Realcent.org

If one is looking to make a large profit there are many other ways of making more money. I sort pennies and nickels because it is enjoyable and interesting. If (When) I make a profit one day when I sell some bullion it will be a bonus. A bonus I will attribute to reason and foresight... and stubborness.

You could probibly make more money with less expense or need for capital by picking up empty beer cans.. And you would be helping clean up your local area.

I would have to agree for the average sorter to sell at 1.5X or less would be nuts. For the big guys, flipping it at that price might make a bit of money for them. I've wondered though with all that time invested, how a part-time job running pizzas at night wouldnt provide more of an income to play with. Some say its realaxing and theraputic. Sure I can see that but I value my time more to let it go for less ....thats just my opinion. Country has a good point on where the current market price is but why is that. The last time copper was up it was commonplace to see 1.8-2X realized prices going around. I'm thinking there too many trying to make a quick hard to get buck right now and there still way too much copper available.

Scotty

back before the game was overcrowded i sold quite a few lots on ebay for 2 x face or slightly better. then could usually do bigger lots privately after the initial transaction.

handsorted myself crazy until about a year or so ago. would have got a ryedale but could never get a reliable zinc disposal plan. had to sell some when i was strapped for cash because like highroller said, copper is the easiest to replace.

im still holding quite a bit - i'd like to add more but just cant at this point.

i strongly believe that if you are looking to add to your copper stash, without regards to numismatic material, you would be far better off to buy from members here for 1.3 x face than to sort your own.

oh i miss the thrill of finding indian heads, and i'll still sort the occasional box, but if im financially able to add to my copper hoard in the near future, i'll be buying instead of sorting my own...

You can probably make some $ at less than 2X face if you plan and execute correctly. Hoard and many others on the board have been doing so for years. For me, I'm only planning on selling in a decade or more when it's much more than 2X face.

you can make money at 1.5 if you do it right. just ask slick how he does it. he has it down to a science!

Well I guess for some of us it can be an issue of storage. Every once and a while you need to offload some so you can continue to sort.

Also, take into consideration all the wheats and dimes that you find when sorting. Also, the occassional Indian head.

Also, I don't feel bad selling them if I am using the money to buy gold or silver at a good price.

If you had sold several hundred dollars of your hoard and turned around and had bought silver at $16 or $17 an ounce, would you think that would have been a bad thing to do (considering silver is now over $20 an ounce)?

My hoard was growing pretty sizable, and when I got my Ryedale, I knew it was time to loosen up a little FRNs. I was lucky enough to find a guy in St. Louis on Craigslist that paid 1.4x, and I dropped a good amount on him for that price. Now it's time to rebuild.

aloneibreak wrote:back before the game was overcrowded i sold quite a few lots on ebay for 2 x face or slightly better. then could usually do bigger lots privately after the initial transaction.

handsorted myself crazy until about a year or so ago. would have got a ryedale but could never get a reliable zinc disposal plan. had to sell some when i was strapped for cash because like highroller said, copper is the easiest to replace.

im still holding quite a bit - i'd like to add more but just cant at this point.

i strongly believe that if you are looking to add to your copper stash, without regards to numismatic material, you would be far better off to buy from members here for 1.3 x face than to sort your own.

oh i miss the thrill of finding indian heads, and i'll still sort the occasional box, but if im financially able to add to my copper hoard in the near future, i'll be buying instead of sorting my own...

I do both. I buy when COPPER pennies are available for sale at a very good price. I sort for the thrill of finding COPPER, Wheats, and other stuff you find in bank rolls. My stash of COPPER increases...

As for zinc disposal, I've got plenty of dump bank branches with fast counting machines that accept my handsorting discarded zincs. I guess if I was doing the Ryedale thing instead of handsorting, my dump bank branches might get a bit upset.

Selling at 1.6X is not a way to get rich or even make a living. I would imagine that some sorters wind up sorting out more copper than they can afford to keep. They then have to sell some to live. Others have access to virtually unlimited amounts of raw coins and have the means to sort out a few tons a week and have the capital to sit on them. They can put some bait on the hook and sell a 68# box on fee-bay to catch a big fish that wants several tons. That is where they see a decent profit. If you are running a coin precessing center, armored car service , coinstar ,or some other high volume coin business, then selling the coppers is a way to make a few bucks off the stuff you are processing anyways. Now i don't know what everyones business is or what motivates them to sell, you just have to find what works best for your situation.

After reviewing this thread up to this point, it is clear as day to me. If you want copper cents, you are better off BUYING from members here willing to sell for less than 1.5X

No, I am not selling

i will buy at 1.35x shipped. PM me

I am new to the cu collecting,but anytime a profit can be made I am all for it. Flipping a profit back in the investment means more capital for me to keep sorting. Happy hunting!!!!!!!!!!

wolvesdad wrote:Is Cost NEGATIVE.

I've begun to think that anyone selling less than tons for less than 1.5 x face is working for free.

Especially anyone handsorting, to sell at less than 2X is like working for .25 cents an hour. yes, it can be relaxing, but once you spend gas both ways. Waiting in bank lines. paying for soap to wash off all the grime. It can't at all be worth it.

And a problem I've run into is MOVING. It really isn't worth taking them with you, but selling them off uses lots of time and energy, gas, shipping fees. And if you take them with you, you spend more in gas, backache=chiropracter, etc.

(1more)

There is one amazing, simple and practical way to get around the ".25 cents an hour" part. I did this for years. Get a very, very boring job, where you are mostly by yourself all day. could be a store manager of a business that never sells anything, or some telemarketing jobs, or a work from home gig, or a night job, whatever it is.......sort cents as much as you can during that time. I won't mention the employer of my past, but I spent 3 years straight of sorting from 9am-6pm, 5 days a week, and the boss only stopped by 1 hour a week. maybe 3 or 4 customers the whole day, most people quit that place due to boredom. My boss always said I was too happy all the time. I think he thought I was getting high on the job, but actually I was excited that I was making $10.00/hr., from him, and pulling in $12.00/hr in copper.

And the other less amazing thing is just a life lesson learned at a young age. Do not store pennies inside any type of large water bottle glass, or plastic, do not store into anything that cannot be easily MOVED. I moved from an apartment after 5 years of residence, all my hoard was in 3 or 5 gallon water bottles, about 30 in total. some in my storage area in the basement, some in my apartment on the 2nd floor. Long story short, they wouldn't budge. I tried rolling one down the stairs of the complex, it bounced twice, then went through the wall, big hole, spilled about 5 pennies. I eventually had to cut open every bottle (all mine were plastic), and bought about 200 canvas bags from the local coin shop, and carried the entire hoard out, up or down stairs, 3-4 bags at a time, by myself, in the heat, all day. I had to rent a moving truck because the weight was too heavy for my car. I moved my whole aprtment out (not including my cents) in one day, maybe 8 hours. My wife said "I will stay here at the new house, you can go get the pennies" she hates my cents (but understands the value). My cent hoard took at least 11 hours, and that was just the bags. I actually moved 5, 5 gallon jugs the day before with the other stuff, I think I busted my back for life that day. To this day I have back issues, it has only been 2 years now, but I am very careful not to store improperly.

Do most of you guys clean your copper pennies before selling? Wolvesdad mentioned soap to wash off the grime and I never thought of that if I go to sell.

copper is copper is copper is copper period.

but, verdigris is the green gunk that forms on bronze and copper, when it forms naturally in that metal it eats it away very slowly, and is also carcinogenic to your health. I throw all my dirty pennies in the back yard, it is probably good for the soil.

Copper is copper and money is money. If you are making ANY money off of a hobby that you truly enjoy, what's the problem? Even selling at 1.4 or whatever is fine. I mean come on, that's 40% profit! FOR A HOBBY!!!! And remember, this costs little if anything more than time, and you can't loose you initial penny investment. It doesn't take too long to pay for all your machines either at 40% profit. What else can you do and make 40% profit for no risk of loss?

If you can aquire coin without problems and your percentages are not falling, why not realize a little bit of profit and enjoy the fruits of your labor? Buy some nice things, fill the "Big Five" in your penny collection, upgrade less than idea coins in your collection.

Deal

p.s. My copper percentages are and have been rising....

when you throw the hobby part in there, you save even more money. there are few hoobies in life that don't cost lots of money, there are very few that cost almost nothing, and there is practically zilch that you can actually make money at by doing so little.

frugi wrote:when you throw the hobby part in there, you save even more money. there are few hoobies in life that don't cost lots of money, there are very few that cost almost nothing, and there is practically zilch that you can actually make money at by doing so little.

Exactly.

Deal

I think it really depends on how much time you have to spend doing this hobby/investment and how much money you're setting aside for the project.

Even if you're investing in copper for the long term. IF you only have say 5-10k to invest in this hobby why not continually flip it? If you're like me once the coins have been searched I can't have common LMC's in my house.

Assuming you can earn 3% per $400 per week. At the end of the year you could profit >$1400. Not bad for a hobby. Just breaking even in a hobby is something to consider.

Flip the LMC's for the 3% profit, hold the IHC's, wheats, s-mints and foreign coins to sell at a premium or hold them.

With just one Ryedale, a bottle of dri-slide, a friendly network of banks and cash anyone can hoard 1-3 tons of copper in a month. It may take up your weekends and nights but it can be done.

And since this seems to be possible as long as you have the cash, i say flip the copper at what ever price you can. Because it's not too late to re-up should you end up selling your hoard tomorrow.

I can't believe McDonalds can sell 20 of those McNuggets for only $4.99.

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:I can't believe McDonalds can sell 20 of those McNuggets for only $4.99.

why is that so hard to believe? Lips, claws, eyeballs, beaks, these ingredients can't be very costly....

JobIII wrote:I think it really depends on how much time you have to spend doing this hobby/investment and how much money you're setting aside for the project.

Even if you're investing in copper for the long term. IF you only have say 5-10k to invest in this hobby why not continually flip it? If you're like me once the coins have been searched I can't have common LMC's in my house.

Assuming you can earn 3% per $400 per week. At the end of the year you could profit >$1400. Not bad for a hobby. Just breaking even in a hobby is something to consider.

Flip the LMC's for the 3% profit, hold the IHC's, wheats, s-mints and foreign coins to sell at a premium or hold them.

With just one Ryedale, a bottle of dri-slide, a friendly network of banks and cash anyone can hoard 1-3 tons of copper in a month. It may take up your weekends and nights but it can be done.

And since this seems to be possible as long as you have the cash, i say flip the copper at what ever price you can. Because it's not too late to re-up should you end up selling your hoard tomorrow.

I am thinking you must have meant 30 percent. Because three percent would be selling for 1.03x face and if sold at 1.3x face then that is 30 percent. You can't get thirty percent interest on money in a bank these days. I don't even think any of our local banks are paying 3% on any type of account.

PreservingThePast wrote:
I am thinking you must have meant 30 percent. Because three percent would be selling for 1.03x face and if sold at 1.3x face then that is 30 percent. You can't get thirty percent interest on money in a bank these days. I don't even think any of our local banks are paying 3% on any type of account.

I assumed they meant making 3% after gas etc was deducted from the selling price. but idk...

As a newbie, I wonder if holding on to the zinc pennies will also turn out to be profitable one day. It may be many years or decades ahead, but it seems to me that zinc pennies are being overlooked. What do you guys think?

adagirl wrote:As a newbie, I wonder if holding on to the zinc pennies will also turn out to be profitable one day. It may be many years or decades ahead, but it seems to me that zinc pennies are being overlooked. What do you guys think?

Yes, someday zinc pennies will once again be worth of face value. Right now in time though why save a zinc that is woth less than face when you can save a copper that is worth 2+ times face.