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I didn't realize it, but you can buy junk silver and other silver coins on Amazon.com I was able to buy an ounce of junk silver for just slightly above spot price. I decided that it was a better idea to convert my zinc pennies to silver and pay a tiny premium rather than pay a 9% fee to deposit FRN's into my checking account. Silver will likely go up, making the premium I paid for it on Amazon.com insignificant. FRN's are loosing purchasing power, making that 9% fee you pay just to deposit them back in your checking account less attractive.

Either way, I've just about given up on rolling pennies and turning them into the bank. It's too time consuming and some branches of my credit union will only let me deposit $25 of zinc rolls at any one time.

Very interesting, what did you end up picking up and how much was the final cost?

Description read: " (1) HALF DOLLAR (2) QUARTERS (4) DIMES , ALL 90% SILVER, PLUS ONE FREE 35% SILVER NICKEL, ALL IN INDIVIDUAL, LABELED, HOLDERS.-- MORE THAN 1 OUNCE TOTAL!!"

I paid $41.00 + 4.99 Shipping & Handling for a total of $45.99. I normally only buy if it's at spot price or below, but since silver had a recent pull back, I didn't mind.

I've seen various kinds of bullion on amazon in the past but prices were a bit too high for me. What I like to do to avoid coinstar fees is use the option for a gift card to the grocery store that has the machine, in my case in Chicago it's Jewel. This way I'm buying stuff I'd otherwise be buying anyway so I'm not really out money. I've done amazon gift cards in the past as I love amazon but then I tend ot buy a book or a cd or something that I really dont need so my coin sorting/hoarding hobby winds up costing me even more as I'm buying mroe crap I really dont need. I figure I need groceries anyway so may as well spend my left over cents.

rulesforrebels wrote:I've seen various kinds of bullion on amazon in the past but prices were a bit too high for me. What I like to do to avoid coinstar fees is use the option for a gift card to the grocery store that has the machine, in my case in Chicago it's Jewel. This way I'm buying stuff I'd otherwise be buying anyway so I'm not really out money. I've done amazon gift cards in the past as I love amazon but then I tend ot buy a book or a cd or something that I really dont need so my coin sorting/hoarding hobby winds up costing me even more as I'm buying mroe crap I really dont need. I figure I need groceries anyway so may as well spend my left over cents.

I agree with you 100%! If only the Coinstar machines in Phoenix offered gift cards for grocery stores. Sadly none in my area do at this time

derek, not sure if your a coffee drinker but amazon has some great coffees at good prices, they actually sell alot of food products as well. i never realized this until recently when i ordered some blue mountain coffee. dont get me wrong i love silver but at the prices its running on amazon kind of a waste in my opinoni. you coudl buy coffee and food as thats stuff you'll be needing anyway.

every once and a while now i will use the coinstar machine for amazon cards even though mine does offer grocery store. amazon has a lot of dried fruits that are cheaper than at the grocery store as well as some good coffee.

Good idea! I was aware that Amazon has lots of food stuff, but the cost of shipping always put me off. Coffee doesn't weigh all that much however, it stores for a long time AND just like silver and gold, is likely to get more expensive over the next year IMHO. I'll have to check it out, thanks!

Derek.Sheriff wrote:Good idea! I was aware that Amazon has lots of food stuff, but the cost of shipping always put me off. Coffee doesn't weigh all that much however, it stores for a long time AND just like silver and gold, is likely to get more expensive over the next year IMHO. I'll have to check it out, thanks!

Actually, coffee prices are going back down some. Smuckers/Folgers just announced it is cutting prices 6% accross their brands. Still not a bad idea though as who knows how deep or long the correction will be.

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/? ... cas-coffee

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A few weeks ago I looked into the Amazon.com option for picking up junk silver but I found the premiums too high. Then I found an Albertson's grocery store in town with a CoinStar machine that has that store's giftcard as an option with no fee. But the three times I've gone there the machine has had one of those technical issues where it pays out a cash voucher instead with no fee deducted. So I've managed to turn a total of $225 in zinc pennies into $225 cash at that machine. One of these times it will give me the store gift card but I hope it keeps having its technical issues for a while longer.