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snappy
Penny Collector Member
USA
301 Posts |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 00:12:41
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Both c140cessna and I are sneaking up on it. But you better believe neither of us is going to be dropping them in a Coinstar machine at 400 coins per minute and paying 8.9%! I would have been happy to cash this guy out for no fee just to have access to that many raw coins.
That is way more than a Coinstar machine will hold.. wonder if the Coinstar guy was there emptying the machine for him every couple of hours.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu702650(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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Jason
Penny Pincher Member
USA
138 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 00:32:12
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Does anyone know where abouts in Alabama this guy lives. I may actually have delivered furniture to him a few years back. I've thought about revisiting the guy i'm talking about, but i can't for the life of me rememer his exact location and i don't have the money to to buy all of the pennies this guy had.
M20/1USMS:US1Cu22700:US1Zn7500:US5CuNi720:US10Ag128:US25Ag89:US50Ag43:Us100Ag3 |
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CommandD
New Member
22 Posts |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
 Posted - 09/21/2007 : 06:29:18
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"Sixty pounds of the copper cents are available on a first-come, first-served basis for delivery in the U.S. for $250. Postage is paid. For more information, contact CCBS at (318) 372-6467 or write 608 Hudson Lane, Monroe, LA 71201"
Look it what they are charging for the 1959-1982 pennies...over $4.00 a pound. Copper is about $3.58 a pound. So that is a great racket if you get that much for them. |
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n/a
deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 13:54:24
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Hey this is the most interesting part of the story:
"At a growing number of locations, the company waives its fee if people convert their coins into a gift card rather than cash. Coinstar estimates that more than $10.5 billion in loose change is tucked away in American homes."
So that means if the Coinstar is in a grocery store then you could convert the coins to a grocery store gift card and use it to buy your groceries. How convenient. I will have to check the Coinstars near me to see if they offer free counting that way. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 14:25:00
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Creekrat.. you have to read the fine print. Those gift certificates are rarely for the grocery store you are shopping at.. that would be too convenient. The gift certificates are for places like Amazon.com or Starbucks and the ones you can get vary by machine. In my town some of them will add $ to your Starbucks card and some of them won't. So you should check on the machines to see what it will give you before dumping all your zincs in it. Also, the machine counts kind of slow. Their website states it processes 600 coins per minute, but actual tests show it does 400 coins per minute. You could get a serious backache standing in front of that machine loading the amount of zinc I know you have to try to convert back into usable capital.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu706700(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 14:30:46
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"then you could convert the coins to a grocery store gift card"
Gift card choices are very limited and unfortunetely not for your local grocery store. Also you should know that that those Coin Star machines are slooooow. Coin Star is a second to last resort for zinc dumping only ahead of hand rolling and returning zincs to banks.
By the way, those Gift Card deals work because Amazon and other places cut sellers of their gift cards a deal. Coin Star is likely getting a 10% commision from Amazon to sell gift cards for them. So Coin Star probably makes more when you get a gift card than when you don't.
In other words, no way would Coin Star ever be able to cut a gift card deal with a grocery store. Grocery store margins are too thin and they can not afford to sell gift cards at a discount to Coin Star.
By the way, it is also possible for a normal Joe like myself to get gift cards at a discount from face value. Its not particularly easy but possible...I've done it myself. Though it is probably not worth the hassle for most people...
List of gift cards is growing:
You must be logged in to see this link.
Places to get you started researching if you want to buy gift cards at a discount:
You must be logged in to see this link.
You must be logged in to see this link.
Edit: Sorry for the repeat post. I didn't see the above post in time. |
Edited by - horgad on 09/21/2007 14:32:07 |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 14:44:16
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Woohoo.. never saw the Circuit City gift card option before. I'm going to have to take a chair down there, camp out in front of the machine, take a few carts of zinc, load that baby up for several hours and get my new Big Screen TV with pennies!!!
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu706700(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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Crash
Penny Pincher Member
USA
155 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 14:47:08
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quote:
Both c140cessna and I are sneaking up on it. But you better believe neither of us is going to be dropping them in a Coinstar machine at 400 coins per minute and paying 8.9%! I would have been happy to cash this guy out for no fee just to have access to that many raw coins.
That's no joke. This guy might as well have thrown away $1164.52. There's no way on earth I would have used coinstar for that dump. And for that amount of money, I would never consider getting a gift card to Starbuck's or Amazon. For that kind of cash you better really like Venti Soymilk Latte's or seconhand paperback books. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 19:06:49
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I like secondhand paperback books.. they read just as good as the new ones <G> But that Circuit City thing, that might work for me.. I could run a few bags through the machine out of my zinc rejects each week and save up for that new big screen TV. And this way I will be hauling in a little less to my dump bank so they won't get as excited.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu706700(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 19:17:29
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Question:
Can you sell a gift card on ebay?
Since there is no way to prove how the card was loaded with credit,
and since it was intended for the gift card to travel (like a birthday or Christmas gift to a distant out of state relative) could the card be sold to someone else, or swapped for coins?
I should have chosen "Cut-n-Paste" as a forum name, since that is what I do, mostly. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2007 : 20:02:47
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Yes you can. But there is a fee.. LOL!! Actually there are several fees. There is the listing fee.. there is the backend fee, based on sales price.. then there is the PayPal fee.. since 98% of your customers will pay by PayPal. Also, remember they are going to want to get it at a discount from face, and they will factor in shipping. So you would be much better eating the 8.9% on Coinstar and saving yourself a lot of trouble.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu706700(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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n/a
deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2007 : 16:43:02
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I went to the bank within the supermarket today to pick up the 8 boxes I preordered. It was amazingly easy. They never asked if I had an account so I didn't open one. They just brought the 8 boxes to the counter and then I slid them into my grocery cart. From there I very easily wheeled them out to my car (Prius), and then slid them from cart into the hatchback. No one even noticed the boxes in my cart because they were the same color as grocery bags. So I did not have to hear any smart quips from other customers like I do at the bank. The only thing is I don't want to order from this bank/supermarket too often or I'll wear out my welcome. I'm going to find other bank/supermarkets in my area.
Back to Coinstar, I noticed on their website that they have a service where coins can be counted for free and then directly deposited into bank accounts. I don't know how it works - it just started and is not in my area yet, but it is mentioned on the website. But that still leaves the drawback of Coinstar being slow. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/22/2007 : 18:06:48
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Creekrat, I thougth I remembered you ordering 10 boxes instead of 8. Did they short you? Sounds really convenient.. I will have to give it a try. I can never get enough boxes of pennies. I think I read on another thread that somebody had a free Coinstar in their Credit Union. They tried it out, but it took them 25 minutes to feed it 2 bags. If you can find one of your banks that will let you deposit large amounts in those plastic coin shipment bags it works pretty well. Each of my 2 Glory counters count at 1800 coins per minute. You just hook up the bag, set the batch stop to 5000 and fire them up. Then just toss the bags in the back of the Toyoyo and haul them down to the bank. This works pretty well for me.. I never have to wait for some bank's slow machine or for them to change bags.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu706700(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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CommandD
New Member
22 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 02:20:14
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| Let's not kid ourselves - there is no way that this man dropped 1.3 million pennies into a coinstar machine. What do they have room for, at most? 25,000 coins? And just as unlikely as that feat is the idea that he actually paid a commission for converting those coins. I'm sure this was a publicity stunt arranged by Coinstar (it worked!) On their website they have a line where they say that if you have more than 2 grand in coins that they want to hear from you? I'm sure that is not because they are goin to send an armored car by to help you get the coins to the machine safely! It's because they are looking for compelling or fun stories of why people finally cashed in their coins (to get married, start a business, etc.) for advertisements of some kind. |
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deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 10:48:31
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quote:
Originally posted by HoardCopperByTheTon
Creekrat, I thougth I remembered you ordering 10 boxes instead of 8. Did they short you?
Hoard, you have a good memory. I thought I ordered 10 boxes too, but when I got there they said I only ordered 8.
Not here is the BUMMER part I just discovered. ALL OF THESE PENNIES APPEAR TO BE 100% ZINCS! This is the first time I received pennies in Brinks boxes instead of mint boxes. They came wrapped in plastic. So far I have sorted 5 rolls and found no coppers at all. Usually I find 20-25% coppers, and I have never encountered a pure zinc roll before.
So my question is, what is going on here? I feel that these rolls have been pre sorted. I wonder if Brinks is sorting and hoarding now. I really don't feel like unwrapping the rest of those boxes to find only zincs. I think I will open the remaining 7 boxes, check a few rolls in each, and then figure out what to do. What a bummer. |
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deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 12:54:48
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| I decided to check those remaining boxes by weighing the rolls. Turns out it looks like they are all zincs, weighing about 125-126 gms each. I wonder if this is a preview of what's coming with pennies. Places presorting out the coppers. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 13:05:12
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YOU FOUND MY DUMP BANK!!!!
Sorry, Zinc happens. I know how depressing getting a zinc shipment can be. Fortunately I have never gotten a circulated zinc box, but I did get an entire double shipment (48 boxes) of zinc 2007 pennies. At least it was easy to sort. After opening the first 7 boxes I was getting to where I didn't want to open any more. The bad thing was I had already put in my order for 24 more boxes from the same bank for the following week when I picked these up. I was really dreading that next pickup. Fortunately the following week the boxes were mixed.. about 60/40 new with the new rolls and used rolls mixed in each box. I don't think Brinks is sorting yet.. they make too much money just moving it around. But it is possible you have run into a non ore producing vein. Are there any other sorters in your area? I can't remember where your area is. Somebody like me dumped all their zinc and it got sent to Brinks where it got put in the huge penny bins. Then when they fired up the rolling machines they got solid rolls of zinc pennies. You may have found where those pennies you dumped at the credit union ended up.
I think you would be better off sorting these with a scale. You know I am a fan of having the right equipment. You can do the individual rolls on a digital scale. If they weigh 126 grams you don't have to open them. I have forgotten what the exact weight of a solid zinc box in brinks wrap is. So you will have to do verify the first 50 rolls individually first. Then put them back in the box and weigh the box on a good postal scale or meat scale (I have both) This will give you your tare weight for a box of zinc. Then you can cheack each box without even opening it by comparing its weight to your zinc standard. This should save a lot of time and depression. The good thing is that this zinc load won't tie up any of your hoarding capital for long.. you will get 100% of your money back when you dump them.
It could have been worse.. you could have gotten 10 boxes instead of 8.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu713150(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
Edited by - HoardCopperByTheTon on 09/23/2007 13:29:13 |
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Ryedale
Administrator
USA
523 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 19:29:22
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quote:
Originally posted by creekrat
I decided to check those remaining boxes by weighing the rolls. Turns out it looks like they are all zincs, weighing about 125-126 gms each. I wonder if this is a preview of what's coming with pennies. Places presorting out the coppers.
Creekrat,
Two questions, were these dark colored and mixed years of zincs? I presume yes because you had to check them, (not all shiny) also, have you gotten boxes from this branch (in the store) before? Could be the armored services are sending out "special" boxes when an odd order comes in. Is there any credit unions in your area? You could look into buying all customer wrapped rolls from them. Offer the tellers the deal of not having to unwrap them, provided they are required to do so before sending with the armored service.
Sorry to hear of your bad luck on the 8 boxes.
Ryedale
Hoard Copper Pennies,
The market will develop |
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n/a
deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 21:13:24
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These were not 2007 shiny brand new zincs. I have gotten those before and decided to just save them. These were mixed years, but 100% zinc. All of the other banks I have gotten pennies from have given me non-Brinks boxes - I presume they come from the local Fed Bank. This is the first time I have ordered from this grocery/bank, and the first time I have gotten 100% circulated zincs. I wonder if Ryedale's hypothesis might be right - Brinks sends out "special" boxes for special orders - but that would mean they are sorting them.
The funny thing is, I almost had a sixth sense about the whole thing as soon as I opened the first box. I saw that they were circulated coins, but for some reason the thought went through my head that they were all zincs, and that turned out to be correct.
It is possible that the coins I dump at the CU are ending up at Brinks, but I have not really dumped all that many so far - probably less than $1000 worth. It pains me to think that now I have to dump these 8 boxes. I'm glad I didn't have to open an account at this bank, for I am never going back there for coins.
Ryedale, I have tried to get the CU's to sell me their bagged coins before to no avail. At some point I decided I was just being a pest to keep bugging them about it.
Even with these setbacks sorting is probably well worth it in the long run. Gold and other commodities are at near record highs, and copper will be following the same route. |
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 21:25:11
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Creekrat, don't give up on that bank yet. Could be you just got a bad batch. We all get skunked occasionally. Just do a box or 2 at a time from now on to see if it improves in the future. When they start giving you copper you can up your order. I liked your idea of the grocery store as a source bank.
If your percentages are low.. just sort more.
"Preserving REAL coinage.. 2 tons at a time... and FAKE coinage.. a quarter ton at a time.. just for speculation"
HoardCode0.1:M49/15USCA:US1Cu713150(125000 Reserved):US1Zi150000:US5Ni9500:CA5Ni1150 |
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Ryedale
Administrator
USA
523 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2007 : 22:32:51
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The funny thing is, I almost had a sixth sense about the whole thing as soon as I opened the first box. I saw that they were circulated coins, but for some reason the thought went through my head that they were all zincs, and that turned out to be correct.
Are you sure it wasn't a sixth cents? har har har
You'll find more, a few hundred billion coins need to be sorted.
Thanks for sharing the story.
Ryedale
Hoard Copper Pennies,
The market will develop |
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n/a
deleted
43 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2007 : 06:32:52
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| Hoard, you're right, I should give that grocery/bank another chance by waiting a few weeks and then just ordering a couple of boxes. It could have been a fluke, and it is awfully convenient... |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2007 : 07:29:57
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My best boxes come form Brink's. I have been hitting close to 30% copper on my orders now for the last 6 weeks or so (knock on wood). One thing you can be sure of, at least around here, is that Brinks does so much volume that in a week you will be seeing a totally different batch of pennies.
The only bad batch I got from Brink's was a bunch where it looked link they had dumped a bag of 2007 in with the regular mix of coins. Because of the 2007s, I ended up with an order of boxes that was running like 10% and I almost didn't sort them.
The downside with ordering one or two boxes is that if you hit a good week (like finding 20+ wheats per box), those boxes will be gone by next week. I've had weeks where I wished that I ordered 4X as much as I did... |
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Frugi
Administrator
USA
627 Posts |
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world records
Forum Locked
