What's the Real Cost of Cheap Custom Challenge Coins?

Can you really find quality, cheap custom challenge coins? I believe that’s a more important question than people realize.

Both adjectives, quality and cheap are relative. What I find cost effective or affordable may be a lot of money to someone else, just as my view of quality may be more discriminating because I have been in the custom challenge coin industry for almost 11 years.

Having said that I also think there is a difference between receiving a good deal on creating your own custom coins and buying cheap custom challenge coins. I’m sure you’re automatically assuming that both of these are the same. Rest assured they are not and by the end of this post I will have you seeing things through a more enlightened perspective.

First let’s evaluate exactly what receiving a good deal on your coin entails. A good deal to me would be defined as receiving attentive and responsive service from my vendor and receiving a quality finished product that I am proud to share with the world.

Cheap custom coins imply to me that the price is low, affordable to most everyone, half ass service if any at all and a low quality finished product that I am embarrassed to show the world. My showing this poor quality product to the world would only emphasize how cheap I am to people who see my coin or are unlucky enough to receive one. I essentially wasted my money and should have splurged a little more where I skimped instead.

I believe we often look for cost effective solutions and accept less as a result. My example above may be extreme but I can assure you it’s a very real possibility. The reality is, there is no substitute for personal and attentive service from a business and there is absolutely no substitute for a quality product.

By only focusing on price you open yourself up to potential disaster and almost assuredly disappointment. Let’s run through a real life scenario to further emphasize my point. I had a potential client make coins with my competitor because of a $120 price difference. This prospective client labeled my business as more responsive but the allure of the cost savings was too much to resist.



Great, you want to save money. Here’s what you never saw coming, you don’t see where this client returned to me because what they actually bought with their $120 cost savings was an inferior finished product. Furthermore, they made it abundantly clear that better service holds absolutely no value, by acknowledging my company was more responsive, while opting to save money above all else.

This is a dangerous precedent to set for yourself as a consumer! What’s going to happen now that they are not satisfied with their finished custom coin? Are they even going to get a response from the “cheap custom challenge coin” supplier?

I am going to end this by encouraging all of you to really stop and think about what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to save money. There is a big difference between a company that offers specials on die fees or coin molds and a company that creates cheap, poor quality custom coins. Be sure you know the difference so your cheap custom coins don’t end up costing you twice as much!