Greetings!

[courtneyadams]

Hi!

My name is Courtney and I am new to the forum! I became interested in flags and collecting them when I was in High School. My goal is to collect all 50 state flags. Does anyone know of any good stores to buy flags from? Particularly, I was curious if any has purchased a flag from this site: American Flags? The problem I have found with many "brick and mortar" type of stores is that their selection never seems to be as big as some of the online retailers.

[coasterville]

I haven't started on state flags, other than my own, Ohio.

Our local brick-and-mortar shop which is a flag shop has shelf upon shelf of flags and I could probably go there tomorrow and round up all 50. At considerable cost, though, since they deal in Annin and their state flags aren't exactly inexpensive.

I have not tried the site you linked to, but I have tried a few others over the years. The first question that comes to mind is - are you looking for a high quality flag for each state, or just a flag. You may be able to go to one of the outlets that sells the rather cheap printed poly flags for $5 or so each, They won't hold up to a lot of bad weather, and may not look as nice as the name brand flags, but if you are collecting flags for the sake of gathering flags

That's the route I went with most of my international flags.

I'm partial to unflags.com for the 'economy' grade flags. Though they do have the nicer nylon flags as well, I bought a friend who was moving to Colorado a nylon Colorado state flag from there, and it was actually pretty decent,

Another direction you may want to take is they do sell a set of all 50 flags as miniatures - they measure about 4 inches x 6 inches and come on plastic staffs. They even sell a matching 50 hole base that would look nice as a display in your home. I went that route for the UN member nations, complete with an approximately 12'-14' wooden base. Might be big and pricey for the average residential customer, but I enjoy mine.

So, since you said you have been collecting, how many flags have you collected thus far and which ones are your favorites?


I also collect all manner of flags, and you can see my collection at the link below.

[coasterville]

Wanted to add that the site you linked to is typical of an internet based flag store, and I see by the logos on the bottoms of the pages they too, are an Annin dealer.

[csaanv]

Since Dettra was bought out by Aninn are there any other flag companies still around that make state flags? I know here in Virginia, Richmond Flag and U.S. Flag & Signal in Portsmouth were making Virginia state flags. Their flags were much nicer than what Aninn is doing now in terms of detail and extra colors in the state seal which was sewn into the flag. I have an older Aninn Virginia flag that use to do the same but it seems they are printing all there 3'x5' flags.

[coasterville]

I seem to recall seeing an Annin newsletter that did state they were moving to printed construction for the vast majority of their flags. (excepting American flags and certain other high sellers).

The more shocking thing was the announcement that they have now outsourced the manufacture of nautical signal flags overseas as I recall they got their start making ship's flags.

[csaanv]

I seem to recall seeing an Annin newsletter that did state they were moving to printed construction for the vast majority of their flags. (excepting American flags and certain other high sellers).

The more shocking thing was the announcement that they have now outsourced the manufacture of nautical signal flags overseas as I recall they got their start making ship's flags.

All the while the prices still jump up! I guess I don't understand the economics of flagmaking. Is it the overhead or labor that keeps this trend going. I know the markup is at least over 100 percent. I don't see how retailers stay in business.

[coasterville]

To your last point - it makes you wonder with the proliferation of web and eBay based flag shops. There are so many of them, they must be making some money with it. Maybe, in that market sector, its because as Robin and I have been speculating, they start with cheap product ($2 per unit), sell for $5 or more, tack on shipping charges, and its a very easy product to store and ship.

Here is the link to the newsletter I referred to above - just citing my sources
http://www.annin.com/downloads/Annin..._070906_NP.pdf

So for you boaters, your Annin signal code flags are now being made in Sri Lanka.

What I don't get is the recent proliferation of web sites now offering the G-Spec flags. I have seen a few examples where they act like its super secret hush hush "Usually not available to the public" "Not sold in any store" and variation of the theme.

One thing for sure - the ready availability of such a wide variety of state, national, world, and other flags from such a wide array of sources has to be good for the flag collecting hobby, at least for those that didn't before have a full line flag shop in close proximity.