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A Layman's Look at Coinstar & Alternatives
NoviceKris
Posts: 251
The following story appeared in Ocala Star Banner, Ocala, Florida today. A quick read and some interesting points made... your comments welcome
Link to Ocala Star Banner
Kris
Link to Ocala Star Banner
Kris
"I haven't understood anything since "Party" became a verb."
"I think I have finally lived long enough to realize that the big man in the sky aint talking" Ogden Nash
"When all you got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
"I think I have finally lived long enough to realize that the big man in the sky aint talking" Ogden Nash
"When all you got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
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Comments
Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker
quarters are for slot machines.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
The point about cost per hour to wrap coins is valid. Only dump your cents and nickels in to that machine!
Last spring I wheeled, yes wheeled, a five gallon water jug nearly topped off. It took a dolly to get it in the bank.
Coinstar gave me a recipt for $1781 and change and spit back a handful of bent coins that the teller gladly took.
Pretty cool and it cost me nothing but a little time.
John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
<< <i>I dump pennies and nickels into the coinstar, and some dimes. Never quarters. >>
I agree! Never quarters (or halves or , god forbid, SBAs or SACs). Heck. I'm not too proud to spend the quarters.
Live Long and Prospect.
I clicked through to the site that provides the info for the article. I agree totally with them. I enjoyed reading how to wrap change and will try out a few ideas that might help me speed up my rolling change.
To me it is a great way to save. It is easier to save a dollar this way than for me to earn an extra dollar. For one thing I need to earn more than $1.40 if I want to end up with a dollar after taxes...
Looking for pre 1957 quarters and halfs.
Still need 20c, $3, $4, and $100 for my denominational set.
Trying to complete a 1903,1904 AU/BU set.
Collect pre 1957 circ, 1957-current proof, gold, dark side silver and palladium
Overland Trail Collection Showcase
Dahlonega Type Set-2008 PCGS Best Exhibited Set
<< <i>Why would anyone use a coinstar machine when the bank's coin machine is free? >>
Because for many it isn't free. My credit union charges 10% to count and roll coins, more than coinstar.
TB
I have a problem with how they "alert" the customer (using very fine print) that they will be charged 8.9% for the privelege of using the machine. AND, that fine print is usually rubbed almost completely away.
What really brings me down though is when I go to one of the branches of my bank and see those really old mason jars in the waste basket next to the counting machine, man does THAT bring me down.
Jim
I have no issue with using Coinstar. My bank requires rolled coins with a bank account number on each roll. To me, coughing up the 8.99% fee is reasonable in light of the time savings it would take to roll them. My room mate has the opposite view- he feels it is wasting perfectly good money to use the machine. Who is right? We BOTH are- it's simply a matter of your point of view.
Silver American Eagles ROCK
Cheers,
Bob
but when it's over 5% it is totally unacceptable. I would have to spend or deposit all my change
if there were a charge for conversion.
By the same token though Coinstar has had a dramatic impact on the way that coins circulate. In
effect they've increased the velocity of coins which has lowered mintages and increased the rate
at which they wear. Perhaps more importantly much of this increase in the rate of wear is occuring
on the coins which would otherwise be sitting out of circulation. It's actually easier to find a 1985
dime in AU than to find a 1992 in that grade. This is largely because the '85's sat around so much
in their early years while the '92 went through Coinstar machines and back into commerce.
<< <i>Any charge to convert US money is unreasonable but when it's over 5% it is totally unacceptable. >>
And who voted you king? CoinStar's fees, like everything, are governed by the free market. They need to charge a fee high enough to make maximum profit, but not so high as to prevent people from using it. As 291fifth said above, their fee is a charge for lazy people, and there's nothing wrong with that.
For those saying they've never seen a CoinStar machine, well -- every supermarket near me has one. And for those saying just take your coins to the bank -- my bank doesn't have a coin counter.
As for me, I take my coins to the casino. They never seem to have a problem taking my money
Ditto Flaminio...Nobody says you have to use them. This is what the free market and entrepreneurship is all about. If it weren't for innovative thinkers we would still be searching for fire.
have alternatives. There are those who live in areas that do not have a good way to convert
currency from one form to another.
How would you feel if every store in your town charged a 8.9% conversion fee for all bills less than
$1,000? This is all US currency. Certainly Coinstar provides a service and any charge they want is
their business.
I find it hard to believe that people have no problem paying almost twice as much for a gallon of gas as they do milk and at the same time piss and moan about an 8% surcharge to make use of an optional service.
How much profit is too much? When does it end? Did you know that one of the most closely guarded secrets in industry is how much it costs to produce one gallon of gas? There's a lot of profit in one gallon of gas. Multiply that times the number of gallons sold daily. The rub is that you pretty much HAVE to have gas...you don't have to use CoinStar. Just spend your change instead of accumulating it and it won't be a problem.
CoinStar exists because it is successful. It's successful because people use it. If it wasn't needed it would have died a long time ago.
Same thing goes for coins. You manage to cherry a coin from someone, not that you needed it, just because you couldn't pass it by at the price. So let's say you cherried this coin for say $20.00 and resold it for its true value of $300.00...looks like it doesn't make you any better than CoinStar, does it.
But it happens all the time, and it will continue as long as we have the free market system and believe in capitalism. That's what makes this country great and why so many people are dying to become a part of it.
Cheers,
Bob
<< <i>
How would you feel if every store in your town charged a 8.9% conversion fee for all bills less than
$1,000? This is all US currency. Certainly Coinstar provides a service and any charge they want is
their business. >>
Cladking, you're comparing apples to oranges. The store is taking your money for a purchase, not exchanging it. Not the same thing.