Foreign coin albums and 3D printers - something to ponder about

[gxseries]

Back in the days when you have Dansco, Whitman making neat albums for foreign coins, there's something that they gambled. That is world coins would be popular and that they would make a profit. This was back in the 1960 - 70s. Bad timing - world coins were not too popular until the late 80 - 90s. Of course with any business that you run, you always need to ensure that you have enough demand to run your business otherwise you'll go kaput. Fair enough, very understandable.

 

You see, I'm still awed over how impressive the old Dansco albums were made for foreign coins. I only have the Japan type set album and Fiji year set and these are very collectable even up to now. These albums I believe were made more than 40 years ago and they still look better than some of the modern albums out in the market.

 

I believe Dansco will need to produce at least 1000 albums before they may consider reprinting an album. At let's say 40-50 dollars each, it's a fair amount of money. Not feasible unless you have researched your market throughly.

 

What crossed my mind is when I read the article about printing 3D gun - appearently functional. Put the danger side away, why can't 3D printer be used to create customized coin albums?

 

Have a few random ideas like the digital album I have created:

 

Soviet type set

http://gxseries.com/numis/rus_new_type/russia_1921_91_type_pg1_small.jpg

 

Early 5 kopek year set

http://gxseries.com/numis/rus_new_type/russia_5k_24_pg1_small.jpg

 

South Korea type set

http://gxseries.com/numis/koreatype/album/korea_1959_type_pg1_small.jpg

 

Manchukuo year set

http://gxseries.com/numis/china/album/manchukuo_pg3_small.jpg

 

And the list goes on. Beauty of this is that you can change the language to any foreign language other than English and annotate whatever you like.

 

Suppose the material used for printing is inert. Why not have an open source coin album design if this can be doable?

 

 

[Art1.2]

It sounds like the correct way to go for anything needing small runs assuming the cost would yield a price the consumer can live with. A nice online utility to design the album pages would be quite easy to build.

[Vfox]

Those 3D printers have a ton of possibilities. It would be nice if they made them, but probably won't until the printers become available to the public at low cost and individuals start making them. There is a guy making a car right now with one, costing around 2 grand in plastic. Seems like the end products can certainly be reasonably priced. We will see I suppose.

[Art1.2]

So is it possible to "print" your own 3D Printer using a 3D Printer?

[freak]

I saw one in use on tv the other night, and was amazed at the way it worked. It would sure beat hunting parts all the time.

[AnotherFox]

Those 3D printers have a ton of possibilities. It would be nice if they made them, but probably won't until the printers become available to the public at low cost and individuals start making them. There is a guy making a car right now with one, costing around 2 grand in plastic. Seems like the end products can certainly be reasonably priced. We will see I suppose.

I don't think that's a good idea. A car out of plastic....... If the engine heats up slightly it would melt. Unless it's ABS plastic which can withstand a tiny amount of heat.