Greetings,
I believe I understand what it is your looking for. I think what you
want is a magnetic card reader/writer terminal that is capable of
transmitting encoded data to a central server. If this is not correct,
my answer will be off but if you ask for a clarification or followup
to my answer, I'll redo.
I have found a company called All Things Point of Sale
(http://www.allthingspos.com/) that has a very extensive selection of
the items you would need to accomplish your task. I will list them
below:
Unitech MSR206 Magnetic Stripe Encoder-
"The MSR206 Series is designed to offer a card reading/writing
solution for ISO 7811-6 formats." The MSR206 comes equipped with
Magnetic Stripe Reader/Writer, RS-232 (interface), Tracks 1, 2, and 3,
Cable included. It's retail price is $1250 but is on sale with this
company for $864.67, a savings of over $380. The url for this item is
http://www.allthingspos.com/unitech/msr206-magnetic-stripe-encoder.htm
and the specification url for this item is
http://www.allthingspos.com/pdf/Unitech/msr206.pdf (Note this is an
Adobe .pdf file)
This company also offers card printer/encoder solutions, however, they
are much more expensive but offer the opportunity to design your own
magnetic cards from blank stock. (If you are interested in these
items, go to the above website and in their search field, enter the
word 'encoder'. You will be presented with a list of available
printer/encoders)
Now I'll move on to your second inquiry as to where you could purchase
bulk magstripe card stock. One company who seems to have very
reasonable prices is CardLogix (http://www.cardlogix.com/). They have
numerous types of plastic card resources, from completely blank card
stock, to blank card stock with magnetic stripe, etc. From your
question, you are obviously already wanting your cards to be fitted
with the magnetic stripe. They sell these in packages of 100. The more
packages you buy, the cheaper the price per package. Their prices
range from $7.50 per package to $37.20 per package, again, depending
on how many packages you buy and what quality of card you're looking
for. The url for their page where they offer these products is
http://www.cardlogix.com/product_magstripe.asp
They also offer full, custom-printing of your cards if you like, as
well as flush mount and roll on assembly availability, their cards are
offered in Track 1, 2, 3 and 5. Their cards are CR-80 size in 20 and
30 mil. They use high quality PVC and have finish options of mirror,
matte or combination. They also offer the following colors: silver,
gold, blue, red and green. Other choices also include: punching,
dye-sublimation printing and double blanked cards. They claim years of
experience and full quality control on each card.
I hope this successfully answers your questions, if you need to post a
followup or something isn't exactly clear, let me know.
Thanks and good luck,
---mosquitohawk-ga
--------------------------------------------------------------
My search strategy included the following terms: terminal point of
sale magnetic card encoder
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=terminal+point+of+sale+magnetic+card+encoder+
My second search strategy included the following terms: magnetic
stripe card stock
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=magnetic+stripe+card+stock |
Clarification of Answer by
mosquitohawk-ga
on
05 Jun 2002 09:02 PDT
Oh, okay, I understand. I thought you wanted to enter the specific
item number onto the card itself at the time of purchase.
Okay, the major manufacturer of POS systems is NCR, so I contacted
their technical support and spoke to James H. According to James, the
NCR-7452 model (http://www.ncr.com/products/hardware/sa_7452.htm) is
going to be the product you need, at the least cost. I presented him
with your situation, wanting to send with the card reader data, a
self-assigned numeric code to identify the purchase or customer or
whatever you want. He explained that the ability to do this, is a
software issue and not a matter of hardware, so the system you
purchase must be equipped with the software allowing you to do this.
The NCR-7452 is equipped with Scanmaster software which allows you to
manipulate each sale individually as you've requested.
You can contact NCR directly to receive a referral to a retailer in
your area who will contact you for a demonstration and to teach you to
use the system should you purchase it. Their number is 1-800-CALL-NCR
(225-5627).
You can also purchase a system online from a new and used retailer
called Xerxes Computer Corporation (http://www.xcc.com/). This company
sells new and used POS systems and specifically mentions on their
website the NCR-7452 on their front page. Their phone number is
1-888-777-0531. They do not list a price, but ask the inquirer to call
about a current pricing for used or new. I was unable to contact their
seller, he was out of the office and I reached his voice mail.
These systems are apparently custom, so most places have been
reluctant to give out any prices, but I have forced a few sales people
to give me best estimates on 'average' systems.
Other places I have found are:
Navitech (http://www.navitech.com/ncr-7452.asp) who says their average
price for this model is around $3-4000. (1-800-794-9747)
Register5 (http://www.register5.com/)
Systech (http://www.srspos.com/)
National Information Systems (http://www.nisystems.com/ncr_7452.htm)
I hope this clarifies my answer, I know you were probably looking for
something simpler, but when only using a terminal and card reader, you
probably wouldn't be able to accomplish what you want according to the
information I've received. Good luck!
--mosquitohawk-ga
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