Are you being misled by challenge coin advertisers?
I feel like I need to shed some light on some questionable advertising messages and there’s no better forum than right here on challengecoinsaz.com. I will caution you though, I am about to get educational, so those of you that don’t like to read are encouraged to go ahead and step away now.
When I look around the internet I see a lot of military coin suppliers advertising 7 to 14 day production times. This is not that impressive to me since I worked in this industry for over ten years (at the time of this writing).
Please understand - the seven to fourteen day production time you see advertised is for a plain metal coin with NO paint color and NO other additional features except for maybe a rope edge or any edge that is part of the die. Therefore we are talking about a die cast zinc alloy based coin or a die struck copper or brass based coin that is electroplated with whatever metal finish. Just a plain coin, that's it.
Please don’t mistake my words, I am not here to disparage plain coins. In most cases less is more and I am in no way suggesting that a coin without paint color is any less valuable to it’s purchaser than a fancy painted coin. I am saying that I know for a fact that each additional feature adds to the production time of coin orders. How do I know this? Because after a decade of experience and having seen first hand how quick or how slow coins can be produced. I also know that attempting to shorten the production window for any custom product opens the problem door very wide. Rushing around frantically causes anxiety and anxious people frequently make mistakes because they are focused on trying to solve that which makes them anxious.
Quality custom coins are not something that should be rushed unless your order is very simple and very basic. The other negative thing that an advertised seven to fourteen day production time does is create expectations.
Expectations, some say are the root of all disappointment. Please note; I highly recommend making your expectations known upfront to your vendor of choice. There’s nothing more disturbing than finding out you're short on time after the artwork approval process has taken three weeks or more.
Until next time, be good to yourselves and each other. RDB