A lot of cool products never make it to market because of the R&D cost. I have seen this a lot with hand tools. Some just sell the idea to a major company that is already in a like business. The next problem is China. If you come up with something that sells well, they will copy it and kill your business. A patent is a good idea but China won't care or will find a way around it.
Yeah I'd probably have to make some sort of mold if I were to make 100+ of these per week, or even per month. But first I'd need a place to sell them and a good marketing strategy, which I am lacking atm. I have some listings on ebay, but haven't garnered sales yet.
Yeah mailing time and costs from outside the US is what I'm afraid will hamper sales numbers. It's just under 10 dollars for 3 of them, about 5$ for one holder. Then again it takes up to 2 weeks to ship as well. Patent also costs a huge amount and I'm afraid Chinese sellers would just instantly copy it anyway, much like @Idhair down below mentioned.
Well luckily I'm doing my own R&D for free ATM. I'm thinking about contacting a local CNC shop to make me a mold when I have finished the prototype. And yep, I'm afraid chinese sellers would quickly copy this and sell it en masse on ebay. I've already seen someone copy it on Reddit so.
I did a little looking around, using 3D printing to create injection molds seems to be cutting edge for small volume work. I swear I saw something a few months back about inverting the model into a solid block and then slicing that into two machinable pieces to create an injection mold (had to add the gates, sprues, etc. but was a full aluminum mold with normal life span instead of the limited life of the 3d printed ones) (But I can't find it again with a casual search)
Yeah I can actually invert the model, but it's quite a bit harder to 3d print as I need tons of support for it. I'll definitely try and slice it into two models on the other hand, that seems like a good idea.
I couldn't edit my post or previous reply, so guess I'm just going to have to keep replying with my updates. I'm out of white filament, so I had to print it in black. This makes for bad prototypes as it's very hard to see details and impurities in the print, but it turned out decently. I'll be buying more white tommorrow and I'll post another reply with that version. As you can see, I have a bigger coin which would've been slightly covered, which is now fully shown. There is quite a lot of room for bigger coins here, but the big space also helps to let the staples sit nicely without touching the front and back of the dividers. In my opinion it looks pretty good! You can also see a lot of "lines" which is basically the layers. These are almost impossible to see on the white prints, and with some post processing it looks very good.
Are these stiff plastic, or pliable? At coin shows, people like to "flip through" coins in boxes. If made out of pliable material, perhaps a person can take their thumb and "flip" through the coins faster (like a deck of cards in your hand) as they take a quick look at them.
It's stiff, solid PLA plastic. It is possible on the other hand, to make them out of softer material if needed, but I don't have that filament atm.
Best wishes to you. I see another possibility - regardless of whether your flipholder takes off in mass marketing. You can always promote your skills to a smaller niche market, by providing customized storage or holders and then charging accordingly.
Me-“OUCH” the kitty Enough already!!! How does the saying usually go, oh yeah, sometimes comments, ideas, quotes to name only a few examples, is “Best” left unsaid!!! Need many of us say more, I think not.
Maybe I can help. Step 1: Click or tap the name of the member who annoys you. Step 2: In the box that appears, click or tap Ignore. Step 3: Relax in the quiet satisfaction that you're helping keep discussions on topic by not interjecting personal complaints. HTH. HAND.
What I would like to see is a kind of spacer for those long boxes with a row for the coins. If you move or lift a box that isn't full, the coins slide to the back. To me, very annoying. An adjustable spacer would keep the coins upright.
Could you link a picture of the box? I think I might have an idea for a simple design that could sort that issue.
https://www.coinsupplyexpress.com/color-coded-2x2-storage-boxes This link was in a previous post. I have one of these and am currently using used toilet paper rolls as spacers, cut to size. But whenever I add more coins, I have to cut down the roll to fit.
This thread is most interesting. I like the comment about making one-off custom display pieces. I'd like one that would hold a 5 ounce "coin" like the 5 ounce quarters or the 5 ounce Libertads, vertically. Like this:
Oh yeah, that one! Is the box exactly over 2x2? As in, could there be some space below the 2x2's for a spacer to be? I always try and make it as minimalistic as possible, so this might work if there was space below or above the 2x2's. About 3mm would do. The grey square is exactly 2x2 sized.