PAX 2011 CHALLANGE COINS

Slipstream0 · May 2011

Ok, so Challange Coins will be happening again this year. I will be helping PapaPrinny organize the orders and handle the administrative end of things, but he will still be doing the design (yay!).

This year we will be going through US Challange Coins to get the made. As in years past, all orders will only go through one person (me). I am still awaiting a quote from them on pricing and will update this as soon as I hear back.

Please note - the price I post on here will be an average cost per coin to cover the die-cast fees and shipping. ANY profit beyond what this cost me out of pocket for the die-casts and shipping will be donated to Childs Play.

I am choosing NOT to use chip-in. I understand that PapaPrinny has used it in the past, but I feel it will slow down the processing of orders, and instead willl take all payment through PayPal. Send payments to
Slipstream0-at-gmail-dot-com with your mailing address, and quantity. If you choose to send more money than needed, I will assume it is to give to childs play unless otherwise stated (ie: gift coin for celebrity, partially pay for coin for anyone who cannot afford one entirely, ect.)

Please post any questions and I will do my best to get back to you ASAP.

zerzhul · May 2011

For east US Challenge Coins took individual orders, not through one person. You should talk to them (and whoever worked with them for the PAX Forums side of it for East) to see if they will be able to handle that again since it's significantly easier for the end customer to go through the company than to go through a single POC. It certainly is easier for USCC to go through one person but they worked hard to implement it for us and it would be nice to get that again.

papaprinny · May 2011

No offense to slipstream, but at the moment, I'm pulling the brake lever on this. Please disregard the OP for the time being as we have yet to determine precisely how we will proceed.

Steel Fire · May 2011

No offense to you as well papaprinny, but you pretty clearly stated in the other thread that you only were interested in doing design and not managing this endeavor.

Let Slipstream0 do what he volunteered to do and organize and manage this thing. If there are missteps and stumbles, so be it, not like that would be anything unusual for the challenge coin process. It's meant to be a community thing and others will offer assistance and sound advice along the way; as zerzhul already has.

papaprinny · May 2011

Let me put it this way: I won't work for just anyone, especially when there is no compensation. It is important to be sure that all involved are on the same page, either at the outset, or after a discussion wherein compromise is arrived at. That, and it is possible that slipstream might be able to benefit from my experience. If I am unable to agree with the way that the event is organized, I will be less willing to participate.

Slipstream0 · May 2011

@zurzhul - I have looked into doing it that way, but they refuse to send any money out, meaning nothing could go to Childs Play, and I could not get compensated for fronting the cost of the die casts. I plan to be as transparent as possible with this process.

I'm sorry that my moving ahead on this has stepped on your toes pp, I can assure you I have several years experience in ordering promotional products. if your not comfortable with me handing the orders and payments I will step aside. I didn't expect that you would want compensation, but I rather anything like that be handled publicly so people know what they are paying for.

I also feel it's easier to just use pay pal as I won't have to wait to transfer money from one service to another, and offers better buyer protection. As I told pp in my pm to him, I am not moving forward on this without his approval, but I also don't want this to be more stressful for myself than it needs to be.

zerzhul · May 2011

I had requested that the other thread be locked since I assumed that when you created this one you had already worked out the logistics for the project with the folks that worked on it in the past. Looks like more discussion was needed over there first (guess I'm the silly-goose there).

1) donations to Child's Play are great, but restructuring this to be a vehicle for that is an un-needed complication.

2) You shouldn't need to front the cost of the die cast on your own. That's what the Chip-in account was used for during this year's east; it was to get the cost of the die paid for. Those that donated got the extra satisfaction that they helped people who can't afford to donate to the die cast cost get coins anyhow. This keeps coin costs low for individual coins and doesn't require a minimum participation level in order to get the die finished.

3) Going through you to get the coins would add to your stress level as opposed to remove from it (I would think). It means you are taking the responsibility for fulfillment from a company that's set up for it onto yourself as an individual. You wouldn't have to handle any of the individual coin $, and to me that's more transparent as far as the costs go.

4) Using paypal to "hold the money" is about as un-transparent as it can get. Chip-In lets everyone know when the max amount is reached so they don't keep sending extra $. Far lower stress considering all that's needed is a picture of the die cast estimate, and a bucket for that amount. You would have nothing to keep track of other than taking the bucket amount and giving it to USCC. Saying that you will donate extra to Child's Play is cool but it's not transparent and it means you have extra $ to keep track of. Considering you said you want to have this be low-stress, this seems very against that goal.

I'm sure everything will get worked out, but changing things from a process that (mostly) worked seems un-necessary. Karmakappa and Papaprinny worked hard to get the process ironed out with USCC and it seems a shame to not utilize that effort. If you talk to Karmakappa I'm sure he (or maybe papaprinny) can put you directly in touch with the folks they worked with at USCC. Considering it was smooth once the process was in place, I would think that USCC would want to do it this way again as well (maybe I'm wrong).

papaprinny · May 2011

Hi ss,
I apologize if my reply sounded terse, but I am generally uncomfortable moving ahead on endeavors wherein other people's money is being handled until I am confident that the system in place instills confidence. That and we really haven't discussed anything yet. Let's just take some time to talk things over behind the scenes, and I'm sure we'll be able to move forward in a manner wherein everyone will be confident in the way things proceed.
Oh, and I can't help myself, but the topic is SIC. It's "Challenge," not "Challange."

Edit: zerzhul speaks the truth. Agreed on every point.

Moe Fwacky · May 2011

Since this clearly hasn't been worked out to a point where this is ready to go, I'm going to lock this thread until such a time that things are worked to a beginning point.

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