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PAX 2010 Challenge Coins
strebalicious
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
papaprinny wrote: »I just got off the phone with Darrell at NWTM.
Unfortunately, NWTM was not entirely clear on how this process works. Initially they sent an order for 150 coins in anticipation of demand. This demand was exceeded, and they haven't gotten around to getting the new coins made yet. According to Darrell, a new order for more coins has been placed. They do not anticipate that they will have the new coins ready until a couple weeks from the date I am posting this. They anticipate that the next batch of coins will be delivered to everyone a week after that.
So: For those of you who don't yet have your coins, your order was processed by NWTM after they shipped the final coins of their 150-coin batch. It will be about 3 weeks until you receive yours. If by then you don't receive your coin, let me know so that we may put this thing to bed.
And because this was entirely unanticipated since NWTM never communicated this fact to me,
I will no longer be taking orders for PAX Prime 2010 coins.
I am doing this because I do not wish to subject you to any more possible unforeseen circumstances. Those of you who placed orders up until now will have your orders fulfilled. It will simply take a little longer than we anticipated. If you have any particular questions or concerns, please email me at the address I posted earlier in this thread.
Old Information:
papaprinny wrote: »An update:
First of all, these coins can be shipped to England. Those who want them will have to pay a standard international shipping price for the coin.
Now the bad news: After speaking with Darrell (who it seems is reading this thread... Hi Darrell!), it seems that the coins are going to begin shipping later than originally thought. At earliest projections, it sounds as though coins will begin arriving at their destinations by the 1st of September for west-coasters. This means that most of the coins will, apparently, arrive after everyone has left for PAX. Oh well, we tried. We will still have mementos to show that we went to the event. Additionally, for those of us who ordered coins for the Penny Arcade crew, I can provide you all with shipping addresses to the Penny Arcade offices if you want to ship those coins to PA. Let me know and I'll send you that info in a PM once I get it.
If anyone wants to cancel their orders, let me know. It'll take some time to get the money back out of my bank account and into my Paypal, but once it is, I can issue you a refund.
papaprinny wrote: »UPDATE 2:
BECAUSE PAYPAL SUCKS THE ROOT, THEY ARE ASSESSING 2.9% + $0.30 FEES ON EVERY ORDER ANYWAY.
SO PLEASE ADD 2.9% OF THE ORDER + $0.30 TO THE TOTAL OF YOUR ORDER, OTHERWISE I WILL BE SHOULDERING THE FEES.
EDIT: ADD A FEW CENTS OF EXTRA SALT ON THIS.
Why? Because, surprise surprise, Paypal are run by a bunch of crooks. For instance, orders of $20 should require $20.88, which is equivalent to 20 x 1.029 + .30. After Paypal is done with it though, the remaining total is $19.97. Either they are not fully disclosing their fees, or they are thieves. Either way, Paypal still sucks, and I hate them dearly.
Because these fees are being assessed to me, with the current total of $753.68, I am now out a few bucks. Please, PLEASE add the fees to your order when placing your order! The calculation for the amount you should pay is as such:
(Your order total x 1.029) + .30 = your total payment
(Plus a few cents of salt).
Any remaining amounts are moved into the coin fund.
I guess that's what we get for swimming with sharks, eh?
papaprinny wrote: »UPDATE:
In order to deal with initial orders, I was depending on my Paypal debit card, which gets around the problem of fund availability 3 to 4 days after a bank transfer to my dedicated challenge coin bank account. However, as fate would have it, my Paypal debit card appears to no longer be active.
This affects you in the following way:
Demand for challenge coins have far exceeded my wildest dreams. I am unable to access the funds immediately. Due to the amazing demand, I can not begin to cover the orders until funds are available. Therefore I must transfer the balance at the end of each day to my challenge coin bank account and wait for those funds to become available. This transaction takes 3 to 4 business days to complete. I was hoping to deal with this in the mean time by using a Paypal debit card, but the card is now no longer a factor. So the bottom line is this:
Order now and you won't be affected.
By the time the die is cast, orders placed today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday should be ready to be placed.
If you wait to place your order, your order will be placed after the die is cast, when I have access to the funds.
Does this push up the deadline for ordering coins and receiving them before PAX?
YES.
Does Northwest Territorial Mint take Paypal orders?
NO.
Does papaprinny feel bad about this development?
I FEEL AWFUL.
It was my intention to do everything in my power to make this work as perfectly as possible in what very little time we had to organize this. However, it seems the world had other plans.
The takeaway here is that there is now a 3-4 business day wait for me to have access to funds. Due to the amazing demand, I can not immediately cover these with my personal finances, though I would if I could.
What should I do to avoid this being a problem for me?
Order right now. Tell all your friends to order right now.
What can I do to best help papaprinny feel better?
Offer the following: Your sympathy, your understanding, your patience, and your immediate order placement if you want a coin so that I may accommodate you in a timely fashion.
That's all for now. If you'll excuse me, I need to go fill this pit in my stomach.
papaprinny wrote: »The short version:
WE ARE MAKING CHALLENGE COINS FOR PAX PRIME 2010. ORDERS FOR COINS ARE NOW BEING TAKEN.
The long version:
Northwest Territorial Mint has taken payment for the die. The die will now be cast. This means orders for coins may now be placed.
The design for the obverse and reverse sides of the coin:
WHAT'S ALL THIS THEN?
We, the PAX community, have designed a challenge coin for PAX Prime. It is a product of the community, and is not an official Penny Arcade product. We endeavored to create a high-quality design, and that's what we got.
WHO WILL BE MINTING THE COINS?
Northwest Territorial Mint. View some of their example work here:
http://custom.nwtmint.com/galleries.php
HOW WILL THE COIN LOOK?
The coin will have an antique finish. This will allow the 3D properties of the coin to stand out. To keep individual coin costs down, there will be no enameling or plating applied.
Here is an example of an antique finish produced by NWTM. Notice the contrast it produces with the coin background and the 3D elements:
DOES THE COIN COME IN A PROTECTIVE CASE?
Darrell says that yes, it does. You should always keep yours in the case to protect the finish.
WHAT ARE THE SHIPPING TRANSIT DURATION ESTIMATES?
NWTM estimates that west coasters would receive their coins in about two days from time of shipping. East coasters should receive their coins in about four to five days from time of shipping. These numbers should be roughly the same for Canadian orders. All shipping durations will vary depending on the competency and ability of the Fedex carriers that deliver your packages. It is up to the person who places the order to determine whether the order they place will arrive to them in time for PAX.
WHAT IS THE CUTOFF DATE FOR ORDERING COINS?
There isn't one. If you want, you may order a coin even after PAX Prime has completed so you may have yourself a memento after the fact. However, as orders slow down, orders will eventually no longer be placed daily, but weekly. If you want your coin before Prime though, it is up to you to determine your own cutoff date depending on your geographic relation to the west coast. See above paragraph.
WHEN WILL COINS BEGIN SHIPPING?
Soon after the mint is finished, which, according to Northwest Territorial Mint, should be some time next week (the third calendar week of August).
HOW DO I PAY FOR THIS/WHERE DOES MY MONEY GO?
As suggested by a forum member in this thread, we are using the ChipIn service to take orders. The ChipIn service uses Paypal. Money placed in the ChipIn service therefore goes into my (papaprinny's) Paypal account. Each day I will withdraw all funds deposited into the ChipIn into a dedicated bank account that I have established for this endeavor, match those ChipIn amounts to a message you send to my Gmail address telling me your name, address, your Paypal ID, and how you want your money to be spent (some people like to donate their money to others!). I will forward this information daily to NWTM in an email and place orders using the funds in my dedicated challenge coin bank account.
As we are planning to make more challenge coins in the future for subsequent PAX events, if you have a suggestion for a better way to handle such orders, please post in this thread. ChipIn is a nice service, but as you can see, it has its limitations.
HOW WILL THE ORDERING PROCESS WORK?
Northwest Territorial Mint is not set up to take orders from several people for a single minting. Therefore a single person or entity must broker the transactions. I will do this using a ChipIn account that I have set up specifically for this endeavor. To place an order: Deposit money into the ChipIn account using Paypal, as ChipIn uses Paypal. Be sure to take into consideration Paypal fees, as outlined in the following link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/websc...y-fees-outside
EDIT:
Normally, money transfers are free with Paypal, however, because this is ChipIn, they consider it to be payment for serviceable goods. I called them and asked them to stop. They won't.
SO BECAUSE PAYPAL SUCKS THE ROOT, THEY ARE ASSESSING 2.9% + $0.30 FEES ON EVERY ORDER ANYWAY.
SO PLEASE ADD 2.9% OF THE ORDER + $0.30 TO THE TOTAL OF YOUR ORDER, OTHERWISE I WILL BE SHOULDERING THE FEES.
Because these fees are being assessed to me, with the current total of $753.68, I am now out a few bucks. Please, PLEASE add the fees to your order when placing your order! The calculation for the amount you should pay is as such:
(Your order total x 1.029) + .30 = your total payment
EDIT 2: ADD A FEW CENTS OF EXTRA SALT ON THIS.
Why? Because, surprise surprise, Paypal are run by a bunch of crooks. For instance, orders of $20 should require $20.88, which is equivalent to 20 x 1.029 + .30. After Paypal is done with it though, the remaining total is $19.97. Either they are not fully disclosing their fees, or they are thieves. Either way, Paypal still sucks, and I hate them dearly.
I guess that's what we get for swimming with sharks, eh?
/EDIT
After you place money in the ChipIn, IMMEDIATELY send me an email at papaprinnyA@Tgmail.com (leave out the A and the T) with the following:
1.) Your Paypal ID/email that you used to put money into the ChipIn
2.) Your name
3.) The name of the PayPal account holder
Edit: I would prefer that you simply include recipient name/shipping address with your Paypal payment from this point forward. This will eliminate the possibility of my mistaking where to have the coin sent.
4.) The amount of money you put into the ChipIn
5.) What you would like me to do with your money. (Yes, this has to be asked: Some people are willing to simply donate money so that others of lesser means may have a coin too.) If you wish to purchase a coin for someone else in the forum here, you will need to provide me that person's name and shipping information. I will not figure this out for you.
If item 5 is omitted, I will assume the order is for you and will use the entirety of the funds submitted to order coins for you.
If you wish to simply donate your money to the "Challenge Coins for the Nerdy and Underprivileged" Fund (see below), that money will be used to order single coins for individuals of stated financial need. This fund will be first-come, first serve. If long after PAX Prime this fund still has money in it, the balance will carry over into our next Challenge Coin event.
After all the above is received, payment and your information will be forwarded to Northwest Territorial Mint on at least a daily basis.
FAILURE TO PROVIDE SUFFICIENT INFORMATION AS OUTLINED ABOVE WILL RESULT IN A SHIPPING DELAY.
The "Challenge Coins for the Nerdy and Underprivileged" Fund
As mentioned above, if anyone wishes to simply donate money so that those of stated financial need may have a challenge coin when they would otherwise be unable to order one for themselves, you may do so. This money will be earmarked for the "Challenge Coins for the Nerdy and Underprivileged" Fund, whose total will be updated daily.
Conditions for application for a free challenge coin using the aforementioned fund:
PLEASE NOTE: The conditions have changed, and are somewhat more lenient now.
You no longer must be unable to pay for your own coin.
You may request a free coin if you are very tight on money and thus can not justify the cost of purchasing a coin. (ie, poor, not dirt poor)
You MUST post in this thread asking for a free coin. This is done so that the more dishonest among us who are fully able to afford a coin will be discouraged from essentially stealing from the fund, as they would be forced to lie publicly.
Will this take some humility? Yes. Does the PAX community understand? Yes. Yes we do. We look out for our brothers and sisters, and we want you to have a coin if you can't afford one, so long as the funds are available.
If it is discovered that someone who asks for a free challenge coin has lied about their stated financial need, that person will likely be publicly humiliated by members of this forum, and will also likely be subject to moderator and administrator reprisals.
WHO IS PROFITING FROM THIS?
Northwest Territorial Mint is the only entity in all of this who will make any profit. Though I, papaprinny, have put a lot of time and effort into helping this forum produce a design for a coin and subsequently broker all transactions that have happened thus far, I receive not one cent of profit from this endeavor. I do not profit from this because I feel it would be dishonest to do so, and because I do not want my motives for doing all this to be called into question. Since I was a large contributor to the design of the coin, I am happy enough knowing that people like the design and would want to have their own copy of one.
JUST TO CLARIFY: WHO WILL BE BROKERING THESE TRANSACTIONS?
I, papaprinny, am performing all brokering services. I would have you deal with Northwest Territorial Mint directly, but as mentioned, they do not take orders from multiple individuals for single mintings. Thus someone had to step up and do it. It just happened to be me.
JUST TO CLARIFY: HOW OFTEN WILL PAPAPRINNY FORWARD ORDERS TO NWTM?
At least once a day through and beyond the event dates. Each order will require both an email sent to Darrell at NWTM with shipping instructions, as well as a debit card order from me. As orders slow down to a trickle after Prime, orders will be placed weekly.
WHAT IS PAPAPRINNY'S REPUTATION?
I have been a member of the PAX community since its inception. I have attended every PAX event, and my passion for the culture and brotherhood it creates still burns. I have additionally been with the PAX forums for a number of months now, and for a while now I have been doing my best to cultivate a positive reputation among the PAX community with the Unofficial PAX Community DVD, an endeavor which I deeply care about, and put much of my time into. If my reputation is compromised, the Community DVD is compromised, thus I do my absolute best to be an upstanding- and outstanding- participant in the PAX community.
WHAT IS PAPAPRINNY'S REAL NAME?
Daniel Borders.
Pleased to meet you.
WHAT DO I DO IF I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MY ORDER?
First let me tell you what you should NOT do:
Do NOT go to Paypal first!
Here's why:
Paypal handles disputes in the following manner: They immediately freeze the account of a Paypal account holder, and keep the account frozen until whatever disputes that are brought up have been resolved. This could take weeks, possibly longer. In the mean time, the account is useless. Additionally, because Paypal has a history of employing thieves and gangsters, it is not all that uncommon for Paypal employees to make withdrawals from frozen accounts until the account is empty.
While all of this is happening, EVERYONE'S day gets ruined: Mine, everyone who has placed an order, and Northwest Territorial Mint. After the dispute is raised, everyone who wants to place an order will be unable to. Those who have placed an order will receive their coins long after Prime if their funds are not stolen by Paypal employees. If these funds are stolen, many may never get their money back if their funds are in the account at the time of the account being frozen.
So if you have any problems, EMAIL me (papaprinnyA@Tgmail.com (without the A and T)), for the sake of everyone who places an order. I will do my darnedest to help you straighten out whatever difficulties you feel you are experiencing.
THE PREVIOUS CHIPIN PAGE IS NO LONGER ACTIVE. WHAT'S UP THERE?
The original ChipIn was meant to collect funds for the die. I only had it active until July 23, which was the cutoff date for gathering of die funds. I am unable to reactivate it. Had I had more time to think this through, I would have allowed the ChipIn to run for a year, the maximum duration of a ChipIn event. In my haste to get this whole thing off the ground, I did not do this. I will be in contact with everyone who contributed to that ChipIn past the $300 point with details about ordering coins.
OKAY, DOWN TO BUSINESS. ORDER HERE:
PRICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
$10 FLAT FEE FOR EACH COIN ON ORDERS SHIPPED WITHIN THE UNITED STATES.
$15 USD FLAT FEE FOR EACH COIN ON ORDERS SHIPPED TO CANADA.
TO CLARIFY:
$10 WILL GET YOU ONE COIN SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S. $20 WILL GET YOU TWO COINS SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S. $30 WILL GET YOU 3, $40 WILL GET YOU 4, ETC.
$15 WILL GET YOU ONE COIN SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN HAWAII. $30 WILL GET YOU TWO COINS SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN HAWAII. $45 WILL GET YOU 3, $60 WILL GET YOU 4, ETC.
$15 WILL GET YOU ONE COIN SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN CANADA. $30 WILL GET YOU TWO COINS SHIPPED TO YOUR DOOR IN CANADA. $45 WILL GET YOU 3, $60 WILL GET YOU 4, ETC.
PLEASE REVIEW THE "HOW WILL THE ORDERING PROCESS WORK?" SECTION ABOVE BEFORE PLACING YOUR ORDER.
OKAY. HERE'S THE CHIPIN LINK:
http://pax2010challengecoins.chipin.com/pax-prime-2010-challenge-coins-2
QUESTIONS?
Post 'em here.
strebalicious on
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Posts
No side effects at all.
*twitch*
They are really not that expensive. Even given the design fees and molding fees, an initial batch of coins usually costs around $5-6 a coin (barring some outrageous design like a free spinning center). Subsequent batches are even cheaper given you don't have to pay the fees again.
Yeah, but what is the minimum order size? If it's 100 coins, that starts to get pricey.
That's alls I know about it.
There is no mention of the initial mold (as far as i could tell) but I would wager a guess that they don't want to muck up the seeming affordability until you apply for a price quote.
here's a nice little list of prices and options:
https://managed.lprus.orlandoit.net/~challengec/coin-pricing.htm
Gewgul Docks
So, cost is not really that much of an issue, unless people are squeamish about spending maybe 10 or 15 dollars.
Looks pretty good to me.
I would be down for some PAX Prime 2010 challenge coins. I think those would last a bit longer than the badges to remember the event.
I'd pitch in some cash for the first run... maybe if we set up a PayPal account or something to get the money pooled together?
http://www.pathtags.com/what.php
We use them for geocaching, and they're a bit cheaper than completely custom coins runs.
Pathtags are cool because they're trackable via serial number, they're magnetic, and they have a prepunched keyring hole.
I also have had custom dice printed by Chessex before for the same purpose.
http://macrogeek.blogspot.com/2009/04/custom-dice.html
http://www.chessex.com/Dice/Custom_Dice_Home.htm
The cat sure seems interested.
I mean, the pathtags look good enough, but I see them more as a PAX Button-esque supplement more than anything. I like being able to reach into my pocket and tell exactly which one and where my coin is. But hey, that's just me, I'll let the crowd decide on which, if any, we should try for.
now a question. if one doesnt have a PAX coin at the moment of the "slam down" would there be equivalency to a military one? i know that around my area, if someone tosses a Command coin down, but someone throws, say.. the MCPONs coin down, the MCPON coin beats the Command coin.
7 PAX veteran
<Qs23> I just need to get my dicks in a row
<prox> i work for dicks
#paforums_pax, all about the dicks.
My votes for Pathtags!! I like that there smaller and have a keyring whole! I carry a lot of crap in my pockets and purse and if it's too big I just won't carry it :P
the 'teh' is silent: eljay ~ * ~ twitter ~ * ~ ravelry ~ * ~ last.fm
a) They can be made from finer materials to have more lasting value.
b) I won't be tempted to make a keyring out of them and find them scratched all to hell in a year or two.
c) Bigger things are more fun, just ask my wife.
d) My local coffee shop collects challenge coins, and having something only the size of quarter would look pathetic on their display. Would you want the PAX coin to be shown up by the one for George W. Bush? I should hope not.
...yes I am a cheap bastard >.>
I never knew that he was into them or Id've brought them with me this time, I have a box of them since I helped design them....]
And to clarify: In my experience in the military challenge coins run the gammut of all shapes and sizes, I've seen them quarter sized, custom shaped (One in the shape of Iraq comes to mind), Coaster shaped, and everything in between
edit: I really like the idea of doing this for Child's play, maybe even do the coin up on one side with the childs play controller if that doesn't get anybody in trouble.
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
7 PAX veteran
They don't work like that. You don't give away challenge coins.
Let's say you are at a bar with other PAXers. Someone throws their coin on the bar and anyone who doesn't have it is buying the round. If everyone has em, the person who threw down buys the round. That's generally how they work.
Violets are blue
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Just imagine the future mythology we could create... slowly they will spread and years from now at a future PAX the coins will be slammed down.
The hard part is figuring out whether we actually will have enough interest to hit that price mark. I'd be down for it, but we need some number more in the hundreds of people to get to that goal.
An interesting alternative for someone who has the upfront cash might be for that person to set up a store or something, pay for the first run, and then have everyone pay him/her (with some added fee to account for shipping/handling/other costs... or even just for-profit compensation for having taken the financial risk) for their individual coin. Then they could make the money back slowly over time. It'd be a risky venture to ask someone to take on though, and I don't know anyone on the forums who has that kind of cash to start it up. =( But if someone does and is interested in the risk, I'd gladly pay an extra few bucks to someone who took such a bold risk for the sake of PAX Challenge Coins.
If anything we should keep the model which has become something of a community standard: find a reasonable break even point, invest the necessary funds, and if enough people get on board that the break even point is positively exceeded, donate the rest to Child's Play.
I think if we're serious about this we need to start putting our cards on the table and be counted not just in vague terms of interest but how much would we be willing to help seed an effort. I would be willing to contribute $100 in seed funds to start a minting, of which I would hope to recover 90%, but I am willing to accept any degree of loss assuming that production cost exceeds demand.
Forumers make up only about 2% of the PAXer collective, yes, and the others should be made to suffer in humiliation for their failure to participate! SUFFER! :evil:
Heh, no, not really. I guess you have a point, but then you have to realize that forumers hang out in high concentrations. For example virtually everybody at the community events are forumers or know forumers because that's the only place the events are advertised. I suppose there would need to be an understood etiquette about the matter (descended from 'don't be a dick') that these things would really only be appropriate to use at forumer-heavy events like the crawl, dinner, MMT, various cross-country trips, hotel parties that may-or-may-not-exist, etc.