Product review: Loose Change, Digital Edition
Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 7:37 pmWhen I was at the last VCA auction Nora Mead was there and she was selling the "Loose Change, Digital Edition" DVD.
For those of you who are not familiar with Loose Change, it was a magazine from the last 70s thru the late 90s which focused on antique slot machines. It had some very good articles in it.
Anyway, Nora and David Mead decided to make a digital edition and put it on DVD.
What they did was take every single issue and scan in the page. The DVD consists of a pdf file for every issue. There is also a pdf file which contains information about what is covered in each issue.
The DVD sells for $44.95 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Loose-Change-Magazine-Digital-Edition/dp/B004DM6NDE/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A3DAHIR0FKS8P0) and I feel is well worth the price.
There is a problem, in my opinion, with what they did though. They did not make the pdfs searchable. Each page of the pdf is is just an image of each page.
However, I was able to fix this problem using software which can convert a PDF full of images to a PDF with text using OCR (optical character recognition).
It took a while but I did convert every single PDF to a searchable PDF.
I then combined all the PDFs into a single PDF. This way I have all issues in a single document and can search everything very easily.
For example, I am currently researching a Mills Roulette. Once the searchable PDF was created I was able to find all references to a Mills Roulette in about 10 seconds.
That search found that one sold in 1987 at a VCA auction for $23,500 and another one sold for $27,500 in 1988.
I also learned that one sold in an Americana Auction on 10/5/85 but no prices were reported for this auction.
FYI, several years ago I took my Slots 1,2,3,4 book and scanned them in and converted them to searchable PDF. I have since combined the Slots 1,2,3,4 and Loose Change Digital Edition PDFs into a single PDF. I now have a single PDF which has a huge wealth of slot machine history.
Bottom line, I think the digital edition is well worth the $44.95 price tag even with the non searchable PDFs in it.
For those of you who are not familiar with Loose Change, it was a magazine from the last 70s thru the late 90s which focused on antique slot machines. It had some very good articles in it.
Anyway, Nora and David Mead decided to make a digital edition and put it on DVD.
What they did was take every single issue and scan in the page. The DVD consists of a pdf file for every issue. There is also a pdf file which contains information about what is covered in each issue.
The DVD sells for $44.95 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Loose-Change-Magazine-Digital-Edition/dp/B004DM6NDE/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=A3DAHIR0FKS8P0) and I feel is well worth the price.
There is a problem, in my opinion, with what they did though. They did not make the pdfs searchable. Each page of the pdf is is just an image of each page.
However, I was able to fix this problem using software which can convert a PDF full of images to a PDF with text using OCR (optical character recognition).
It took a while but I did convert every single PDF to a searchable PDF.
I then combined all the PDFs into a single PDF. This way I have all issues in a single document and can search everything very easily.
For example, I am currently researching a Mills Roulette. Once the searchable PDF was created I was able to find all references to a Mills Roulette in about 10 seconds.
That search found that one sold in 1987 at a VCA auction for $23,500 and another one sold for $27,500 in 1988.
I also learned that one sold in an Americana Auction on 10/5/85 but no prices were reported for this auction.
FYI, several years ago I took my Slots 1,2,3,4 book and scanned them in and converted them to searchable PDF. I have since combined the Slots 1,2,3,4 and Loose Change Digital Edition PDFs into a single PDF. I now have a single PDF which has a huge wealth of slot machine history.
Bottom line, I think the digital edition is well worth the $44.95 price tag even with the non searchable PDFs in it.