Coinstar: Where are these guys?

NBSQLGeek

Where are these people that come buy and pick up these coins. I would love to own one and just go threw them at nights.

jtryka

As far as I know, these are all company owned machines, and they contract out the emptying of them to armored car services such as Brinks. The company actually never comes in direct contact with the coins.

NBSQLGeek

My a$$ would hvae a field day with all the coins that came in. To bad I cant purchase the machine or lease it.

How to get other peoples change? Legally.

jtryka

I suppose the best way, though less efficient would be to own vending machines.

cdmead

You could start a vending machine business. Lots of other people's change that way.

Conder101

<< <i>To bad I cant purchase the machine or lease it.

How to get other peoples change? Legally. >>


What makes you think that Coinstar has a monopoly on that market? Find a coinstar machine and examine it. See if you can find a manufacturers name on it then contact the company to see about buying your own machines, with a different name on the machine of course. Then contract with malls, strip malls, shopping centers, groceries etc for placement rights. Not every community has Coinstar machines so there are markets available.

PhillyJoe

Last time I looked coinstar charges 9 % of what you put in as a service charge. We have a chain of banks in the greater Philadelphia area, Commerce, that has a service-free machine in every branch for customers and non-customers. I'm sure a lot of collectors started as vending people.

Joe

jtryka

Actually, they do have pretty close to a monopoly on the market. All of the internal workings are proprietary technology, and they outsource production to two manufacturers, one in the US and one overseas. Now if you think that you as an individual can buy a machine from one of these producers, thus convincing them to violate their contract with Coinstar, and risk losing all future business with them, then you are delusional at best. And even if you can get a machine, you would have to strike a deal with a locally owned supermarket or bank that is not a part of any larger corporation with relationships to Coinstar (if you try to put one in a chain, and Coinstar finds out, then they will be dealing directly with corporate HQ and you will find yourself with your machine back on the bed of your pickup. Then there is the logistical matter of operating the machine, as emptying the coins is just half of it, the other half is paying people for them, which would require some sophisticated software, and well executed agreements with the retail location to redeem the script printed in exchange for the coins. Overall, it's way more than one person could handle, so you'd be better off with a pop machine.

jtryka

Philly Joe,

I believe those machines are Coinstar machines, and Commerce bank pays them a fee up front, and then a revenue sharing agreement kicks in when volume reaches a certain level.

Conder101

The internal workings of the Coinstar machines may be proprietary but I'm sure there are other coin sorting and counting machine manufacturers that would sell you a machine that performs the same function. I never said it would be easy or cheap to start but I'm sure it is doable.

jtryka

Conder, I think you would find it a lot more complex than you think, and all but impossible for an individual. The problem is more with the construction rather than the actual counting mechanism, as these machines must be virtually indestructible. Then there is the software involved, and the networking to be able to detect and solve problems as they arise, since no one would want the machine if it was always broken. You are living in fantasy land if you think it would be either wise, or fun to pursue the machine. A far better approach would be to one-up the coinstar and offer a coin counting service through the local paper, where you offer to pick up the coins from people's homes, count the coins for a 5% fee (keeping all the good ones) and then returning with cold hard cash for the customer. That might even work better, especially if it's a project where you donate the fee to a local charity, then you still get to keep the good coins!

braddick

I just dumped about 1,500 wheaties (mostly 40's) and five rolls of 1960-P and 1962-D Jeffersons into a one of those machines along with five rolls of State Quarters.
I hope they make it out to the public and are not simply caught by a CoinStar worker.

To try and sell them would have been nuts considering the time and effort.

jtryka

They outsource the handing of the coins to an armored car company, so no worries about a coinstar worker getting their hands on them!

greghansen

Ran across this business article and thought I'd link it here as it relates to Coinstar and some evolving competitors who market similar machines:

Coinstar Article Link-a-roo

IndianHeadMan

Hey braddick, You should of just spent them around town like you would regular pennies. I did that once, most people don't even notice.