Dansco albums., overpriced?

alpha33

After trying to find a "gold" page for my Dansco 7070, I found what I believe to be a very nice and inexpensive alternative to the grossly overpriced Dansco.
The least expensive Dansco "gold page" I have been able to find was $75 opening bid, plus postage (plus they are scarce). Add that to the already overpriced 7070 and you're closing in on $200 bucks easy.
Dansco 7070 will barely accept one extra page. In this case , the "gold page" for a maximum of 5 pages.
The alternative I found is called the "Intercept Shield".
It is dimensionally the same as a Dansco, except it will hold ELEVEN pages with ease. It also comes with a hard slip cover and two extra pages w/sleeves.
The color is a forest green that I find attractive since the green really makes the silver and gold coins real POP.
It cost me $45 bucks delivered and I have since found it $10 to $12 bucks cheaper the more I dig.
There is a whole range of albums to choose from also.
So if you're sick of over priced Dansco's this may work for you.

OAKSTAR

I think it works and looks great! Love any type set! 👍🏻

Jzyskowski1

Some drive dodge. Some prefer Chevy or ford. Dansco is lovely, but pricey. I use Littleton.
I’m good with any newer album with safe paper and sleeves. I’m a silver collector and every $20-30 I can save is another coin partly paid for. 😁

OAKSTAR

@Jzyskowski1 said:
Some drive dodge. Some prefer Chevy or ford.

I would be driving this if I had his gold coins! 😂 😉

braddick

Great set!

There is something charming about a Dansco-type set album that, although difficult to put into words, is palpable.

Russell12

That is what I have my type set in, Intercept Shield.

124Spider

IMO, "overpriced" is a term that is mostly used improperly.

Dansco has only just barely started producing albums again, after several years of inactivity. And they're being very slow about it.

That results in a huge shortage in Dansco albums, relative to supply. That, of course, drives the price up.

Perhaps, someday, Dansco will again produce albums at a rate sufficient to meet demand. I'm not convinced that ever will happen, alas.

In the meantime, we each get to decide whether the price the market has established for Dansco albums (or any other non-essential item) is more than we want to pay. But my decision not to pay that much is not "proof" that the item is "overpriced," only that its price is more than I want to pay.

Only if nobody wants to pay is it "overpriced."

WilliamF

Nice! I like those Intercept Shield albums as well

lkenefic

Count me in the "overpriced" group. I bought my Dansco album about 15 years ago for ~$30. After I had gotten the set about halfway complete (the second time), I started looking for a Gold Page. At the time, there weren't many (but they were available) and would typically fetch ~$75. Over twice what I paid for the entire album??

I ended up going a different direction for "the gold page" and I'm just incorporating it into a Box of 20. That way, I can include a $3 Gold piece too.

vulcanize

@lkenefic said:
Count me in the "overpriced" group. I bought my Dansco album about 15 years ago for ~$30. After I had gotten the set about halfway complete (the second time), I started looking for a Gold Page. At the time, there weren't many (but they were available) and would typically fetch ~$75. Over twice what I paid for the entire album??

I ended up going a different direction for "the gold page" and I'm just incorporating it into a Box of 20. That way, I can include a $3 Gold piece too.

Ditto.

Got all of my brand new Danscos ranging from $23 to $34 but the gold page set me back by $100 and the irony is that half of the coins sourced for it were already slabbed.

lkenefic

@vulcanize said:

@lkenefic said:
Count me in the "overpriced" group. I bought my Dansco album about 15 years ago for ~$30. After I had gotten the set about halfway complete (the second time), I started looking for a Gold Page. At the time, there weren't many (but they were available) and would typically fetch ~$75. Over twice what I paid for the entire album??

I ended up going a different direction for "the gold page" and I'm just incorporating it into a Box of 20. That way, I can include a $3 Gold piece too.

Ditto.

Got all of my brand new Danscos ranging from $23 to $34 but the gold page set me back by $100 and the irony is that half of the coins sourced for it were already slabbed.

Yeah... I've cracked out many coins for my 7070 so far, but I'm a bit more reluctant to crack out gold pieces that are known to have been heavily counterfeited. I like the "authentication" aspect that comes with certification... that said, my No Motto Seated Dollar was cracked from a straight-graded NGC slab...

ChangeInHistory

You have a rather high grade type set, nice! I think the coins look better with the green background.

GaCoinGuy

@124Spider said:

Dansco has only just barely started producing albums again, after several years of inactivity. And they're being very slow about it.

That results in a huge shortage in Dansco albums, relative to supply. That, of course, drives the price up.

Perhaps, someday, Dansco will again produce albums at a rate sufficient to meet demand. I'm not convinced that ever will happen, alas.

According to their website, Dansco has been trying to get production levels back up, but have been hit by a flood, pandemic and now simply a shortage of workers. I've been looking for a 7080 album for a while now with no luck.
danscousa.com/

Having never looked beyond the Dansco, I will say that I like the Intercepts dark green against the silver and gold coins; too dark for the darker coppers, but I imagine it would look great with the RD coppers.

jmlanzaf

People think overpriced means more than I want to pay.

Nothing that sells is ever overpriced.

gtstang

I guess it's all about timing since I tried to sell a 7070 with gold page here about 6 months ago for $115 and no interest. It ended on ebay for $112

Mr_Spud

Intercept Shield albums are very nice, and I know that this thread is more about getting them instead of Dansco albums, but I wanted to mention that after about 12 years or so that Mrs_Spud’s Intercept Shield Album stopped protecting her high grade blast white Roosevelt dimes and they started toning. Still a nice album, but we thought they would stay blast white in them but they didn’t.

jmlanzaf

@gtstang said:
I guess it's all about timing since I tried to sell a 7070 with gold page here about 6 months ago for $115 and no interest. It ended on ebay for $112

You were $3 too high. 😉

This is not exactly as robust a marketplace as eBay.

ricko

I have a couple of old, partially filled, albums.... never really worked on them. Packed away now for about twelve years. One is some random brand with some dimes in it, and not sure what the other one is... Though I like looking at album sets, just do not have the drive to fill them. Cheers, RickO

vulcanize

@jmlanzaf said:
People think overpriced means more than I want to pay.

Nothing that sells is ever overpriced.

LOL.

Reminds me of a three decade old personal experience where I was working for a fashion accessory manufacturer who supplied to big names in the industry.

At a meeting with the top honchos with one such brand, casually happened to ask as to why their product retailed at over 150 times the actual cost of the item (all inclusive with material/production costs plus labor plus shipping and what have you).

With a slight look of displeasure on his face he replied - "you are not merely buying a XYZ product, you are paying for the brand". I struggled to keep a straight face and said okay even though wanting to really laugh out loud.

Needless to say, from then on I buy anything with a brand name ONLY when it's on sale at rock bottom price.

jmlanzaf

@vulcanize said:

@jmlanzaf said:
People think overpriced means more than I want to pay.

Nothing that sells is ever overpriced.

LOL.

Reminds me of a three decade old personal experience where I was working for a fashion accessory manufacturer who supplied to big names in the industry.

At a meeting with the top honchos with one such brand, casually happened to ask as to why their product retailed at over 150 times the actual cost of the item (all inclusive with material/production costs plus labor plus shipping and what have you).

With a slight look of displeasure on his face he replied - "you are not merely buying a XYZ product, you are paying for the brand". I struggled to keep a straight face and said okay even though wanting to really laugh out loud.

Needless to say, from then on I buy anything with a brand name ONLY when it's on sale at rock bottom price.

Lol.

Yup.

I once thought about going into the detergent business. Go read the labels. All of them contain the same combination of 2 or 3 chemicals. At the time, you could buy them in 55 gallon drums for about $20. The detergents are about 90% water, so the material costs ended up being about $30 per 500 gallons. Then it was all just packaging and marketing.

Is a Lamborghini overpriced at $300,000? Only if it doesn't sell.

CentSearcher

I bought an Intercept Shield as an alternative to a Dansco 7070 a year ago, and I really enjoyed it. But not all Danscos are that pricey, I started a Lincoln Cent Dansco (1909 - present) just a few weeks ago, and they only cost around $40 on eBay.

ndeagles

Back in the 90s when I was buying coins with lawn mowing, snow shoveling, and birthday money... Littleton coin company (overpriced?) Had adds in magazines and newspapers. I responded to an add to get my free unc Steel Cents. This ultimately resulted in my getting involved in their mail order coin program, they would send you 3 coins in the mail each month, you could buy them or send them back. The coins were selling way above market value, even as a kid I knew that. BUT when you made a purchase, they would send you a free Dansco album. Each coin series had its own monthly enrollment, so I enrolled in most of them until I got the album, them moved on. I have stuck with them ever since, and the last few years pages and slipcases have been very pricy.

For the kid, he has a couple Whitman albums, and they seem to be very similar in quality with blue pages, but I just love the look and feel of the Dansco albums. The 7070 could be organized better, and some coins missing, and my gold page will look better when it has something in it, but other than that, I've had no complaints about the Dansco's or the prices.

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MasonG

If people are paying nearly 5 times more than a very good alternative it would seem that they don't think that "very good alternative" is really all that good, if you ask me.

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pruebas

Can “Museum Quality” and “Made in China” coexist?

jmlanzaf

@alpha33 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
People think overpriced means more than I want to pay.

Nothing that sells is ever overpriced.

Plenty of things sell that are overpriced. HMMM, Dansco coin albums among lots of other stuff comes to mind . Again, just my 2cents.

We call it supply and demand. In a free and fair market, nothing is overpriced that sells. It is just demand matching supply.

124Spider

@GaCoinGuy said:

@124Spider said:

Dansco has only just barely started producing albums again, after several years of inactivity. And they're being very slow about it.

That results in a huge shortage in Dansco albums, relative to supply. That, of course, drives the price up.

Perhaps, someday, Dansco will again produce albums at a rate sufficient to meet demand. I'm not convinced that ever will happen, alas.

According to their website, Dansco has been trying to get production levels back up, but have been hit by a flood, pandemic and now simply a shortage of workers. I've been looking for a 7080 album for a while now with no luck.
danscousa.com/

Having never looked beyond the Dansco, I will say that I like the Intercepts dark green against the silver and gold coins; too dark for the darker coppers, but I imagine it would look great with the RD coppers.

I've actually been to their "new" manufacturing facility (it's a repurposed IGA grocery store; we drive right by it when going to Canada).

I love their albums, but I have seen no tangible signs that they ever will get production levels up to where they need to be.

jmlanzaf

@MasonG said:
If people are paying nearly 5 times more than a very good alternative it would seem that they don't think that "very good alternative" is really all that good, if you ask me.

Well, some of it is brand loyalty. For the same reason that many collectors like matching slabs, they want matching albums. The supply disruptions over the last couple of years have made certain Dansco albums hard to find. 7070s got as high as $140 Eben though list price was still $50ish because no distributor could get them.

jmlanzaf

@alpha33 said:

@Mr_Spud said:
Intercept Shield albums are very nice, and I know that this thread is more about getting them instead of Dansco albums, but I wanted to mention that after about 12 years or so that Mrs_Spud’s Intercept Shield Album stopped protecting her high grade blast white Roosevelt dimes and they started toning. Still a nice album, but we thought they would stay blast white in them but they didn’t.

Actually my intent with this thread was to merely point out that I had found a very nice/inexpensive alternative to dansco. I still have several dansco albums. I like them but their pricing is wayyyy over the top.
Again and again, just my 2cents.

Their pricing hasn't changed much. It's the secondary market because you can't easily get product from them.

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/products/dansco-album/

jmlanzaf

@alpha33 said:

@Mr_Spud said:
Intercept Shield albums are very nice, and I know that this thread is more about getting them instead of Dansco albums, but I wanted to mention that after about 12 years or so that Mrs_Spud’s Intercept Shield Album stopped protecting her high grade blast white Roosevelt dimes and they started toning. Still a nice album, but we thought they would stay blast white in them but they didn’t.

Actually my intent with this thread was to merely point out that I had found a very nice/inexpensive alternative to dansco. I still have several dansco albums. I like them but their pricing is wayyyy over the top.
Again and again, just my 2cents.

Intercept Shield are well known alternatives as are the Whitman deluxe. But you could mention your "discovery" without disparaging Dansco whose prices really haven't gone up. What you see is pure demand driven pricing on the secondary market due to the production problems at Dansco. If you actually get a price list from Dansco, the prices are much lower... and the items also are unavailable.

jmlanzaf

The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

MasonG

@jmlanzaf said:

@MasonG said:
If people are paying nearly 5 times more than a very good alternative it would seem that they don't think that "very good alternative" is really all that good, if you ask me.

Well, some of it is brand loyalty.

Yep. And for those people, an Intercept Shield album isn't a "very good alternative".

JimW

@alpha33 or others - have you come up with good solution to solving this issue?
Note that this album was manufactured with a hole for the Braided Hair Large Cent that is too small.

Truth in lending: I bought one of these albums, but not sure what I am going to do about this without making it look bad...

mr1931S

I have brand loyalty when it comes to coin albums. That brand is WHITMAN.

The_Dinosaur_Man

Nice type set in the OP! Love seeing the gold page. My only concern with Intercept albums stems from having pulled too many PVC-ridden coins from their pages. The same coins may or may not have already had the vile substance when they filled their holes in the first place, but still I'm wary.

Supply, demand, and preference were all the reason why (and sorry if I annoy you guys by bringing this up!) I started building my own books. There has been so much more room for suiting one's personal wants and needs for their collection. As an example, I received a call from someone that wants to set up a type set album for Carson City coins, and at this point I've made and sold a few gold series albums for the Indian $2.50, $5.00, and $10.00. Anyways, it's simply fun to make these and I still respect those that choose albums made by the more professional and recognized brands.

Unknown

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ElmerFusterpuck

I bought my 7070 used about a decade ago for 15 bucks at a coin show, and had a great time filling it up. I found someone selling the gold pages (still sealed) on Instagram for $45. I snapped one up as did many others. Guess that was a bargain compared to now!

I'm betting that things will settle down once Dansco gets its production act together. I have no regrets paying $60 total for an album I've totally enjoyed working on. It's a small price in the game called life.

P.S. I've almost filled up the gold page, just need a decent $20 St. Gaudens to put in the last open hole.

ChrisH821

@jmlanzaf said:
The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

Let us know when Wizard has them in stock. You'll be waiting indefinitely.

jmlanzaf

@ChrisH821 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

Let us know when Wizard has them in stock. You'll be waiting indefinitely.

Oh, I know. But I think it needed to be clear that Dansco has not jacked the price of their product. The increase is in the secondary market due to demand outstripping supply. I didn't want people to think it was Dansco doing it.

[Note: it also supports the price being correct as it is market determined.]

Tomthecoinguy

@jmlanzaf said:
People think overpriced means more than I want to pay.

Nothing that sells is ever overpriced.

You make a good point although, there are always exceptions. I would say if deception/fraud is involved you could make the case that something is over priced.

MrEureka

.

rec78

@jmlanzaf said:
The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

"Out of Stock" for a very long time. They don't cost $9 if they don't have any to sell.

jmlanzaf

@rec78 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

"Out of Stock" for a very long time. They don't cost $9 if they don't have any to sell.

See my comment above. Their list price is still $9. I just wanted to make it clear that it isn't Dansco that had attached the high prices to their product.

ElKevvo

Super nice type set BTW...thanks for sharing!

K

rec78

@jmlanzaf said:

@rec78 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
The "overpriced" gold page costs $9

https://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/dansco-replacement-page-5-us-gold-type-1849-1932.html

"Out of Stock" for a very long time. They don't cost $9 if they don't have any to sell.

See my comment above. Their list price is still $9. I just wanted to make it clear that it isn't Dansco that had attached the high prices to their product.

I can well assure you that if the gold page comes back in stock, it will be higher then $9. You can't use old prices as current comparisons.
I am selling brand new Harley-Davidson motorcycles for $2500. The problem is I don't have any.