TOKENS: Brass or Silver?

[Santoro]

Silver



Brass

[TheGatesofBill]

I prefer the brass, but really either is fine.

[robbiec]

Yeah both are fine - I thought the nickel ones would be alot more that,

Why dont you get 5000 brass and 5000 Nickel,

I think some would even buy both of them!

[Chris]

NOTE: On the Web site, it says the minimum order for nickel-plated is 10,000 tokens. (See http://www.tokensdirect.com/Page3.html)

[MinerAl]

These are going to be roughly quarter size already, so making them the same color too will greatly increase the time necessary to sort your coin drawer when the pizza guy is on his way and you need an extra $2.50

I vote for brass, because I'm lazy.

[saint]

Either one for me

[Chris]

I personally prefer the brass, mostly because that's mostly what I saw in arcades...

[Pixelhugger]

Initially I preferred the nickel hands down. After thinking about how easily they would be confused with quarters - by me and my wife, I think brass is probably more practical, unless of course you have a whole lotta those Sacajawea dollar coins kicking around.

[Kremmit]

I'd love some of each , but I guess that 10,000 minimum on the silver probably puts the kibosh on that one.  

-Kremmit

[Kremmit]

So, I got to thinking-

If we need more pre-orders to get both silver AND brass... How about opening this up to other gaming sites?  There must be a ton of people that don't read BYOAC forums regularly, but do check in on other sites.

I'm not saying we should invite them in on the design process or anything- we're too close to start over on that .. But after we've got the art finalized, why not notify the rest of the gaming/emulation/arcade collecting scene of our project? Should be good for at least a few more pre-orders, and that's gotta be good for you, Santoro.

Even if we don't go for any silver tokens, I still think it's a good idea.

[froggerman]

The nickle plated tokens will stay shinny much longer than the brass ones, but you have a very good points about the confusion factor. Most of the tokens that I have seen in the past have been brass. Brass may be the better choice after all.

[Chris]

So, I got to thinking-

If we need more pre-orders to get both silver AND brass... How about opening this up to other gaming sites?  There must be a ton of people that don't read BYOAC forums regularly, but do check in on other sites.

If they were MAME tokens, we could sell thousands, but since they're BYOAC tokens, I don't think other emulation sites are going to be beating a path to our door on this...

You could do a MAME front die and the "happy guy" back die and do another run, but that gets you back to the original problem.

[Santoro]

I'd love some of each , but I guess that 10,000 minimum on the silver probably puts the kibosh on that one.  

{thinking out loud here}

Yeah, if I ordered 10000 silver and 5000 brass, it would take a while to sell those.   I am going to think about it though.    There is considerable interest here, so there might be on ebay and other gaming sites also as mentioned above.  Even though the tokens are clearly BYOAC oriented, they will be by far the coolest general gaming tokens I have seen, ever.

It's a lot of cash to front though.  Maybe a run of Brass to start, then when they are gone,  I could to a pre-order for silver ones if the demand is still showing.

What to do?

[Chris]

I'd love some of each , but I guess that 10,000 minimum on the silver probably puts the kibosh on that one.  

{thinking out loud here}

Yeah, if I ordered 10000 silver and 5000 brass, it would take a while to sell those.   I am going to think about it though.    There is considerable interest here, so there might be on ebay also.  Even though the tokens are clearly BYOAC oriented, they will be by far the coolest general gaming tokens I have seen, ever.

It's a lot of cash to front though.  Maybe a run of Brass to start, then when they are gone,  I could to a pre-order for silver ones if the demand is still showing.

What to do?

If you must do the silver, I think you should do a MAME die using the atomic logo in brass, sell those to other emulation and on eBay at a slight markup, and use the excess proceeds to help pay for the larger run of BYOAC silver tokens.

--Chris

[Santoro]

A quick check of ebay for completed token sales doesn't look too promising, though there are no nice ones in there either.

[Chris]

A quick check of ebay for completed token sales doesn't look too promising, though there are no nice ones in there either.

No, but things like MAME sideart and such do go nicely.  We're talking about brand-new custom tokens, not a bag of 20 year old mismatched stuff...

--Chris

[hulkster]

personally, id rather have the atomic mame logo on the front...plus i think you would profit tons more because of it.  i know this is probably not about profit, but you would be able to sell them a lot easier if it had mame on the front.  and legal reasons?  bah....its really not going to matter is it?  i know this is discussed elsewhere, so i guess i wont get into it.

[Santoro]

I don't expect to get rich, but I do intend on turning a modest profit to make up for all the financial risk and work coordinating and shipping.

This is especially true if we were to wind up doing two batches with different colors because this would likely require me to purchase many tokens in advance without corresponding pre-sales.  That scenario would require me to mark up the tokens to partially protect myself in case they don't sell.  

{edit} As for the Mame logo, I am very torn on that issue.  They would sell better on ebay for example if Mame was mentioned.  But I think that these tokens are really mostly about BYOAC.

Dave

[GadgetGeek]

Santoro - YOU are the one taking the risk on this, so I say go with your gut feeling.  Also, discuss with others (such as Peale with his black start buttons) the risks associated with a custom run.  If you do a run of Brass AND a run of Nickel, would the per unit cost would drop since the die costs are spread over more tokens?  However, yes, you are assuming a higher upfront cost and you should be compensated for that risk.  If you just stick with the small brass run, you only have to sell 25 lots of 200 (if my math is right) and if half of the people participating in this order, you should be well on your way to having them all sold.  Question then comes up if you do a second run, do those people get a price break since the dies are already paid for?
Kudos for doing this and I'm glad I'm not the one ultimately burdened by these decisions.

Oh, I voted for brass because I think they'd look nicer polished and put in a nice display frame.

[Kremmit]

If they were MAME tokens, we could sell thousands, but since they're BYOAC tokens, I don't think other emulation sites are going to be beating a path to our door on this...

I'm not saying anybody from the Counterstrike scene is gonna care about these.. I just think there may be some BYOAC type people out there that haven't seen this discussion.. I mean, we've only been talking about it for a week or so, some people don't read the fourms all that regularly.  Even if there aren't that many of 'em, it couldn't hurt Santoro to get a few more pre-orders.  The idea of doing an alternate token with the Atomic MAME logo for sales to other sites sounds promising, too.

[Calawala]

Either works for me (edit: brass or silver).  I would buy both actually if you did 2 runs.

[Stingray]

Santoro, for what it's worth I would buy these tokens regadless of whether you settle on BYOAC or MAME. MAME makes more sense financially for you I think.

Oh and I love the nickle ones and would be willing to pay the extra $3ish for them.

-S

[Oldskool]

Santoro, for what it's worth I would buy these tokens regadless of whether you settle on BYOAC or MAME. MAME makes more sense financially for you I think.

He'll sell a lot of BYOAC tokens here, but on Ebay.........? Na.

[Mr. Dude]

I vote for Brass because it's more nostalgic for me.

[Generic Eric]

I say brass.  I don't ever remember getting silver tokens.

[android]

I vote for brass. Silver is too comon in US coins. Brass stands out.

[Stingray]

I would like to point out to everyone that brass dulls fairly quickly, and nickle stays shiny for a good long time.

-S

[dmsuchy]

Silver

[BASSOFeeSH]

Brass

[Santoro]

Boy we are nicely divided here aren't we.  

I have worked up a pricing model to do both, but my break-even point would be 62 sets. That is a bit high....   So the question is -

Would you pay $40 for your choice of colors?  

I realize this is getting up there.  Just asking.

[BASSOFeeSH]

No, but I will order no matter which color is chosen.

[Chris]

If you make the minimum order for silver 400, and have 25 pre-orders for each, you'll be all set for a run of 5000 brass and 10000 silver.

[Santoro]

If you make the minimum order for silver 400, and have 25 pre-orders for each, you'll be all set for a run of 5000 brass and 10000 silver.

Very true, but I'll bet the price tag of $70 for 400 would drive away a lot of people....

[Chris]

If you make the minimum order for silver 400, and have 25 pre-orders for each, you'll be all set for a run of 5000 brass and 10000 silver.

Very true, but I'll bet the price tag of $70 for 400 would drive away a lot of people....

Yes, but it would weed out the "I really want silver" people from the "Silver would be cool" people...

[Les]

HEH

I doubt the actual tokens themsleves will be as visually stuning as the photoshop rendered versions.  But still they should be cool.

[andrewonawall]

I don't care abou the confusion with US coins. I voted brass because that is all I ever saw in every arcade that I have been to.

[SirPeale]

And brass polishes pretty easily.  I voted for brass too.

[DPsx7]

Maybe replace the BYOAC with MAME to give a better chance for these to sell? I'm sure you can keep the URL or name someplace else to customize it for this place and have a mark of where they were designed.

[NiN^_^NiN]

I would love to get some of these coins but im in australia and my machines take 20 cent coins

I'm curious how all of you guys have coin mechs that take the same kind of coin??

or is that a dumb question?

[Chris]

I would love to get some of these coins but im in australia and my machines take 20 cent coins

I'm curious how all of you guys have coin mechs that take the same kind of coin??

or is that a dumb question?

We don't.  Those of us who don't already have .984 mechs are probably planning to buy some, or tinker with their quarter mechs to make them take the .984's.