For Clubs & Associations

The DASH Platform helps clubs and associations fulfill their charter to strengthen the hobby, support their members, and make their community more secure.

Strengthen the Hobby

When people get the "itch" to potentially collect something, they face a number of challenges in starting up. The first challenge is to learn more about the items and how they are organized. It is hard to get a full perspective since virtually no collector can keep up with the full spectrum, nor are books or magazines available that have all the complete and up-to-date information. Assembling this information is a never-ending task best accomplished by groups of experts over time. This is certainly one of those times where the phrase "It takes a community" applies!

The DASH Catalog is perfectly suited to help new collectors. Community members and experts can contribute detailed information, photos, reviews and even video reviews of items easily. Community members can organize the information and correct mistakes. And because of the flexible navigation model within the DASH Catalog, collectors can easily find items as well as its other related items.

Because the information is in an open, freely-accessible web site, people can easily access it. They can learn about the hobby anytime and anywhere - even from their mobile devices...

Engage Younger Collectors

Yes, from mobile devices. Many hobbies struggle with how to reach out to younger generations of potential collectors. The items themselves are interesting and compelling, but if the club cannot communicate and share with the younger generations in the format they are accustomed to, the generational divide will not be breached. Printed, snail-mailed, monthly newsletters just won't cut it long-term.

Get Out of the IT Business

While putting up a web site keeps getting easier and cheaper every day, putting up a good site, maintaining its content, making sure it stays online, and keeping it up with the constantly evolving technology landscape isn't easy. Consequently, club and association web sites are often "behind the curve" in technology, capabilities and reliability. Updating the content alone is lots of work, and that is clearly not something that can be outsourced.  While DASH doesn't today replace the need for a club to manage its own web site, some of the functions of that site are much better achieved for members' benefit on DASH.  DASH today provides great, free tools for collection management. It provides a super facility for members to share their collections with each other. And it supports the typical "classifieds" function on a club web site in a much better, secure way. By working with DASH, clubs and associations can leverage the technology investment and expertise of CollectorDASH saving more time and money to focus on more interesting, hobby-specific content creation and sharing.

Fund the Club's Functions

The DASH platform offers collectors the world's most comprehensive, integrated features set. It consolidates several features that today collectors spend lots of money, such as in outdated values guides, collection management software, insurance and selling transaction fees. By integrating these necessary features, the DASH user experience is superior, and delivering that superior experience costs money. Working with clubs, DASH can structure promotional programs to repurpose the same dollars collectors are today spending on eBay fees, printed price guides and collection management software to deliver a better solution for the collector, more affordably, while generating operating funds to support the club's everyday functions.

Provide a Historical Archive

One of the things that motivates collectors is discovering interesting histories, tidbits of trivia and anecdotes about their hobby and the items in it. It is fun to learn, and it is fun to share. Given how fragmented collecting communities are typically and how unorganized the systems and processes between clubs and members, virtually all of this history dies as collectors exit the hobby. Even if the collector did compile the history and information, it often resides only on paper, on a bookshelf or hidden in a file in a basement. The DASH Catalog provides an organized, searchable, and sharable archive for the hobby.  As a community-resource, the DASH Catalog enriches the hobby and makes it more interesting for current and future generations of collectors.