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 Replies: 23 / Views: 6,964 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
With the rise of internet and collectors finding it easier to collect coins from all over the world - there's one aspect that's still somewhat lacking. That's properly design coin albums. Dansco used to manufacture them around 1960s but that's already well over 50 years ago! This actually gives rise to collecting such albums and many foreign Dansco album can command serious premium even in used condition, well easily 50 - 100 USD+. In fact a book was written about them a while back: https://books.google.com/books?id=f...ge&q&f=falseNow how can something not be replicated today? With any business model, supply and demand comes to mind. I'm sure the demand is out there but to provide limited amount of supply at the right price proves to be challenging. Fortunately technology is out there to help. With the aid of photoshop, creativity can come to place. Here are some examples around the world (designed to my taste) Japan (it would be perfect for an updated page for Dansco Japan type set)  Korea  Russia  And of course flip books can be made as well to emulate coin albums online. In fact PCGS even got one step ahead and made it more customizable. Take for example this: http://www.PCGS.com/setregistry/Alb...SetID=134748I have to argue that the design is wrong as when the pages are flipped, the coins are supposed to be in coin orientation, not medal orientation. (unless all of them happen to be die rotation error, which will be a serious collection by its own right!) Alas, when one collect coins, collectors want to display them. The coins wouldn't stand out in a 2D display screen. But again, how complicated is making an album? Required materials are cardboard (paper), mylar sheet, some labels (ink / gold) and some screws. I would be interested in the overall manufacturing process and see how it can be done to relate to other numismatics field. May spark some interests. Until then, I guess it's another day... |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5244 Posts |
I see a business opportunity. Custom made albums.
But seriously, with so many possibilities, people want an album of a format that suits them, not a generic format. Also, a problem is that they rapidly become dated.
So there are creative possibilities here.
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Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
Gxseries, I can see your frustration and I partially share in it. I think most of us have been waiting a little too long for an update to the dansco 7070 album. However, I am a bit familiar with manufacturing processes since it has been a part of nearly every job I have had since high school.
I'm not being intentionally cruel with my next statement, I just want to help you understand. Your question about how hard could it be to produce another album and the following statement about the gathering of materials is an over simplification of the entire process required. Look at any dansco album and try to imagine each step in the process and what it would take to accomplish that step. Make sure you look at things like layout, printing, gluing, cutting (there is even a step in printing called drilling), binding, etc. The short answer to all of this and your question is that it is more complicated than most people can imagine. I'm not saying it is impossible, I'm just saying it may be more difficult and costly that what the owners of dansco are willing to take on. Perhaps someday there will be someone that will produce a coin album that will fill this hole in the market but for now I guess we will all have to be creative on our own.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11951 Posts |
I too would like to have some new/updated world type
albums.
For years it has been discussed how Dansco should be
doing something to update the 7070.
At this point I am not sure it will ever happen.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1911 Posts |
I would love more foreign albums as well! :D Too bad I don't think it will happen... gotta stick to the older ones I guess.
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Pillar of the Community
 Australia
3831 Posts |
Oldephriam - thank you for taking your time to explain. I am well aware that I don't have much knowledge with manufacturing and realize that there's so many processes. I guess what does bother me is that there are other manufacturers out there and can make them at competitive prices. Couple of examples: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Coin-Co...AOSwg1pXMgxOhttp://www.arabiancoins.com/index.p...dex&cPath=33Don't know if I should contact the manufacturer and ask if they are interested in an album designer... That said, this is an example I made for a US type set a while back. Note that I do not own any of the images and hence it is in black and white as well as it being small. Have not been annotated but it's easy to do so.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
The problem is really simple. Since every year most countries make new coins, this means manufacturers would have to make new Albums and Folders. They could attempt to guess what is next but that could be and expensive error if wrong. So many Dansco Albums have empty slots in them due to who knows what. Bad guesses as to the future or just lousy planning. Regardless, changing machinery every year becomes expensive and if not many customers, a big loss in income.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5244 Posts |
One question that has so far not been addressed is how many albums of any particular type might be sold? In other words, the market? What are the minimum sales needed to justify a new album? 100, 1000 10,000? I suppose sales of 1000 of the US 7070 could be expected, but how many would buy a Japan type set album? A new album would make some of us happy, but it just might be too small a market to bother with.
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Moderator
 United States
188770 Posts |
I have said many times that Dansco no longer cares to do the "heavy lifting" with con albums, that being design, marketing, and distribution. You feel comfortable doing those things? I think you have the design part down!  I am willing to bet that they would gladly handle the manufacturing of the albums. You handle the design. You get the word out. You get them to the dealers. I still think Whitman should give it a shot.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
I'm happy to do the design aspect. I'm certain my skills are already up there to match what is expected in the market. For now I will continue to tease what I can come up with.  |
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Very good!  And in case you feel really ambitious...  Dansco Corporation (323) 734-6373 4313 W Jefferson Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90016 |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
Had to google it since it had no email contact...
Never realized how outdated it is - no idea how it manage to survive in today's business. I wonder how expensive it is to buy the whole business...
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1747 Posts |
gxseries, you mentioned that when you flip the page the coins should be in coin orientation, not medal orientation. however if you are talking about world coins, not all are in coin orientation (Canada for example)
what if someone were to create a build-it-yourself kind of site, where you could build your own pages, and have them manufactured and then shipped. the cost might be higher, but you would be able to get what you wanted.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
ace_ftw: this can be more than complicated for some world coins. Japan for instance started out with medal alignment in 1870. This was soon switched over to coin alignment in 1873. And then in 1918, it went back to medal alignment. Now imagine how difficult it was to put everything down! Especially with pages where both orientations appear on the same page. I cannot count how many times I nearly wanted to throw the whole project out when I was doing the Japan type set. Romania is also another country that comes to mind where coin and medal alignment do swap around depending on the era.
At this point of time, I would struggle to understand how we cannot replicate something that was done more than 50 years ago. Agreed, price will be a challenge but I'm sure with the right team, your idea is something should be doable.
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Quote:
Had to google it since it had no email contact... I have danscocorp (at) aol (dot) com in my records, but I think that account went inactive a decade (or more) ago so I no longer include it. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
It is rather easy to contact Whitman Publishing. I've done that many times in the past. And they do reply and sometimes it is worth the effort with them. One time they sent me a free book on Silver Dollars for my interest in their company's products. However, don't expect an organization of that size to change or modify their equipment to make a Folder or Album for probably less than a few million customers. If you go to their web site you would see they make lots and lots of things and most bring them money.
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Replies: 23 / Views: 6,964 |
Posted 06/04/2016 4:31 pm
