New Coin Tech! 2 2

[RaritiesValue.com]

UPDATE 10/4/2023: Thank you everyone for the support! We have added the following features. 

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Hello, I am new to this forum and would like to introduce myself!

I am a University student with a passion for coin collecting, coin dealing, and technology! 

As I have looked to grow my own rare coin business, I have been looking ways to also build infrastructure and technology for others in the space. I feel very strongly that the industry is far behind others in terms of technology and efficiency, and wanted to do what I could to change that. 

A friend and I have started building our project RaritiesValue to help coin collectors and dealers better keep track of their inventory/collections. It is a work in progress, but we are looking for ways to make it more useful to everyone!

My question to the forum: 

How do you manage your collection? Are you using excel, sheets, custom software, or an existing solution?

Here are some of the features our software already offers. You can try it for free!

Inventory Management: Keep track of what you purchased and currently have in your collection/inventory including important information such as cost, information on the source, date purchased, etc. 

Sets: Inspired by the traditional coin albums we all love so much! We wanted to make a way for collectors to view their collections digitally with the same traditional feel of collecting. 

Coming Soon: Custom sets, Sales and expense tracking, ability to add your own custom photos, customer management, and partner integrations. 

 

I would love to hear any feedback positive or negative. We have already talked to a number of collectors and dealers and have started implementing their feedback!

Thank you so much. 

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by RaritiesValue.com
Update relevant to the topic. Updating status

[J P M]

This web site also offers a free inventory system not everyone uses it but it is available to all members.

[ldhair]

I'm using Coin Elite. It works really well keeping track of everything. The file sorting and report functions are really good.

[Coinbuf]

@RaritiesValue.com I have followed your post on the PCGS forum.   You have a nice well thought out program/product, for myself I use the NGC registry software and my trusty Excel spreadsheet.   These have served me well in managing and tracking my coin collection, I do not see myself altering that at the current time.  I do think your program will be of great value, particularly to new collectors that do not have an established system.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Coinbuf

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/5/2023 at 5:45 PM, J P M said:

This web site also offers a free inventory system not everyone uses it but it is available to all members.

Thank you! Have you tried NGC's inventory tracker? Do you like it? 

Is there anything you would like to see changed?

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:52 PM, ldhair said:

I'm using Coin Elite. It works really well keeping track of everything. The file sorting and report functions are really good.

Nice! I have heard that software being used by a few people. Is there anything you would like that they changed about it to make it better or easier to use?

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/5/2023 at 9:09 PM, Coinbuf said:

@RaritiesValue.com I have followed your post on the PCGS forum.   You have a nice well thought out program/product, for myself I use the NGC registry software and my trusty Excel spreadsheet.   These have served me well in managing and tracking my coin collection, I do not see myself altering that at the current time.  I do think your program will be of great value, particularly to new collectors that do not have an established system.

@Coinbuf I appreciate that! We are working hard to hopefully build something great for collectors like yourself to eventually use!

I understand the pain and time cost of switch over as well as the inconvenience of learning a new system. Can you think of anything that would make you or collectors like you be motivated to switch?

[USAuPzlBxBob]

On 9/6/2023 at 1:10 PM, RaritiesValue.com said:

@Coinbuf I appreciate that! We are working hard to hopefully build something great for collectors like yourself to eventually use!

I understand the pain and time cost of switch over as well as the inconvenience of learning a new system. Can you think of anything that would make you or collectors like you be motivated to switch?

No.

NGC is lightyears ahead of your effort.  Just the color schemes alone that your BETA is employing is a semi-turnoff.

Then too, with your site, users would be putting sensitive information under the purview and auspices of… "who knows what?"

Basically, you're an unknown quantity trying to compete against a website that is fully developed, prides itself in further-perfection-enhancements, and all the while is making a profit from its sustainable business practice.

Sorry, but "them's the facts."

[Coinbuf]

On 9/6/2023 at 10:10 AM, RaritiesValue.com said:

@Coinbuf I appreciate that! We are working hard to hopefully build something great for collectors like yourself to eventually use!

I understand the pain and time cost of switch over as well as the inconvenience of learning a new system. Can you think of anything that would make you or collectors like you be motivated to switch?

Honestly, no I cannot think of any feature or reason that I would need or want to cause me to switch from what I currently use.   It is less about the tech or learning a new system but simply because I'm not young anymore and I have and will continue to collect less and less in the coming years.   Some folks just like to try the new hotness or be on the edge of technology, I'm not one of those people; I'm in the "if it isn't broke don't fix it" crowd.

[Just Bob]

"How do you manage your collection?"

Pen and paper.

[Fenntucky Mike]

I keep track of each coin individually, by Country, denomination, type, year, etc... I often have several pages of documents from researching, and other relevant information, images, articles, etc., on an individual coin and/or series that I keep in the same folder for that coin or series on my server. Buy/sell I keep a spreadsheet for each coin or series which is also kept in the same folder, any relevant hardcopy I'll scan and also place in the folder and the hardcopy goes back on the shelf. That way all my information for a coin is in one place. What you have seems nice but not something I'd be interested in. NGC, PCGS, HA, I think they all have similar software available. 

[VKurtB]

On 9/7/2023 at 9:56 AM, Just Bob said:

"How do you manage your collection?"

Pen and paper.

“Blasphemer!” 

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/7/2023 at 9:47 AM, Coinbuf said:

Honestly, no I cannot think of any feature or reason that I would need or want to cause me to switch from what I currently use.   It is less about the tech or learning a new system but simply because I'm not young anymore and I have and will continue to collect less and less in the coming years.   Some folks just like to try the new hotness or be on the edge of technology, I'm not one of those people; I'm in the "if it isn't broke don't fix it" crowd.

Nothing wrong with that! Thank you for your honest and respectful input.

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/7/2023 at 9:56 AM, Just Bob said:

"How do you manage your collection?"

Pen and paper.

Hey, that's certainly one way to do it! 

[World Colonial]

Excel

I also don't collect any US coins, if your product is built around that.

Also, if you eventually intend to market it for a fee, the landing page seems to indicate it's more for coin dealers versus collectors. 

I don't see much of a market from collectors, unless it's free and you intend to generate revenue from advertising.

[GoldFinger1969]

On 9/5/2023 at 10:09 PM, Coinbuf said:

@RaritiesValue.com I have followed your post on the PCGS forum.   You have a nice well thought out program/product, for myself I use the NGC registry software and my trusty Excel spreadsheet.   These have served me well in managing and tracking my coin collection, I do not see myself altering that at the current time.  I do think your program will be of great value, particularly to new collectors that do not have an established system.

Excel has the ability grab stock values up-to-the-second if you program it to grab them.

Can it do the same with coin auction sites ?  An ability to program it to grabe the last 10 sales and maybe throw out the lowest and highest would be super-useful.

[Coinbuf]

On 9/7/2023 at 2:59 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

Excel has the ability grab stock values up-to-the-second if you program it to grab them.

Can it do the same with coin auction sites ?  An ability to program it to grabe the last 10 sales and maybe throw out the lowest and highest would be super-useful.

Perhaps a macro could be built to do that, I cannot say as I have never tried it.   Both the NGC and PCGS sites provide most of that functionality, so it really hasn't been anything I have wanted to try.

[MorganMan]

I use CoinManage. Have for years now. I update it every few years.

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/7/2023 at 4:52 PM, World Colonial said:

Excel

I also don't collect any US coins, if your product is built around that.

Also, if you eventually intend to market it for a fee, the landing page seems to indicate it's more for coin dealers versus collectors. 

I don't see much of a market from collectors, unless it's free and you intend to generate revenue from advertising.

We are adding the ability to add custom sets in the next batch of updates (coming in a week or two). You are already able to add anything to the inventory table view, but the sets will only work for US coins at the moment. Give us a week or two to get that updated!

We are definitely focused more on dealers from a business model perspective, but I wanted to create something for collectors as well. There will be optional features that collectors or dealers can pay for, but I anticipate a free plan will be available for some time. 

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/6/2023 at 1:08 PM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

No.

NGC is lightyears ahead of your effort.  Just the color schemes alone that your BETA is employing is a semi-turnoff.

Then too, with your site, users would be putting sensitive information under the purview and auspices of… "who knows what?"

Basically, you're an unknown quantity trying to compete against a website that is fully developed, prides itself in further-perfection-enhancements, and all the while is making a profit from its sustainable business practice.

Sorry, but "them's the facts."

Hey, I respect the honesty! I encourage you to stay updated with our progress. We are early in development and already getting great feedback from users. 

If you have any constructive feedback in terms of what would actually make this platform useful for you, or what you would like built to help handle your collecting needs, we would love to hear it. 

-Chad 

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/7/2023 at 4:59 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

Excel has the ability grab stock values up-to-the-second if you program it to grab them.

Can it do the same with coin auction sites ?  An ability to program it to grabe the last 10 sales and maybe throw out the lowest and highest would be super-useful.

By stock values do you mean inventory levels from different sales channels (like eBay, online stores, etc.)? Or the market prices? 

We have a lot of requests to add auction records and pricing. I think that is an interesting path we could take! It could certainly be done but would require some partnerships we do not currently have. 

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:21 PM, MorganMan said:

I use CoinManage. Have for years now. I update it every few years.

Can I ask what some of the main features you like and value about it are?

[World Colonial]

On 9/8/2023 at 11:49 AM, RaritiesValue.com said:

We are adding the ability to add custom sets in the next batch of updates (coming in a week or two). You are already able to add anything to the inventory table view, but the sets will only work for US coins at the moment. Give us a week or two to get that updated!

We are definitely focused more on dealers from a business model perspective, but I wanted to create something for collectors as well. There will be optional features that collectors or dealers can pay for, but I anticipate a free plan will be available for some time. 

For me, the biggest gap in what dealers offer their buyers is timely updated inventory.  If anyone could ever make it economically feasible to dealers at scale, it would certainly have potential value to me as a collector of coinage which is difficult to find.

Aside from eBay, there are other aggregator sites like VCoins and MA Shops but it's limited.  I presume more dealers don't participate because the value proposition isn't there for them.  Don't know how it does or may differ from your effort.

[Zebo]

I like your idea. Are you anticipating a program that will reside on the customer’s computer or is it a cloud based/server service? What are your plans for keeping up with technology as it evolves? Do you have the staff and expertise for that?

you asked MorganMan about the features he likes with coinmanage. They are continually adding the coins to their database that are easily added into the collector’s sets and inventory. It is also very easy to navigate. They do have a few issues, however. One is dealing with a record that has been corrupted. I am also not crazy about their reports, but that may have been improved in recent years. Their customer service is almost non-existent. MorganMan may or may not have an opposing opinion.

 

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/8/2023 at 12:18 PM, World Colonial said:

For me, the biggest gap in what dealers offer their buyers is timely updated inventory.  If anyone could ever make it economically feasible to dealers at scale, it would certainly have potential value to me as a collector of coinage which is difficult to find.

Aside from eBay, there are other aggregator sites like VCoins and MA Shops but it's limited.  I presume more dealers don't participate because the value proposition isn't there for them.  Don't know how it does or may differ from your effort.

It does seem like the industry is highly fragmented! This has given me some ideas in terms of features that we could implement to allow for easier transactions for dealers, which would then flow to collectors in terms of better offerings and lower prices. 

We have a pretty busy road map right now but in the coming months I think we could implement some helpful integrations. Thank you very much!

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/8/2023 at 12:28 PM, Zebo said:

I like your idea. Are you anticipating a program that will reside on the customer’s computer or is it a cloud based/server service? What are your plans for keeping up with technology as it evolves? Do you have the staff and expertise for that?

you asked MorganMan about the features he likes with coinmanage. They are continually adding the coins to their database that are easily added into the collector’s sets and inventory. It is also very easy to navigate. They do have a few issues, however. One is dealing with a record that has been corrupted. I am also not crazy about their reports, but that may have been improved in recent years. Their customer service is almost non-existent. MorganMan may or may not have an opposing opinion.

 

Thank you for your comment and questions!

1. The program is currently cloud based. I think that this makes the most sense in terms of keeping up with the "trends of technology". However I could see a downside in terms of not being able to edit offline. Can I ask, which would you prefer? 

2. We have a small founding team, but definitely plan to grow as our userbase and funding increases. I do not handle the development but my co-founder has proven himself capable. We want to add more developers as soon as possible. Part of the reason I have done discovery in places like this is to research what collectors really want as well as excite everyone for what's to come. There's a lot of development happening in the industry (I am aware of a number of coin startup projects that have not gotten much attention), and we plan to be on the cutting edge. 

3. I appreciate your input on coinmanage. I have not used their platform but it's good to know that it is easy to navigate. From what I can tell, it looks fairly outdated. I hope this is something we can improve on. Reports are interesting, we have some plans to implement custom reporting in our platform down the line. As far as customer service goes, we make this a priority even with our limited people resources. You can always reach out to me here, via email as listed on our site, or on social media. We have already taken feedback and implemented changes from many early users. 

I really appreciate you taking the time to ask some questions. I hope that we can build something that you will enjoy using in the future. 

[Zebo]

On 9/9/2023 at 3:36 PM, RaritiesValue.com said:

1. The program is currently cloud based. I think that this makes the most sense in terms of keeping up with the "trends of technology". However I could see a downside in terms of not being able to edit offline. Can I ask, which would you prefer? 

I am probably in the minority, but like to edit and store offline. 
flexible reports are a must.

good luck.

[Henri Charriere]

On 9/7/2023 at 11:40 AM, VKurtB said:

“Blasphemer!” 

🐓  :  not a peep from all the set registrants... I wonder why?

H.C.:  too much of a stigma, I guess...  

[zadok]

...yes...its called paper, usually rectangular n mostly thin in thickness, can be written on with pencils of which r cylindrical in length round or with faces composed of wood with a graphite core, used to annotate on the paper coins in possession of or needed, can be carried or stored in safe places, impervious to electrical outages, hacking, electronic snooping n free of surcharges or fees, strong points r privacy n secure from unauthorized surveillance, weak points r cockroaches, mildew n fire....

why anyone would want to make available an itemized list of their coins in a "cloud" or other managed atmosphere where it can be observed n which can be blocked to ones access either intentionally or by grid failure is beyond me...yes registry sets obviously r public information, but they r openly made public by the owners for whatever reasons n yes, they can perform as inventories of ones coins at the same time...collectors should be vigilant of making accessible inventories of anything...have u ever heard of subpoenas?....

[RaritiesValue.com]

On 9/9/2023 at 7:07 PM, Zebo said:

I am probably in the minority, but like to edit and store offline. 
flexible reports are a must.

good luck.

Thank you! 

Perhaps we can add some offline element in the future.