So a while back I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. Why not search people's change before it even gets rolled? So to do this I came up with the idea to ask around at work to see if anybody uses coinstar and pays that 12% fee. I found one old man that did and I offered to buy his change for full face value and save him that fee. A few weeks later (which was yesterday) he had finally filled up his jar and brought it to me. I also have another co-worker that says he's bringing me 3 shoe boxes full that he's collected for years. A third person said she would hold her for me next time she cashes it in and she will ask some relatives of hers that she knows uses coinstar. Now to my first score: I counted his jar of change and it came out to $62.35. I found 45 cents in silver which includes a 1928D Mercury dime! And a single wheat penny. I brought him $63.35 today because I told him I'm adding an extra dollar to it for that Mercury dime since I consider that such a great find. So basically I paid him blue book value for that and came out with the other 35 cents in silver as profit. Plus I got to keep his foreign coins. A Canadian quarter and dime, and a 1 francf coin from 1962. I saved him about $8 in constar fees plus gave him an extra dollar so of course he's happy too. Can't wait to see what those shoe boxes brings me. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this idea so I'm curious if anybody else has done this or something similar and what your results have been
Yes.. Brilliant! Most of my family have given me their change jars, piggy banks and even old foreign coins they had stashed away. I also give them the amount that they had saved except for the foreign. I have found Wheats, silver and minor mint errors. I even get change from my morning coffee stand guy - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coffee-stand-cents-sticky-coins.311986/
I really had the thought of putting signs on the coinstar machines asking if you want to save that fee call this number. Not sure if I'd be breaking any rules or laws (that probably would). But I'm sure at very least if get a strongly worded letter from coinstar's legal team, so I figured it's best not to do it lol
Of course you can. I usually would have posted them when I made the thread, but this time I'm at work and the coins are at home. I'll be home in about 3 hours and I'll definitely put those pictures up when I get there
That rosie has a really nice reverse for a CRH find, but I wish the obverse wasn't so beat to hell. The franc I spotted while edge searching, I thought for sure at first I had spotted another silver. Had to look it up to be sure, but it's made of nickel The 5 franc coins of that year were silver. The token I have no idea but I'm assuming it's worthless. I'll throw it in the junk coin part of my collection anyway. If it is something, maybe some member here could recognize it and enlighten me. I know it's not legal tender of any sort.
Also, when I got near the bottom of his jar, that's when I came across all the foreign coins and two of the three silvers. My guess is that he's probably been throwing all his rejects back in the jar every time he cashed in at coinstar in the past. No telling how many times that Mercury dime has been though a coinstar machine lol.
No... it's not even remotely close to a new idea, but who cares? If it works for you and you're happy that's all that counts. Congrats!
You could put up signs at places at public places. My library and one of my banks has a board with tacks where you can put ads and announcements. I could try that.
Yeah, I never figured it was a new idea that nobody else thought of, more of a "new to me" sort of thing. My curiosity is about what others have found doing this or something similar. And if it's something similar, then how did you approach it? I'm always open to new or similar ideas.
That's a pretty good idea. I like it. I'm not quite ready for the bulk orders of coins right now that would come from such an idea, but definitely something I'll keep in mind if ever I get to that point where I want more change to sort through.
This idea has potential and in fact I've done it with success wherein I at least have been able to go through peoples' change jars and replace what I take out with an equivalent amount. The obvious and perhaps subtle challenge with this is doing it with the change jars/containers of people who don't know you too well. They likely won't tell you but they may feel hesitant to trust you to give an accurate or honest count to them. About 15 years ago my mother talked with a woman who I hadn't met. It turned out she had a five or so gallon water container that was full of coins she had started accumulating in 1990. I was excited at the prospects of being able to go through the bottom layers as a kind of time capsule to find coins that would be in high-grade of condition but would all date to an earlier time. The way it was going to work was I was going to go through the coins, roll them up and replace what I wanted to keep. However, the woman didn't express much enthusiasm in my going through the container and in the end, nothing came of the plan. Perhaps she was just feeling lazy about making it happen but it is also quite possible she just didn't trust me as she didn't know me at all. So, I'd keep this aspect in mind as you move forward with the idea when it comes to doing it with people who don't know you too well.
Excellent point, and I have kept that in mind. I've only talked to people that know me well. I've asked them to ask around to their family/friends as well, but I've also stated that I'm fine if they want to count their change and give me a total to pay. I know this requires some trust on my part as well. Or, I could do a quick count in front of them (I'm relatively quick at it). When it comes to money it's always hard to even trust our casual friends, much less strangers.