I will start by saying that probably a few times a year I crunch the numbers to see if selling my pennies is worth it, but I sort copper pennies to keep for the future. They may never be worth many multiples of their face like silver coinage, but it makes me feel like I'm in on the ground floor of something. I do keep my eyes open as to CTU pricing both here and on eBay to keep aware of the market, but I can't help but think that the guys I see selling CTUs in the mid to upper $130s are working pretty darn hard for minimal profit (which most here at RC know already).
I know there are a lot of Ryedale owners that acquire their pennies in bags. I, unfortunately, can only get boxes. I also know that there are people that run multiple Ryedales for their copper sorting endeavors, but I would say that a very large percentage (my guess is 90%+) of people that sort pennies with Ryedale equipment own only 1 machine. I'm certain that both of these things (bags and multiple Ryedales) would help to increase profits if one decides they are wanting to sell copper pennies instead of hoarding them. It would be great if the members that get bags and/or use multiple Ryedales would chime in and let us know how each has helped you grow your hoard/business.
At 20% copper a person would need to sort 20 boxes just to make 1 CTU.
Based on other member's posts I have seen here on RC, I believe I have a very high copper yield per box (29% for my 320 boxes sorted). Even with that high yield I have to run 14 $25 bank boxes of pennies through my Ryedale to accumulate one CTU of copper.
That's acquiring 14 boxes, cracking and feeding 14 boxes, and dumping 24,850 zincs from those 14 boxes.
Just the cracking and feeding alone of those 14 boxes, if done in a nonstop fashion, and just doing a zinc accept, would take about 2.5 to 3 hours. Now add in running the rejects from that 14 box zinc accept (which is mostly the coppers) through the a copper accept, and now we're probably at 3.5 hours. Then if you start to get anal about digging for all the wheats instead of just the one's you see pop out during the run, who knows how long the CTU recovery process will take. Remember, that's not even counting acquiring time and dumping time. In a best case pick up scenario of a weekly 14 box order (maybe 30 minutes from leaving your house to coming back home), and a 30 minute coin machine visit for dumping in one shot, we'll round up the whole process 5 hours, and that was best case scenarios in all facets of the process (and at a 29% copper yield).
So, if you're selling a CTU for even $140 shipped (a number that goes unsold a lot here on RC), after paying the U.S.P.S. fee for a medium flat rate box ($10.85 printed online or $11.35 at the post office) you're down to $129.15 (using the online postal price). Knock that down to a nice round $128 for incidentals (bags for shipping the pennies, gas the to PO, etc...) and then take off the $100 outlay for the face value of the pennies being sold, and your profit is right around $28. That means you made $2 profit for each of the 14 boxes picked up. If we adjust the hours worked to a more believable 7 (still probably quick for a 1 Ryedale owner), it works out to $4 an hour, and that's with a 29% copper yield and getting $140 for your CTU.
No matter how I slice it I always come to the same conclusion; the smart play (for me anyway) with 1 Ryedale and acquiring boxes only, is to sort and hold.
If you made it this far go reward yourself with an adult beverage.
Nick
