The Misconception Base

A lot of collectors, coin makers, and coin sellers have a misconception of price and quality when it comes to challenge coins, pins, and other military collectibles. Some people cannot connect quality and price together when it comes to a low price. For some reason in the U.S. we are stuck in the mindset that when you pay more you get a higher quality. This is a shame in the essence that people that want to make a custom coin will search for the highest price because they think it’s going to be an awesome coin. This is simply not true. You should see a portfolio of coins when looking around and never base a coin purchase on price alone.

We often get the comparison to companies that have been around for more than 20 years like NWTM, or other American mints. Longer does not mean better, it means they have done more over time. When you shop with a company that has been around a long time and has done Presidential coins and high ranking military coin you can know one thing; they make these coins because when tradition was set they were the only ones around. There is nothing wrong with these companies, but to choose them on how long they have been open or company size does not mean you will have to best coin at the end.

Middle Man Syndrome

Many small companies or start up eBay sellers are middlemen selling for larger factories as salesmen. They do not mint the coins, they don’t do artwork, and they are a mouth piece to make a commission. How does paying the middleman help you get a better coin? Facts are you should be looking for a place that will handle your artwork directly, walk you through a minting process, and support you through the entire process. The biggest challenge coin companies in the world that make some of the oldest coins hire or source out their sales department to bring in jobs they otherwise would not get on their own through a site or storefront.

U.S. Challenge Coins .com Disclaimer

We don’t completely discount these sellers, we are ourselves (to a point) are middlemen. U.S. Challenge Coins .com does not mint in the United States because of the extreme EPA standards and to cut costs relating to smelting metal. Besides the actual pressing and painting or your coin we do all our own artwork, coordination, sales, shipping, etc. We could only be known as a middle man by being dependant on our factory manager, but nothing else, as we do have full control over artwork, re-mints, samples, payments, features, pricing, and ya…everything. Middleman can’t guarantee results; they can send you in the right direction and hope for a great result. We back everything we have on our work…the only area we lose on is that we have only been making military collectibles since 2000. I guess 8 years isn’t that bad.

Stagnant Shopping

A common theme in custom coin making is that people mint with who they think is the best for what they are looking for at the time. People shop around for custom coins based on price, quality, what Google pulls up, word of mouth, and who they always minted with. The ladder is the most common in the higher tier of government coins and high ranking military officers. They have only heard of a couple companies that make coins during their long careers and don’t shop around. Also some of the longer running companies have stores in the areas that these people work in so it’s in a way lobbying for their business directly. This is an awesome way to build one heck of a portfolio and I wish we could do it also, however we would have to pass that cost to our customers and we would rather not.

Some of our target audiences in collectibles don’t shop around. The aides and friends of these people do it for them in some cases and they take the easy way out because cost is of no regard to them. High cost means it’s what the President or General is looking for is what they will get. In some cases they are going to get a high product for high cost. Challenge coins are a tough niche to build a solid business on. A company better put out great customer service and product to grow.

Last Words on Shopping

Don’t believe the propaganda out there on whose making coins where, or even who’s been in business longer. Look at what counts which are samples, portfolio, personal touch, degrees in art, experience, and other important factors when making a coin. You should see if the site you’re shopping on is informative, does it look like an overnight fly by site, can you contact the person easily, or can find support easily. These are all very solid questions and frankly there is hardly any sites out there that give you this.

Here take this as a last word…if you don’t want to shop with us then ask us to send you somewhere that will take care of you. Think of us like progressive insurance, no matter where you go we don’t want you to get screwed.