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coincollector101
Penny Sorter Member
86 Posts |
 Posted - 12/17/2007 : 20:23:14
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Im going to call the carriers around here tomorrow.
To work a contract out to pick up my rejects.
I know theres a few guys on here that has dealt with them before.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me somethings to expect?
Theres Brinks, Dunbar and at systems.
If any in site to this would be Great.
I will let you all know what I find out also.
I am wearing out my welcome dumping at all the banks around here.
Happy hunting,
CC
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2007 : 20:54:14
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| I am curious what you find out. Will they take them in bulk uncounted and then they just run them through their counters and credit you? Do they need to be bagged in exactly $50 bags. Would they give you a better deal if you machine rolled your own? Is there a possible option where you drop off your pennies at their processing center and save yourself a big portion of the fees? Maybe they can drop off a supply of fresh pennies for you to sort when they pick up since you are paying for the trip anyway. Let us know what you find out. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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fiatboy
Administrator
912 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2007 : 22:55:11
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quote:
Maybe they can drop off a supply of fresh pennies for you to sort when they pick up since you are paying for the trip anyway.
I was thinking the same thing.
Let us know what you find out. I've talked to a few off-duty armored truck drivers, and though they were tight-lipped about everything, they did say that they'd pickup/deliver anywhere. You sign a contract with them to have pickups/delivery for a set amount of time---a year perhaps? I have no idea how much it would cost, however. I know that there have been some coin hunters that actually got this service, but it seems that it would only be profitable if you sort extremely large quantities. My concern would be having all the neighbors see a Brinks truck come by my place every week. Might raise a few eyebrows. I, for one, am too paranoid to let most people know that I collect coins. When I worked at a coin shop, there were too many stolen collections that people brought in to sell.
Maybe you could go to the armored truck place yourself to dropoff and pickup coins?
I've toyed with this idea in the past, and I can't wait to hear what you learn! |
"Bart, it's not about how many stocks you have, it's about how much copper wire you can get out of the building." --- Homer Simpson |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 08:14:56
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I kind of figured that they were used to dealing with long contracts and regular visits, but I've always wondered if they would be willing to do a onetime pick-up and how much it would cost. I could see myself saving up six months of zinc rejects and calling Brinks to come pick them up. It seems like this would be more efficient and potentially cheaper if you could Brinks to do it.
Also, I've always assummed that you would need a coin counter and a bunch of $50 bags to return to Brinks, but maybe not? Please, let us know everything you find out. |
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n/a
deleted
27 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 12:43:21
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"Maybe you could go to the armored truck place yourself to dropoff and pickup coins?"
This sounds like a good idea, also would avoid the problem of brinks showing up at your house. If they sell bulk pennies that would be ideal. :)
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Scrooge's signature dive into money. |
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Tourney64
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1035 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 19:25:39
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| Remember what MaDeuce said. He had a regular truck from the courier service (i.e. Brinks) do the pickup and delivery after the 1st time. |
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MaDeuce
Penny Pincher Member
USA
124 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 21:00:05
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coincollector101,
I had to sign a one year contract with Brinks. In it, I had to commit to a minimum service level, which was used to arrive at my monthly fee. My setup was one pickup and one dropoff per week. Of course, I could order more. In fact, I could never really stick to a schedule, so all of my pickups/dropoffs were "special". It ended up costing $35 each time the truck came to my office. I thought that was a bargain, as it included a big ass truck, a driver, and a guard.
I was surprised that there was no charge based on the quantity of coins / size of delivery. If I had four skids of coins delivered, there was no extra charge of any kind -- it was covered by my monthly service fee. If there were four skids in the truck, there wasn't room for much else. Although I'll have to say that I did see other things in there from time to time, and, often, they weren't very big (e.g., a sack of, I assume, bills).
I could never figure out their pricing. I came to assume that they expected to make it up by charging me to roll coins. They charged $0.20/roll which, I'm told, is the rate they use when they really don't want your business. I let them roll my coins once, then I started farming it out to another service that was only $0.06/roll. It was actually the company that they outsourced their rolling to!
Here are a few thoughts I have, which may or may not be of any value...
1) If you have any significant quantity of coins, you will have to have them on a skid and you will have to load them by forklift. They won't let a truck hang around for a long time while you carry boxes back and forth.
2) I never asked, but I bet they will only service a commercial location. A "one-time" pickup might be a different story, as I know they offer special bullion services for people buying/selling gold. The bullion service will go to a residence for sure.
3) Having Brinks come to your location is like flying a blimp above your location with a big spotlight shining on your office and a huge sign saying "I keep money here." My biggest point of contention with Brinks was that they compromised my security, not enhanced it. They disagreed strenuously, saying that they have all kinds of studies that show they improve security by demonstrating you are serious about security. I'm sure that's true about retail locations, banks, ATMs, etc., but it is damn sure not true for generic office parks. Nobody in my office park had a clue about what I was doing, until, of course, the Brinks truck started to show up. On this list, we all know that a skid of pennies isn't worth all that much and that it's a hell of a lot of work to move -- so much so that it isn't worth a criminal's time. But criminals, of course, won't look at it like that -- they'll simply assume that my 55gallon drums are full of $100 bills that they can stuff their pockets with. It's not reality that matters in these situations -- it's people's perceptions. For sorters like us, armored cars reduce safety.
I did finally work out a way to have pickups/deliveries made by an 18' yellow Ryder truck. This was awesome. Generic. Non-descript. Boring. And someone loading drums into a Ryder truck in an office park is simply part of the scenery.
4) Brinks is paranoid about security. Some of the paranoia is probably good, much of it is idiotic. Our guys said that they would never allow a non-Brinks vehicle in their facility or dock. So we could not have done our own pickups/dropoffs.
5) By all means, talk to Brinks and see what they say. However, I also recommend that you talk a couple of smaller, local companies. I think you'll find them more helpful, more flexible, and much cheaper. For example, one local provider that I spoke with could make pickups/dropoffs in special unmarked vans. This is more like it.
6) While not really important, I was really surprised about how inaccurately bulk coins are accounted for. Brinks would only reconcile to the nearest $100. In other words, if I gave them $4,475 in pennies for deposit, only $4,400 would be credited to my account. They "don't sweat the small stuff," as they say. But, I think that's the way the bulk coin world operates; I don't think it's just them.
Good luck!
MaDeuce |
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MaDeuce
Penny Pincher Member
USA
124 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 21:10:05
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coincollector101,
One other comment I just thought of...
Working with some of the smaller local companies also may give you the opportunity to cut some deals.
For example, I lucked-out and found a company that was getting a huge amount of loose coin from a big customer. Their customer was paying them to count, roll, and deposit the bulk coin for them. I think their process was to sort, count, wrap, deposit.
I cut a deal with them to give me their bulk nickels in between the count and wrap steps. They would send me 55 gallon drums of nickels. I could do what I wanted to with them, keep whatever I wanted, and then return the ones I didn't want to them in 55 gallon drums. They would charge me for the coins that I kept and they would charge me to roll the coins that I sent back. They charged $0.06/roll for rolling. If you are paying attention, you'll see that they are getting paid once to roll some coins they never have to roll, and they are getting paid twice to roll the coins that they do roll. So, they were rather excited about this type of deal. And it was good for me, as it was a great source of unwrapped bulk coins.
Anyway, if you are lucky and run across the right company at the right time, you might be able to get a good source as well as a good sink.
Good luck!
MaDeuce
P.S. If you hang around here for very long, you'll have to move up to a 200 or 300 level course. And before you know it, you'll be in graduate school. |
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coincollector101
Penny Sorter Member
86 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2007 : 21:38:07
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MaDeuce,
Thanks for your information I found a cupple smaller operations in the area im going to check out tomarrow!!I cant wait.
I just checked the three I knew about...
I Really Appreciate Expertise in this matter.
My Father and I are Partnering up in the coin sorting.
I job was to get the coins and run them...He sorted them for wheats and returned them....Hes got sick of returning them...He says where wearing out our welcome at the bank lol.
What do you mean about
"P.S. If you hang around here for very long, you'll have to move up to a 200 or 300 level course. And before you know it, you'll be in graduate school."
Happy sorting,
CC |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1641 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 07:39:41
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At a glance, the economics on hiring somebody to deliver/return pennies just doesn't look too promising for non-industrial sized sorters.
Let's assume that the charge is 6 cents a roll to return zincs. At 25% copper, that means you sort 67 pennies, keep 17 coppers, make 17 cents, return 50 zincs, and pay 6 cents. Right there that is 35% of your "profit" down the drain on the rolling charge. Then you have to add in the pick-up and delivery charges and the cost of a fork-lift.
Still I would love to see some more numbers...
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HoardCopperByTheTon
Administrator
USA
6807 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 10:04:20
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| But if you rolled your own and the pick up/delivery fee was reasonable it might just work. |
If your percentages are low.. just sort more. If your percentages are high.. just sort more.
Now selling Copper pennies. 1.6x plus shipping. Limited amounts available. |
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cyberdan
Penny Collector Member
USA
289 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 10:18:10
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quote:
Originally posted by MaDeuce
4) Brinks is paranoid about security. Some of the paranoia is probably good, much of it is idiotic.
That is so true about Brinks out here in CA. Last week my BofA teller told me that when a certain Brinks crew come to their branch one of the guards always comes in and goes out with his weapon drawn. Everyone gets a kick out of it except the old lady customers.  His nickname is Barney Fife.
Now this bank isn't in East L.A. or Watts it is in a quiet little community where the worst crime is probably J walking by those same little old ladies.  |
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fiatboy
Administrator
912 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 14:48:50
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quote:
His nickname is Barney Fife.
hahahaha. nice.
Those Brinks guys (and gals) sure are characters!! |
"Bart, it's not about how many stocks you have, it's about how much copper wire you can get out of the building." --- Homer Simpson |
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coincollector101
Penny Sorter Member
86 Posts |
Posted - 12/19/2007 : 18:12:30
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Hey MaDeuce,
Check this out I found on brinks website.
"Amazing accuracy: Accuracy is a critical component in coin processing, and you can count on Brink's to process your coin with the highest degree of accuracy and back it up with electronic financial reports that detail your transactions for fast, simple"
You must be logged in to see this link.
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Im calling the armored car carriers in my area
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