The Price of Copper Just Went Up

[beauanderos]

I've been reducing my copper stash by selling at bargain basement prices. No more. My source bank just cut me off on the majority of my penny pickups, so I can't easily replenish what I've been selling off. Oh well, I should have known nothing good lasts forever. Bank told me they can order twenty boxes twice a week (for the entire branch)... and I had just started trying to order seventy-six boxes a week. Lasted all of one week.

[68Camaro]

Glad I could help you reduce your stash while I could!

[Country]

Cutoffs are not nice...

Do you only have 1 source bank? Maybe they were telling you nicely, that 76 boxes was too much...

[avidbrandy]

20 boxes a week is the most I have going from one branch right now. I just screwed over my dump bank by filling up their machine and they had no replacement. might get cut off there soon.

And yes thanks for a piece of the stash.

[Morsecode]

That stinks. To be honest, I'm starting to get some bad vibes from a few of my pick ups.

If there were a swift, more or less nationwide clamp down I wonder what that would do to the price of a standard CTU here. Not saying that's imminent...

[beauanderos]

That stinks. To be honest, I'm starting to get some bad vibes from a few of my pick ups.

If there were a swift, more or less nationwide clamp down I wonder what that would do to the price of a standard CTU here. Not saying that's imminent...

If the banks get tired of servicing a surging tide of penny sorters and halves searchers, they could very easily implement policies (fees or bans) upon the customers making it near impossible to obtain circulated cents in quantity. I always thought the zincs dumping was the hardest part, but now my small order of cents is in jeopardy. You can't start up a copper cent recycling business if you can't find supply. If the only source of sorted cents is from people who already have secured a stash, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the price shoot up on CTU's to the $220 range. Who is going to want to sell off their stash if they can't easily replace it?

[reddirtcoins]

only thing I can say is "call the main office"... helped me... I love it because the teller supervisor who was giving me a hard time was put in her place by one small call to the main office and one visit to the bank supervisor. (branch manager was not in). Don't give up!!

[beauanderos]

Well, not only did the guy who orders the boxes tell me the limit for the branch was 20 (twice a week) he also said there was another problem. He says the delivery guys have a new policy that they're only permitted five minutes to unload their order (although I wouldn't think making say, two trips out to the armored car, instead of one, would make a huge difference). The point is, I don't want to adopt an adversarial attitude with this guy, I want him friendly and on my side. If it comes down to it, I'll give up on the pennies orders (even tho I just ordered my 4th Ryedale) and keep the halves.

[biglouddrunk]

I've been hearing of people having a hard time getting pennies yet over the 3 years I've been doing this the price one can sell copper for seems to be going down. It's tough to get 1.5X face on ebay now.

[beauanderos]

There may not be as many big sellers doing high volume, but a horde of small sorters on ebay selling off one or two CTU's can cause a glut of product just as easily. If the supply exceeds the demand, the price drops. There are only so many buyers, and they each have the option of spending their hard-earned money either on copper, silver, or a tenth of an ounce of gold... or just sorting themselves.

[reddirtcoins]

Sometimes I forget a lot of people can't pickup the bags out of the change machines. In my case that is 90% of what I grab and I understand that point of view but, sometimes the local person just has no idea. Which in my case was a teller supervisor whom I never even talked to that was screaming at me across the lobby. Once I confirmed with the office all of my issues went away and the bank supervisor gave me a big "I'm sorry" over it. It's nice to know it's "branch managers option" at least in my area. I'm also happy to have another half pickup bank because of that. After all; I'm not hurting anyone doing a this hobby.. and whatever happened to customer service?

[Number21]

If the banks get tired of servicing a surging tide of penny sorters and halves searchers, they could very easily implement policies (fees or bans) upon the customers making it near impossible to obtain circulated cents in quantity.

We'd just have to start using commercial accounts and paying a little bit for them. Retailers, for example, can order as many pennies as they want without any dirty looks. And the banks won't/can't cut them off, because they NEED them.

On the other hand, self serve coin sorting machines are becoming more and more popular. They will always have bags to dump from them. I am doing my credit union a big favor when I drag out a big bag of pennies. Either they give them to me at face, or they have to pay to ship them off, have them counted and rolled, and then shipped back in a pretty box. Those pretty boxes can't be cheap.

[John_doe]

Cutoffs are not nice...

Do you only have 1 source bank? Maybe they were telling you nicely, that 76 boxes was too much...

Lmao. I've been booted from a few banks, I in turn opened accounts in every major local bank to avoid the cutoffs.

Spread the load!

[beauanderos]

Worse just went to worser! The few boxes that I do have on hand? Box after box turns out to be 2011D's. Dagnabbit!!

[HoldingAg]

I know you posted that you have 20boxes of 2011's (I just got 3 boxes of shield's myself arhhhggg!), did you ever think that with your current situation with them limiting your orders that.... maybe they're on to you? Why else would they give 20boxes of 2011's... is it just coincidence?

[adagirl]

I have a commerical account with no fees. But I still get weird looks, and have even been told I am "weird" when walking out with just 8 boxes. How in the heck are you guys carrying 20+ boxes out of the bank? Are you coming in with a dolley and rolling them out??

[beauanderos]

I have a commerical account with no fees. But I still get weird looks, and have even been told I am "weird" when walking out with just 8 boxes. How in the heck are you guys carrying 20+ boxes out of the bank? Are you coming in with a dolley and rolling them out??

What? You can't carry 36 boxes at once? Noobie! You answered your own question.

[beauanderos]

I know you posted that you have 20boxes of 2011's (I just got 3 boxes of shield's myself arhhhggg!), did you ever think that with your current situation with them limiting your orders that.... maybe they're on to you? Why else would they give 20boxes of 2011's... is it just coincidence?

Probably just coincidence, but I guess it was time to take a break anyway.

[adagirl]

I have a commerical account with no fees. But I still get weird looks, and have even been told I am "weird" when walking out with just 8 boxes. How in the heck are you guys carrying 20+ boxes out of the bank? Are you coming in with a dolley and rolling them out??

What? You can't carry 36 boxes at once? Noobie! You answered your own question.

Well this noobie was hesitant to go strolling into the bank with a dolley, but since I have one I might as well put it to good use. Oh there gonna love me now.

[Number21]

I have a commerical account with no fees.

How does one get one of those?

[beauanderos]

I have a commerical account with no fees.

How does one get one of those?

I just always go to the merchants line. They've never questioned me in 19 months whether I had a business account. They've asked a few times where I get all the halves I'm returning (I return to four different branches) and I tell them my friend has a laundromat chain and lets me look thru the halves before returning them for me. At least on the halves, it's been no problem so far. And as far as the cart goes, it takes two trips even with that.

[adagirl]

I have a commerical account with no fees.

How does one get one of those?

It depends on the bank, but generally to open a commerical account you will need your initial deposit, ID, a copy of your business license, state resale tax certificate (if you resell - I don't), and that's about it. It is not hard to get a business license, its something you do locally with the city or county you are in and it tends to be based on a percentage of your gross sales. Check around to see what bank offers the best account, and hopefully no fees. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Number21]

It's the "no fees" part I find very interesting. I can't find a free personal account anywhere local unless I have a massive amount of cash to deposit. Do you know what banks offer free business checking accounts?

[GTOJohn]

i have found that banks around me that used to offer free business checking accounts are now changing to have fees (unless a $2,500 min balance).

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

This is why you have multiple source banks.. if one cuts you off it does not kill your supply line. I am just starting to get a couple of boxes per week from a branch that cut me off both ways a couple of years ago. It is going to probably take a while to work them back up to 24 boxes a week.

The cart is really handy. Mine will handle 36 boxes, but I only do 24 at a time.. don't want to get greedy and get cut off like Ray. You don't take the cart in unless you have a serious amount of pennies to haul out.

Better sell yourself those last 4 boxes Ray.. the price is going up!