One of the most interesting and exciting parts of geocaching are the trackable items. Travel Bugs are ok (Some defiantly better than others) but geocoins are really cool... Addictive even. I think people are automatic drawn to coins anyway, especially shiny colorful coins that you can log and track. Naturally as a newish geocacher I wanted to jump right on the bandwagon and get some coins, but I have found what I believe many have found... The demand seems much higher than the supply. It makes sense. These coins are extremely expensive to produce. $200-$400 on setup costs alone. If you want them to be trackable on Geocaching.com (who wouldn't) you have to pay $1.50 over the $2.00-$3.00 cost per coin and buy a minimum of 250 trackable numbers. Add that up and you see why it is a big gamble creating a coin for market. What if no one likes them and you get suck with a bunch? The Geocoin Store will buy them back from you, but at a loss.
That's why probably the most reliable way (as of now) to get a bunch of (Trackable) geocoins is to join a geocoin club.
I have been watching the two dominate ones. The Geocoin Club clearly has the better artists. It appears that they have an agreement with Mackey AKA: The Fox and the Hound. I love his work. He pushes the Chinese coin presses to the max with his highly detailed patterns and colors. The biggest problem I have is that The Geo Coin Club forces you to join for several months. This would be great if Macky was making all the coins, but he doesn't. As nice as The Geocoin Club coins can be, there are definite flops along the way and with 3 months you have a high probability that you will be receiving one of them in the mail.
The Geoswag Coin & Pin Club is great because you can come and go as you please. The unfortunate part as I stated before is the fact that they have the less talented artists (so far). That is tough to say right now because I really like next month's night caching coin, but as a rule the coins are only OK. The unusual part about this membership is that you also get a pin. These pins are actually very nice and match the coin. It is a great concept and it feels like you get more for your money.
I guess what it all comes down to is preference. I think The Geocoin Store has nicer coins to offer, but I think that Geoswag has a better deal. I guess it depends on how you see the value.
*Update* 9/24/06
USA Geocoins has introduced the USA Geocoin Club. Right now the coins are campy as they could be, but everyone starts somewhere. It advertises a come and go policy like Geoswag which should give it a chance. The first coin will look like this:
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