Coinstar Warning
Evelyn C. Leeper
(almost 10%), but they apparently frequently undercount the amount.
I took advantage of their recent offer for free coin counting if you
took an electronic gift certificate for one of their partner merchants
instead of cash. In addition, if you counted at least $30 worth, you
got an extra $10 amazon.com gift certificate.
So I got three rolls of quarters at the bank ($30) and dumped them in.
The total Coinstar registered was $29.61. I threw in two more quarters
to make $30.11. When I got home, I googled and discovered that this was
not an unusual occurrence.
They did send the additional $10 certificate, so I got $40.11 for my
$40.50, and spending money at amazon is not a problem for me, but I
would never use them without being offered a big premium like this.
Even if they don't take a commission if you take a certificate, they may
still short-change you.
--
Evelyn C. Leeper
I believe I found the missing link between animal
and civilized man. It is us. -Konrad Lorenz
Shawn Hirn
"Evelyn C. Leeper" <ele...@optonline.net> wrote:
> Not only does Coinstar charge an exorbitant fee for counting your coins
> (almost 10%), but they apparently frequently undercount the amount.
>
> I took advantage of their recent offer for free coin counting if you
> took an electronic gift certificate for one of their partner merchants
> instead of cash. In addition, if you counted at least $30 worth, you
> got an extra $10 amazon.com gift certificate.
>
> So I got three rolls of quarters at the bank ($30) and dumped them in.
> The total Coinstar registered was $29.61. I threw in two more quarters
> to make $30.11. When I got home, I googled and discovered that this was
> not an unusual occurrence.
>
> They did send the additional $10 certificate, so I got $40.11 for my
> $40.50, and spending money at amazon is not a problem for me, but I
> would never use them without being offered a big premium like this.
> Even if they don't take a commission if you take a certificate, they may
> still short-change you.
This topic has been discussed on this newsgroup before, not not
recently. Posting that warning was a good idea on your part. All coin
counting machines are subject to some amount of error. The mistake made
in your situation was 1.3% off, which isn't terrible, but it always
seems like the error is never in the customer's favor.
In my opinion, the only sensible reason to use those retail coin
counting machines is to get a deal like you received. People who use
a CoinStar machine just to count change are follish if they don't take
advantage of one of those gift certificate deals.
larry
> In article <gXf2j.6$RG...@newsfe09.lga>,
> "Evelyn C. Leeper" <ele...@optonline.net> wrote:
>>So I got three rolls of quarters at the bank ($30) and dumped them in.
>>The total Coinstar registered was $29.61. I threw in two more quarters
>>to make $30.11. When I got home, I googled and discovered that this was
>>not an unusual occurrence.
>>
. The mistake made
> in your situation was 1.3% off, which isn't terrible, but it always
> seems like the error is never in the customer's favor.
>
> In my opinion, the only sensible reason to use those retail coin
> counting machines is to get a deal like you received. People who use
> a CoinStar machine just to count change are follish if they don't take
> advantage of one of those gift certificate deals.
Did you open and count what you got from the bank? Seems a
lot of bank customer hand rolled rolls end up short. The
machine rolls from a large bank or the fed, with the paper
crimped at the ends like a can lid, are very seldom wrong.
The automated roll machine counts the coins and then
measures the height of the stack and won't roll unless both
are correct. Bags of rolled coins are weighed before they
are put in the vault.
One of our banks won't accept hand rolled coins without the
last 6 digits of the account number on them.
-larry / dallas
Sanity
"larry" <no...@home.com> wrote in message
news:9qi2j.48067$eY.1...@newssvr13.news.prodigy.net...
But how do you get 29.61 with a roll of quarters?
larry
I figured it was a damaged quarter or a few canadiens got
mixed in ;-)
I'll start the math,
1 counted as a penny .01
1 counted as a dime .10
118 counted as quarters 29.50
120 29.61
feel like I back in my coin vault days in Houston ;-)
-larry / dallas
Evelyn C. Leeper
> Shawn Hirn wrote:
>> In article <gXf2j.6$RG...@newsfe09.lga>,
>> "Evelyn C. Leeper" <ele...@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>>> So I got three rolls of quarters at the bank ($30) and dumped them
>>> in. The total Coinstar registered was $29.61. I threw in two more
>>> quarters to make $30.11. When I got home, I googled and discovered
>>> that this was not an unusual occurrence.
>>>
> . The mistake made
>> in your situation was 1.3% off, which isn't terrible, but it always
>> seems like the error is never in the customer's favor.
>>
>> In my opinion, the only sensible reason to use those retail coin
>> counting machines is to get a deal like you received. People who use a
>> CoinStar machine just to count change are follish if they don't take
>> advantage of one of those gift certificate deals.
>
> Did you open and count what you got from the bank? Seems a lot of bank
> customer hand rolled rolls end up short.
It was definitely all quarters, but the machine read one as a dime and
one as a penny.
sarge137
Hmmmmm.....very interesting!
I don't use Coinstar, but every now and again I take a quart jar of
mixed coins to my credit union. They don't charge me, but they run
them through their coin counter, and credit my account. The deposit
is usually between $60 and $80. It never occurred to me that the
count might not be accurate. I think next time I'll waste an hour or
so of my time and count them before I go. I don't think they'd
deliberately cheat me, but are these machines ever calibrated? A
dollar here, a dollar there...
Thanks,
Sarge
Rod Speed
At design time they obviously are.
> A dollar here, a dollar there...
But most clearly feel that that aint worth their time for manual coin counting.
Bill
>
> I don't use Coinstar, but every now and again I take a quart jar of
> mixed coins to my credit union. They don't charge me, but they run
> them through their coin counter, and credit my account. The deposit
> is usually between $60 and $80. It never occurred to me that the
> count might not be accurate. I think next time I'll waste an hour or
> so of my time and count them before I go. I don't think they'd
> deliberately cheat me, but are these machines ever calibrated? A
> dollar here, a dollar there...
And what's going to happen if their count is off? Will they
believe you over what their machine says (and how are they going
to get just your coins to check it)? I had a similar problem to
the other poster's. I bought 3 rolls of quarters from my bank
and the CS machine rang them up one quarter short. I never
thought to weigh them before dumping them in the machine to
check that they were the same, and I would expect my bank to
verify that they were correct before giving them to me. I
certainly trust them more than the CS machine. I wonder if they
ever make an error in the customer's favor?
Bill
sarge137
Well, I doubt there'll be a big enough difference for me to worry
about it, but 'm going to do it anyway. Since I know my credit union
wouldn't rip me off, I'm want to see how my results compare with the
OPs.
Since my interest is now piqued, I'm going to call my account rep
tomorrow and ask how she'd handle such a dispute. I'll check back.
Regards,
Sarge
ulti...@hotmail.com
> Not only does Coinstar charge an exorbitant fee for counting your coins
> (almost 10%), but they apparently frequently undercount the amount.
>
I haven't even seen a Coinstar kiosk anywhere in L.A for the past
several years, but I'm sure they are here. Are people really that lazy
that they can't count the coins in advance and need to go to a robot
to do it (don't take this as a flame, it's something I have wondered
for years now ever since I heard about it)? In fact, this would be a
much better activity than sitting down and getting sludge pumped at
you from the tee vee.
Larry Bud
I used coinstar once. I had $210 worth of coins. It would have taken
me hours to count and roll all of those. For $20, I did it in about
10 minutes. Since I freelance as a web developer/programmer for $80
an hour, it was a simple ROI calculation to make the decision.
Goomba38
> I haven't even seen a Coinstar kiosk anywhere in L.A for the past
> several years, but I'm sure they are here. Are people really that lazy
> that they can't count the coins in advance and need to go to a robot
> to do it (don't take this as a flame, it's something I have wondered
> for years now ever since I heard about it)? In fact, this would be a
> much better activity than sitting down and getting sludge pumped at
> you from the tee vee.
Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
luggage at the airport....
Evelyn C. Leeper
One approach my friends take with their change is to get the rolls form
the bank and pay their children (ages 11 and 4) to roll the coins. I
think for quarters they may get a dollar per roll (which is what
Coinstar charges, but they'd rather pay their children and teach them
about working to earn money).
Goomba38
situation at all.
Jeff Jonas
since vending machines don't take pennies,
and I choose "donate to Unicef" so there's no fee deducated.
I agree: I've never been credited nickles or dimes when counting pennies.
I no longer have any coins in the car's coin tray
since nearly all toll roads in NY/NJ/CT/PA/MD/VA
take E-Z Pass, but I use coins (particularly dollar coins)
when buying train tickets from the vending machines
and I need quarters for the laundromat.
--
-- mejeep deMeep ferret!
George Grapman
I stopped keeping change in my car when the city began offering
pre-paid parking cards. They are $20 and $50. You insert them into a
slot on the meter. The stored value is displayed and then it deducts in
increments of 25 cents which is ten minutes in most neighborhoods and 5
minutes or less downtown. I have not had a parking ticket since using
these cards.
nos...@nospam.com
I count out my quarters but let coin start count out everything else.
spinner
> I count out my quarters but let coin start count out everything else.
I take my coins to my bank and use the coin counter there for free.
BeaF...@msn.com
> I count out my quarters but let coin start count out everything else.
I save my coins as a type of savings plan. To me it is painless, just
empty my pockets at the end of the day. I emptied three years of coins
in a CoinStar and let it count the money and I had over $1,500! It
made a nice vacation.
BTW my bank will not cash more than a few dollars worth of coins even
with an account.
George Grapman
There is a bank in the NY-NJ area that lets non-customers use their
counter. Can't remember the name.
Don Klipstein
>spinner wrote:
>> I take my coins to my bank and use the coin counter there for free.
>
> There is a bank in the NY-NJ area that lets non-customers use their
>counter. Can't remember the name.
Commerce Bank?
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
George Orwell
>I use the CoinStar only for pennies
>since vending machines don't take pennies,
There are two machines that accept pennies, the self-checkout machines at
Home Depot and Lowes. Besides dropping in all my spare quarters, dimes, and
nickels, you can also insert pennies. The machines also take dollar coins,
which I sometimes get in change when I buy stamps at the post office. It's
a great way to get rid of all your spare change when buying something at
the big hardware stores. I bought some air filters over the weekend, and
ended up inserting over $6 in coins before having to insert some bills...
Il mittente di questo messaggio|The sender address of this
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reale ma all'indirizzo fittizio|person but to a fake address of an
di un sistema anonimizzatore |anonymous system
Per maggiori informazioni |For more info
https://www.mixmaster.it
sarge137
>
> - Show quoted text -
Well, I took my half full jar of coins by my credit union this
morning. I counted before I left and came up with $27.83.
The teller came back with a ticket for that exact amount and I signed
the deposit slip. Not a scientific test, but I'm satisfied.
On the way out I stopped by my account rep's desk, and asked her what
would happen if I disputed the count. She told me that the coins are
held in a seperate bin until the deposit is finalized, so they can be
easily pulled for a recount. If the recount comes up the same they'll
give the customer the option of accepting the count as is; give them
tubes so they roll the coins themselves, which are then verified by
weight; or taking the coins elsewhere. They test their coin and bill
counters at least once a week according to criteria provided by the
manufacturer. The machines themselves keep internal reports of each
transaction and test. And finally, those periodic tests are reviewed
and verified during their annual federal audit.
I told her about this discussion thread and she said the Coinstar
machines aren't checked for consistency as often, if at all, like
those used in regulated and insured financial institutions. She
didn't know, and wouldn't speculate if they were designed the same as
hers, or if they could be manipulated in some way to deliberately
undercount the coins.
Regards,
Sarge
George Grapman
Yes, thanks.
aemeijers
And once they are rolled, do what with them? Around here (SW MI), stores
will not accept customer-rolled coins for fear of slugs and short
counts. Even the credit union where I have an account, will only accept
2-3 rolls at a time, with my account number written on them.
As a kid back in Indiana, every bank branch had a counting machine, and
as long as you didn't come in during rush hour, they were happy to see
people walk in with coffee cans. I assumed that would be the case when I
moved up here, but every place I tried either claimed not to have a
machine, or told me to go away.
Assuming they have a truck to move it, my heirs will have real nice
surprise when they clean this place out.....
(And yes, I do try harder to spend coins now, carrying exact change for
planned purchases that day. But I have a hell of a backlog to get rid
of, and clerks and people in line get Real Cranky if you pay with
anything smaller than quarters.)
aem sends...
Jeff Jonas
>>since vending machines don't take pennies,
> There are two machines that accept pennies,
> the self-checkout machines at Home Depot and Lowes.
Right you are! I /try/ to have 3-4 pennies in my pocket
to minimize getting pennies in my change,
but I keep cleaning out my pockets!
Exact-Change-Man (my trivial superPower) is foiled once again! :-)
I suspect most self-checkout lanes (supermarket, etc)
accept pennies, but I've had problems with the Pathmark ones
not accepting coins (not crediting me ANYTHING for them)
and not dispensing correct change.
Gary Heston
Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
[ ... ]
>Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
>apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
>she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
>was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
>to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
>luggage at the airport....
Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
Gary
--
Gary Heston ghe...@hiwaay.net http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
Yoko Onos' former driver tried to extort $2M from her, threating to
"release embarassing recordings...". What, he has a copy of her album?
Logan Shaw
> One approach my friends take with their change is to get the rolls form
> the bank and pay their children (ages 11 and 4) to roll the coins. I
> think for quarters they may get a dollar per roll (which is what
> Coinstar charges, but they'd rather pay their children and teach them
> about working to earn money).
How much money do they spend on gas going to the bank to get the rolls
of paper?
These days, if you have something like $10 or $20 or less in change, the
Coinstar machine makes a lot of sense solely in terms of saving a trip
and thus saving gas money. If your car gets 20 mpg in town, and if your
bank is 5 miles out of the way (times 2 for a round trip), you're using
a half gallon of gas, and thus about $1.50, just getting to the bank.
Of course, this is all based on the assumption that you're not already
going to the bank. I tend not to go to an actual bank branch because I
can do 99% of everything I need from an ATM across the street from where
I live. If you go to the bank regularly, the whole picture changes.
(By the way, if the kids really do learn something about money, it could
be worth it even if the parents lose a little on the deal. In the long
run, for some people the best thing they could possibly do for frugality
is to teach their kids to be smart with money. If they don't, they might
end up shelling out a lot to get their kids out of a bind here and there.)
- Logan
Logan Shaw
> There are two machines that accept pennies, the self-checkout machines at
> Home Depot and Lowes. Besides dropping in all my spare quarters, dimes, and
> nickels, you can also insert pennies.
Same thing applies at the self-checkout at my local grocery store. I try
to only insert $2 or $3 worth of change if people are waiting behind me.
I know if enough people abuse the thing and cause a big delay for everybody,
eventually they'll modify the machines so they don't accept pennies anymore.
Limiting yourself to $2 or $3 isn't a problem in practice: if you do it
pretty regularly, you will end up using all your change. There have been
a few stretches of maybe a month where I've had less than $2 or $3 in
change in the entire world (probably including couch cushions) due to
dumping the excess at the self-checkout machine.
- Logan
Goomba38
> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfa...@comcast.com>,
> Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
> [ ... ]
>> Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
>> apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
>> she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
>> was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
>> to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
>> luggage at the airport....
>
> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
>
> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
>
>
> Gary
>
while. In this case ignorance is bliss.
Evelyn C. Leeper
> Gary Heston wrote:
>> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfa...@comcast.com>,
>> Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
>> [ ... ]
>>> Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
>>> apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
>>> she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine
>>> certainly was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that
>>> we didn't have to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much
>>> coin in carry on luggage at the airport....
>>
>> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
>>
>> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
>>
> while. In this case ignorance is bliss.
I suspect very few. My mother used to check through the coins from the
machines owned by my brother's newspaper before he rolled and deposited
them. She found only a few silver coins back in the 1970s. by the
1980s, there were none. (How many do *you* see in all the change you
handle?)
Goomba38
When I was a teenager in the 80's,I used to work for Maryland National
Bank's Cash Processing Center and we'd often get bags of coins which
when counted we'd find silver. We were allowed to buy those coins at
face value and I'd collected hundreds of dollars (at face value) of
silver which was increasing in price. We sold the silver to dealers for
a nice bit of money.. but silver dropped in price and I've never cared
to play that way again. I don't have the patience or ability to store or
haul coins about waiting for silver to go up.
Chloe
news:y6W2j.18$UA...@newsfe10.lga...
>>> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
>>>
>>> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
>>>
>> No...the cost of shipping that poundage wouldn't make it worth our while.
>> In this case ignorance is bliss.
>
> I suspect very few. My mother used to check through the coins from the
> machines owned by my brother's newspaper before he rolled and deposited
> them. She found only a few silver coins back in the 1970s. by the 1980s,
> there were none. (How many do *you* see in all the change you handle?)
They're rare because they're...well....rare. When DH and I settled several
relatives' estates we found coins that people had saved for one reason or
another, thinking they were worth something or should be valuable someday. I
made a couple fruitless trips to dealers, only to be told that my coins with
a face value of, say, $6.00 were worth a whole $10.00. It definitely wasn't
worth the trouble.
Unless you're an expert, it's pretty difficult to figure out if stuff is
valuable, in general. In the estates I was involved with--where quite a few
run-of-the-mill antique items were involved--I only recall one big surprise.
My MIL, who came from a farming background in a small town in the Midwest,
had somehow acquired an antique children's book that according to the
dealers who came to the estate auction was quite rare. They bid the box
containing the book up to over $100, as I recall. To us, the contents looked
interesting and quaint, but that was all. I'd have guessed a value of
probably $5 for the works.
val189
I think next time I'll waste an hour or
> so of my time and count them before I go. I don't think they'd
> deliberately cheat me, but are these machines ever calibrated? A
> dollar here, a dollar there...
Exactly why I don't fool around with saving personal change. One big
hassle to count, roll, schlep...
krw
says...
> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfa...@comcast.com>,
> Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
> [ ... ]
> >Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
> >apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
> >she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
> >was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
> >to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
> >luggage at the airport....
>
> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
Just drop them on the counter and it'll be immediately obvious if
there are any silver coins in the bunch. They're pretty easy to spot
too. The chances of finding a rare coin these days is pretty small.
> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
Do you often ship ballast via UPS?
--
Keith
krw
says...
They're not all that rare, even now. I come across them from time to
time. It seems they come in clusters, kinda like someone decided
they weren't worth keeping anymore so broke their piggy bank. ;-)
--
Keith
Meghan Noecker
<ele...@optonline.net> wrote:
>I suspect very few. My mother used to check through the coins from the
>machines owned by my brother's newspaper before he rolled and deposited
>them. She found only a few silver coins back in the 1970s. by the
>1980s, there were none. (How many do *you* see in all the change you
>handle?)
I have 5, all found in change given to me at stores in the past 6 or 7
years.
Meghan Noecker
>In article <13kn2gs...@corp.supernews.com>, ghe...@hiwaay.net
>says...
>> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfa...@comcast.com>,
>> Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
>> [ ... ]
>> >Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
>> >apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
>> >she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
>> >was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
>> >to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
>> >luggage at the airport....
>>
>> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
>
>Just drop them on the counter and it'll be immediately obvious if
>there are any silver coins in the bunch. They're pretty easy to spot
>too. The chances of finding a rare coin these days is pretty small.
>
Very true. That is how I found my first silver quarter. It sounded
different when I dropped it on the counter.
Logan Shaw
> Thinking along those lines, imagine if there were a machine, much like
> a CoinStar machine, that scanned the front and back of each coin as it
> rolled down a chute, did a database lookup to identify the year and
> type of coin, and automatically redirected the valuable ones down a
> second chute so that a human could inspect them more closely?
I imagine if such a machine exists, it's located at a Coinstar facility.
Or at a bank. But wherever it is, it's not out where the regular people
can see it.
- Logan
Roger Shoaf
accumulations of coins. What I do is to use the coins as they are intended.
If my purchase comes to $8.32, I will rid my pocket of either $.32 cents or
if my pocket does not have that much, then I will give them either 2 cents
or 7 cents.
Seems to me I never have much more than $2-3 change in my pockets at a time.
--
Roger Shoaf
About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.
"Evelyn C. Leeper" <ele...@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:gXf2j.6$RG...@newsfe09.lga...
> Not only does Coinstar charge an exorbitant fee for counting your coins
> (almost 10%), but they apparently frequently undercount the amount.
>
> I took advantage of their recent offer for free coin counting if you
> took an electronic gift certificate for one of their partner merchants
> instead of cash. In addition, if you counted at least $30 worth, you
> got an extra $10 amazon.com gift certificate.
>
> So I got three rolls of quarters at the bank ($30) and dumped them in.
> The total Coinstar registered was $29.61. I threw in two more quarters
> to make $30.11. When I got home, I googled and discovered that this was
> not an unusual occurrence.
>
> They did send the additional $10 certificate, so I got $40.11 for my
> $40.50, and spending money at amazon is not a problem for me, but I
> would never use them without being offered a big premium like this.
> Even if they don't take a commission if you take a certificate, they may
> still short-change you.
Bob F
"Larry Bud" <larryb...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:0aa3516e-6daf-4a7f...@w40g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> On Nov 26, 3:11 am, ultim...@hotmail.com wrote:
>> On Nov 25, 6:49 am, "Evelyn C. Leeper" <elee...@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>> > (almost 10%), but they apparently frequently undercount the amount.
>>
>> several years, but I'm sure they are here. Are people really that lazy
>> that they can't count the coins in advance and need to go to a robot
>> to do it (don't take this as a flame, it's something I have wondered
>> for years now ever since I heard about it)? In fact, this would be a
>> much better activity than sitting down and getting sludge pumped at
>> you from the tee vee.
>
> me hours to count and roll all of those. For $20, I did it in about
> 10 minutes. Since I freelance as a web developer/programmer for $80
> an hour, it was a simple ROI calculation to make the decision.
I have one of those cheap plastic battery powered sorters I bought for $.50 at a
yard sale. I just drop my coins in it. When a tube fills, I wrap it. Easy,
quick, and no losses.
Bob F
George
> I really do not understand why there are so many folks with vast
> accumulations of coins. What I do is to use the coins as they are intended.
> If my purchase comes to $8.32, I will rid my pocket of either $.32 cents or
> if my pocket does not have that much, then I will give them either 2 cents
> or 7 cents.
>
> Seems to me I never have much more than $2-3 change in my pockets at a time.
>
>
always ended up with a lot of change. Now I make a point of taking
change when I am going out and use it as you describe and have little
accumulation.
Bob F
"aemeijers" <aeme...@att.net> wrote in message news:YBI2j.53690
> (And yes, I do try harder to spend coins now, carrying exact change for
> planned purchases that day. But I have a hell of a backlog to get rid of, and
> clerks and people in line get Real Cranky if you pay with anything smaller
> than quarters.)
I often find that stores are short of change, asking if I have change so that
they don't have to use theirs. They are happy to get some extra.
Bob
Bob F
"George" <geo...@nospam.invalid> wrote in message
news:986dnfhopaWt5dLa...@comcast.com...
Or, you could just help out the little old lady next door with her bingo needs.
Bob
max
"Bob F" <bobn...@gmail.com> wrote:
i put it in a fruit bowl and let my nieces take a big fat double-handful
at Christmas and on birthdays.
.max
--
The part of betatron @ earthlink . net was played by a garden gnome
max
ghe...@hiwaay.net (Gary Heston) wrote:
> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfa...@comcast.com>,
> Goomba38 <Goom...@comcast.net> wrote:
> [ ... ]
> >Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
> >apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
> >she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
> >was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
> >to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
> >luggage at the airport....
further research is indicated...
>
> Wonder how many rare/silver coins were in those jars and bags...
>
> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
heh. or those weird dollar bills with the blue printing...
i don't know what's driving it, but i've gotten 4 or five wheat pennies
since the end of sept. statistically speaking that's an avalanche.
val189
> I no longer have any coins in the car's coin tray
> since nearly all toll roads in NY/NJ/CT/PA/MD/VA
> take E-Z Pass, but I use coins (particularly dollar coins)
> when buying train tickets from the vending machines
> and I need quarters for the laundromat.
We keep about 15 dollars in silver in the car for parking meters in
cities we're visiting, laundry while on trips, and the occasional
toll my EZpass doesn't handle.
val189
> I really do not understand why there are so many folks with vast
> accumulations of coins. What I do is to use the coins as they are intended.
> If my purchase comes to $8.32, I will rid my pocket of either $.32 cents or
> if my pocket does not have that much, then I will give them either 2 cents
> or 7 cents.
>
> Seems to me I never have much more than $2-3 change in my pockets at a time.
I agree, but there are instances when a coin counter is key to your
sanity.
If you've ever been the collector of fundraising piggy banks around
town, you can sympathize. A big waste of time for the amount
collected and I don't recommend it. I once had some kids 'help' count
and roll. Some rolls were visibly short, like, by a half inch.
Needless to say, I had to recount and roll. Had there been Coinstar
in those days, I wouldn've paid the commission gladly.
krw
@d21g2000prf.googlegroups.com>, gweh...@bellsouth.net says...
$15, particularly the side ones.
>
--
Keith
sarge137
> I really do not understand why there are so many folks with vast
> accumulations of coins. What I do is to use the coins as they are intended.
> If my purchase comes to $8.32, I will rid my pocket of either $.32 cents or
> if my pocket does not have that much, then I will give them either 2 cents
> or 7 cents.
>
> Seems to me I never have much more than $2-3 change in my pockets at a time.
>
> --
>
> Roger Shoaf
>
> About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
> they come up with this striped stuff.
>
"vast" quantities of coin. Personally, I can't stand having coins
ringing and jingling in my pocket. I use them up as I can, but at the
end of the day there are always some left over. They go into a jar on
my dresser. When the jar is full I take it to my credit union where
it's counted and deposited in my account for free. For now, it's a
little bimonthly or quarterly bonus that I use to take my wife out for
a nice dinner, or buy her a gift. If the credit union ever starts
charging for the service I guess those nasty coins will go back into
my pocket in the morning. Nobody will ever find bags of coins in my
house.
Regards,
Sarge
The Real Bev
> When I was a teenager in the 80's,I used to work for Maryland National
> Bank's Cash Processing Center and we'd often get bags of coins which
> when counted we'd find silver. We were allowed to buy those coins at
> face value and I'd collected hundreds of dollars (at face value) of
> silver which was increasing in price. We sold the silver to dealers for
> a nice bit of money.. but silver dropped in price and I've never cared
> to play that way again. I don't have the patience or ability to store or
> haul coins about waiting for silver to go up.
Remember when there was a penny shortage and grocery stores and banks were
offering a premium to turn in your pennies? After that I saved pennies,
waiting for the next windfall. Years later hen I got tired of tripping over
the jars I decided to turn them in to the bank at face value. Imagine my
joy to discover that the local banks no longer had change-counting machines.
They DID, however, give me a lot of free paper tubes...
The Coinstar machines here have NEVER not charged a fee.
OTOH, I indeed will profit from aluminum-can and plastic-bottle arbitrage
when I turn them in -- I'd collected many pounds of them before they raised
the CRV.
--
Cheers, Bev
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However,
this is not necessarily a good idea...."
krw
+use...@gmail.com says...
> Goomba38 wrote:
>
> > When I was a teenager in the 80's,I used to work for Maryland National
> > Bank's Cash Processing Center and we'd often get bags of coins which
> > when counted we'd find silver. We were allowed to buy those coins at
> > face value and I'd collected hundreds of dollars (at face value) of
> > silver which was increasing in price. We sold the silver to dealers for
> > a nice bit of money.. but silver dropped in price and I've never cared
> > to play that way again. I don't have the patience or ability to store or
> > haul coins about waiting for silver to go up.
>
> Remember when there was a penny shortage and grocery stores and banks were
> offering a premium to turn in your pennies? After that I saved pennies,
> waiting for the next windfall. Years later hen I got tired of tripping over
> the jars I decided to turn them in to the bank at face value. Imagine my
> joy to discover that the local banks no longer had change-counting machines.
> They DID, however, give me a lot of free paper tubes...
The banks around where we used to live (just moved and haven't been
in a bank here) have coin counters for customer use. At least the CU
didn't "guard" it so anyone could walk in and use it. My wife took
several zip-lock bags of pennies the kid left behind, recently. She
took the $80something and put it in her account.
> The Coinstar machines here have NEVER not charged a fee.
Don't think I've ever seen one. Maybe because the bank's are free.
> OTOH, I indeed will profit from aluminum-can and plastic-bottle arbitrage
> when I turn them in -- I'd collected many pounds of them before they raised
> the CRV.
;-) A friend had his SO's son take back his cans a while back. He
grabbed over $80. I kid the friend that those were only his Bud cans
for one weekend. The friend at one time had some thing like $35K in
quarters and SBAs. He lived off them for over a year.
--
Keith
Bill
The Real Bev wrote:
>
> The Coinstar machines here have NEVER not charged a fee.
Real Coinstar machines that do not charge a fee when just
converting coins to bills? I've never heard of that. How do they
make their money?
Bill
Rod Speed
Never NOT charged a fee, stupid.
Logan Shaw
> ;-) A friend had his SO's son take back his cans a while back. He
> grabbed over $80. I kid the friend that those were only his Bud cans
> for one weekend. The friend at one time had some thing like $35K in
> quarters and SBAs. He lived off them for over a year.
$35,000 in quarters and Susan B. Anthonies? Wow. I can only imagine
how much more money he would've had if he had taken those and deposited
them in some sort of investment account every year or so. It seems safe
to assume that it would take something like 10 years to accumulate that
many coins. The interest on $35K over a period of 10 years is a lot.
(Of course, not all of it would be earning interest for that long, but
you get the idea.) He might've been able to live off it for 2 years.
- Logan
The Real Bev
Some posters have said that Coinstar doesn't charge a fee when it issues a
store certificate instead of cash. I assume the store subsidizes it in some
way.
--
Cheers, Bev
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I'm sorry I ever invented the Electoral College."
Al Gore 11/08/00
krw
use...@austin.rr.com says...
Well, he was hiding the money from the IRS, because of some "issues"
that were later cleared up. I don't remember all the details (some
business he was involved in, but not a principal), except that he
finally got them off his case.
It's also a tad easier to move $35K that's in a bank, too. $35K in
coin is rather heavy. The springs on a 3/4 ton truck were riding
pretty low!
I met another guy that claimed to have $75K, or some such, in coin in
55gal drums in his garage. He was a salesman had a side-business
owning weight-fortune and such machines in Interstate rest-stops. He
figured that no one could steal the money even if they knew it was
there. ...though I didn't know him and he could have been talking
though a secondary orifice.
--
Keith
aemeijers
> In article <475247c0$0$28870$4c36...@roadrunner.com>, lshaw-
> use...@austin.rr.com says...
>> krw wrote:
>
> I met another guy that claimed to have $75K, or some such, in coin in
> 55gal drums in his garage. He was a salesman had a side-business
> owning weight-fortune and such machines in Interstate rest-stops. He
> figured that no one could steal the money even if they knew it was
> there. ...though I didn't know him and he could have been talking
> though a secondary orifice.
>
Rueful chuckle- that is what I thought, too, about my five-gallon water
jugs of pennies and nickels. Never occurred to me that any thief would
have the balls to spend at least an hour in my apartment, and pour the
jugs out into manageable size lots, carried out in all my canvas
shopping bags, backpacks, duffle bags, etc. The kid cop who came and
took the complaint apparently could not believe the estimated figures I
gave him- when it got put in the newspaper, the $500+ I lost was
reported as $50. So, of course no calls to local banks asking if anyone
brought in massive quantities of pennies and nickels...
Good thing the thieves were stupid- on the shelf right above the water
jugs they worked so hard to empty, were quart jugs of dimes and quarters
that they didn't seem to notice- many more dollars per pound, and small
enough to carry. They could have gotten more, and been in and out in
five minutes. And I'd still have my luggage. Can't understand how they
missed those small jugs- they rummaged through the rest of the apartment
pretty well, but thankfully bypassed the guns, cameras, and computers.
aem sends...
Here and Kickin'
On Sat, 1 Dec 2007, The Real Bev wrote:
>
>
> Bill wrote:
>
>> The Real Bev wrote:
>>>
>>> The Coinstar machines here have NEVER not charged a fee.
>>
>> Real Coinstar machines that do not charge a fee when just
>> converting coins to bills? I've never heard of that. How do they
>> make their money?
>
> Some posters have said that Coinstar doesn't charge a fee when it issues a
> store certificate instead of cash. I assume the store subsidizes it in some
> way.
Yeah, send the list over here. The Coinstar machines in my area do NOT
issue store certificates. I could use the receipt printed by the machines
to buy things from the store where the machine is located, however.
I looked at the company's web site. The conpany does waive the fee if you
buy a gift certificate for a national chain.
-d
Bob F
"krw" <k...@att.bizzzz> wrote in message
news:MPG.21ba6a2d...@news.individual.net...
Isn't that why they put those nice little trays/drawers into the dashboard?
krw
bobn...@gmail.com says...
Which little trays/drawers? Some have change holders on the console,
in plain view.
--
Keith
aemeijers
Didn't notice till I'd had the car for a year. Can't say I've ever
actually used it.
(Gets curious and goes and looks...)
Nope, there is a pack of fuses in there. Not sure why I would have done
that- car has never blown any that I recall. Maybe from when I added the
second power point or something.
aem sends...
scrapq...@gmail.com
The one at my local grocery store has gift certificate options, with
no fee for counting the coins. You can get a gift certificate for
Amazon.com, Itunes or JCPenney, and perhaps other places as well.
Last time I looked at the coinstar website (www.coinstar.com) there
was a list of which machines offer this option (not all do).
Bill
Right, I knew that (I recently cashed in $30 in quarters for an
Amazon gift certificate and got a $10 bonus certificate for
free). But that's not what Bev said. She said that the Coinstar
machines "here" have never charged a fee.
Bill
Bob F
"krw" <k...@att.bizzzz> wrote in message
The ones with a round thing that gets hot when you push it down.
New Leaf
> In article <QZudnaaoIa8LSdfanZ2dnUVZ_oSnn...@comcast.com>,Goomba38 <Goomb...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> [ ... ]
>
> >Well.. just recently while cleaning my deceased mother in law's
> >apartment (out of state) out we found multiple jars and bags of coins
> >she'd been stashing. Time was at a premium so coinstar machine certainly
> >was the best option for us. We ended up with $397.00 that we didn't have
> >to haul or carry out of state. Try carrying that much coin in carry on
> >luggage at the airport....
>
>
> I'd have shipped them home UPS ground and gone through them.
>
>
> --
> Gary Heston ghes...@hiwaay.net http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
>
> Yoko Onos' former driver tried to extort $2M from her, threating to
> "release embarassing recordings...". What, he has a copy of her album?
A friend of my dad's was a multi-millionaire and among his many
business interests was a vending machine company. This was in the 60s,
and there were still quite a few silver coins in circulation. At
night, he and his wife would spread the money out and sort by year for
older ones and pull out the silver ones. He'd sell them to a stamp and
coin collector shop. People would tease him for being so cheap but
he'd say, "Hey you have a drink and watch TV at night. I average 7%
immediate profit on the coins from my machines." That always stuck
with me as a kid.
Viv
JL
dump it into a Coinstar and load up my Starbuck's card with it, so I
don't have to pay the usual Coinstar charge.