ordered 2 of them.

[addisonbr]

Coin update... We have received paid pre-orders for 126 coins, along with indications of interest for another 35 (these are people who have sent in their requests but haven't sent in the money we need to send to Oak Coins). Assuming those 35 are good for it (I'm highly confident of most of them), that's about 50 shy of the 205 coins we need to pre-sell in order to have our order completely funded when we send the order to Oak Coins.

That's pretty close in my book. I've posted about our coins on the forums for the following sister organizations:

LIGO (Long Island)
SJG (South Jersey)
CJG (Central Jersey)
NNJC (Northern New Jersey)
NEPAG (Northeast Pennsylvania)
CCC (Connecticut)

I'm going to make one last round of posting to let people know that the project is green-lit and we'll be sending our order to the minters in a week, so that people have one last chance to get a pre-order in. I figure we may get a few more orders in at the last minute. If we get close to our goal, I'll float the difference out of my own pocket in the hopes that I can get paid back when we sell the extra coins at events.

So... the coins are a go, get your orders in within the next few days if you're interested or forever hold your peace.

[halijusapa]

[Tatanka49]

Another real active group is Tri States. They have the black sweatshirts. Paldin8 is an active member up there.

[addisonbr]

Here is what is likely the penultimate update on the coins:

We have received pre-order interest for 191 coins.

We have received actual payment for 155 coins.

We are awaiting payment on 36 coins. Of those 36 I have high enough confidence in approximately half of the coins (based on who ordered them) that I'd cover the deposits out of my own pocket and trust that those folks will eventually pay me.

So we needed 205 coins to fully fund the coins; we're somewhere between 170-190. I'm willing to float the extra to Metro to get the order off, so it will go to the minters on Monday. I'll post another message when the order has been sent.