questions

[jacks2start]

I know it been covered a ton, but as of now whats everyone thoughts as to buying a ryedale and sorting heavy. Time vs whats being found vs bank dumping, vs all it takes.

I will say i do have the time covered.
I do have 7 banks within 5mins driving time most being different named banks and alot others within 30mins drive.
I am sure the CU has a coin machine
I have the space to store,count and being a whatever room.

I am just looking for input from any sorters still putting large amounts of time into it.

thx

[johnbrickner]

Sort away. It's never (in this state of the decline) a bad time to stack sound money value. Think of it as a hobby where what you are stacking is for the most part out of the reach of the govt. and Wall street to do damage to.

[TXBullion]

With what you can buy copper at today I would buy instead. ND has a great deal posted

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

The quick calculation is to compare your time to what you can buy the coppers here for on the open market from other members. They are pretty cheap right now. Of course this does not factor in how much you might or might not enjoy sorting pennies. Some of us here actually enjoy the process.. and generate enough to grow our own hoards while still providing a few extra CTU's to other members at an attractive price.

[wheeler_dealer]

Return on investment? VS personal enjoyment

If I entered now knowing what I do I would just buy CTU's and hand sort

[tuleja]

Depends on what you plan on doing with them. If you are storing for your own hoard, look into how cheaply you can purchase them, copper is pretty cheap currently. TXBullion mentioned ND's great price. You can buy quite a bit of copper pennies currently before fully paying for the Ryedale, especially if you add gas costs, mileage wear on the vehicle, and time to sort.
If you are planning on doing it to sell the copper only, be prepared for small profits at this price. Copper pennies tend to follow the copper pricing, as it gets around $4/lb you can sell more of it for a bigger profit. A couple months ago there was a person in one of the forums I read (might have been here, don't remember) but he told his wife he could make good money at it after watching the NBC special and found out the hard way, after buying the Ryedale, that there isn't a lot of profit for the work at these copper prices.

You will have to make your own choice on what you want to do.

I personally love my Ryedale. I enjoy the sorting, I collect the wheats, Indians, and older Canadians. I enjoy the hunt. I also stash away a bunch of coppers. I purchased mine about 2 years ago when the price of copper was around $4/lb and sold enough that the profit payed for the Ryedale, other equipment, and a bunch of the copper I have stashed away.

If I was starting now I personally wouldn't buy the Ryedale unless the price of copper rose higher and I saw the price of copper selling higher than it currently does.

[Engineer]

It's a math question missing a lot of variables. How many coppers do you want to accumulate? What's your local Cu percentage? How fast can you sort two boxes versus 15 minutes at the Ryedale? New or used machine? Do you plan to re-sell the machine? How much is your time worth?

Other questions to consider:
Do you have a place to make noise?
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Do you have a coin counter?

[tuleja]

I am sure the CU has a coin machine

One thing I forgot. Verify this! Your dump strategy is much bigger than your pickup strategy. Most banks have no problems getting you multiple boxes (I have two banks getting me 3 boxes a week), but most banks hate getting multiple boxes back. I also couldn't imagine running a lot of cents and having to re-roll them. YUK. I would never do this if I didn't have access to a coin counter. Once you verify the CU has a coin counter, make good friends with them, do a lot of business there, get good face time in the bank. I have heard of people being cut off from the coin machine before. They are less likely to cut off a friendly person than someone the don't know.

[jacks2start]

It's a math question missing a lot of variables. How many coppers do you want to accumulate? What's your local Cu percentage? How fast can you sort two boxes versus 15 minutes at the Ryedale? New or used machine? Do you plan to re-sell the machine? How much is your time worth?

Other questions to consider:
Do you have a place to make noise?
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Do you have a coin counter?

used machine is fine
amount to collect > really no tops so i would answer unlimited
room for it > Yes i have a dry, temp controlled room just for sorting and storing. And a 2nd area if storage becomes a issue
source dump > one CU lined up so far, still checking on others so thats ongoing. many banks near or around me and also the small towns near me.
time > no issues as i'm on disability , single dad
hand sort > dont care to sort TONS of pennys, only to keep it fun.
mechanical toys > ya its half the thing pulling me that way
coin counter > not a at home one but it is a idea also

[Engineer]

It's a math question missing a lot of variables. How many coppers do you want to accumulate? What's your local Cu percentage? How fast can you sort two boxes versus 15 minutes at the Ryedale? New or used machine? Do you plan to re-sell the machine? How much is your time worth?

Other questions to consider:
Do you have a place to make noise?
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Do you have a coin counter?

used machine is fine
amount to collect > really no tops so i would answer unlimited
room for it > Yes i have a dry, temp controlled room just for sorting and storing. And a 2nd area if storage becomes a issue
source dump > one CU lined up so far, still checking on others so thats ongoing. many banks near or around me and also the small towns near me.
time > no issues as i'm on disability , single dad
hand sort > dont care to sort TONS of pennys, only to keep it fun.
mechanical toys > ya its half the thing pulling me that way
coin counter > not a at home one but it is a idea also

You didn't answer your local percentage, but lets assume 20%, and a used machine that's $300 plus $50 for wear parts and shipping. If you can re-sell it for $250 when you're done, you'd need to sort enough to make up the hundred dollars for use of the machine while you had it. Assuming a $30 markup on shipped copper cents, you could make that up with 3 CTUs, or sorting $1500 face (not counting gas, chocolate, and other expenses). This will go up or down depending on your local copper percentages. If you plan to keep the machine, you'd need to sort about $5K face to pay for a used one.

It's not a great investment as far as machines are concerned. I don't know where you live, but I'm in big tree country and can buy rough cut oak for a buck a board foot. In my situation, buying a $500 planer to quadruple the value of the feedstock is a no-brainer. Assuming I don't hit a nail, it'll pay for itself in 166 board feet.

[jacks2start]

It's a math question missing a lot of variables. How many coppers do you want to accumulate? What's your local Cu percentage? How fast can you sort two boxes versus 15 minutes at the Ryedale? New or used machine? Do you plan to re-sell the machine? How much is your time worth?

Other questions to consider:
Do you have a place to make noise?
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Do you have a coin counter?

used machine is fine
amount to collect > really no tops so i would answer unlimited
room for it > Yes i have a dry, temp controlled room just for sorting and storing. And a 2nd area if storage becomes a issue
source dump > one CU lined up so far, still checking on others so thats ongoing. many banks near or around me and also the small towns near me.
time > no issues as i'm on disability , single dad
hand sort > dont care to sort TONS of pennys, only to keep it fun.
mechanical toys > ya its half the thing pulling me that way
coin counter > not a at home one but it is a idea also

You didn't answer your local percentage, but lets assume 20%, and a used machine that's $300 plus $50 for wear parts and shipping. If you can re-sell it for $250 when you're done, you'd need to sort enough to make up the hundred dollars for use of the machine while you had it. Assuming a $30 markup on shipped copper cents, you could make that up with 3 CTUs, or sorting $1500 face (not counting gas, chocolate, and other expenses). This will go up or down depending on your local copper percentages. If you plan to keep the machine, you'd need to sort about $5K face to pay for a used one.

It's not a great investment as far as machines are concerned. I don't know where you live, but I'm in big tree country and can buy rough cut oak for a buck a board foot. In my situation, buying a $500 planer to quadruple the value of the feedstock is a no-brainer. Assuming I don't hit a nail, it'll pay for itself in 166 board feet.

Not sure about the local percentage's as i dont know what's being pulled out of the area. i have no way to figure it yet. Still working the banks out as far as dump and supply ones.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Not sure about the local percentage's as i dont know what's being pulled out of the area. i have no way to figure it yet. Still working the banks out as far as dump and supply ones.

It's not hard to figure out. you get $10 in pennies from each of your 4 potential source banks. Hand sort the cents and count the coppers. This will give you a good idea what your local percentage is. Or you could do it the lazy man's way.. just tell us where you are and we probably know the percentage for that area.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Other questions to consider:

Do you have a place to make noise?
Yes.. an entire Penny Processing Center
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
Yes.. I have sourcing and dumping down to an art.. Tons and tons of experience
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Not much.. I sort for volume. I can always hand sort the copper.. or if I get really desperate I can sort the zincs for the elusive 1992-D Narrow AM
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Do you have a coin counter?
Do I have a coin counter?.. Do i have a coin counter?.. Does a fat dog hate fast cars?.. Heck, I hoard 'em!

[Engineer]

Other questions to consider:

Do you have a place to make noise?
Yes.. an entire Penny Processing Center
Can you source/dump 3x more coin?
Yes.. I have sourcing and dumping down to an art.. Tons and tons of experience
How much would you miss hand sorting?
Not much.. I sort for volume. I can always hand sort the copper.. or if I get really desperate I can sort the zincs for the elusive 1992-D Narrow AM
Are you a sucker for mechanical toys?
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Do you have a coin counter?
Do I have a coin counter?.. Do i have a coin counter?.. Does a fat dog hate fast cars?.. Heck, I hoard 'em!

HoardCoinMachinesByTheTon is my hero!

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Even I'm not sure quite how many counting machines I have. There are 15 I can think of off the top of my head if you count the 3 automatic rolling machines that also count.
2 of these:

2 of these:

3 of these:

1 each of these:

[Zincanator]