Realcent.org

I found this on Craigslist in Phx

do you have loose change

we offer a low coast coin counting service

To all our customers most baks will not take loose change andother place charge up to a 10% on the doller fee

we only charge 5.9% on the doller that a great low price

bring us ur loose change and will turn it in to cash

e mail us today

*******

Wouldnt be a bad way to get a lot of copper pennies and possible silver and be able to charge a fee.

Any one else try something like this?

GENIUS...

I wonder what the hit rate is on that operation...You could charge like 1% and still come out 1% ahead of buying from the bank if its a good amount for you to sort

I watched something on the history channel on where the coins from charity fountains go...Some guy has a business where he cleans and counts them, takes a fee, and sorts all the good stuff out before taking it to the bank...I was in awe...

Kinda neat if it works, but I just dont see the business plan working out though. Most people wont have enough coin to make a trip to their house/place of business profitable and people with hoards large enough to warrant this service likely wont want random strangers in their house counting their money.

Counting their money and faith its being done correctly would be an issue too. Unless they pull up with a coin counter- coming over and counting by hand doesnt seem very professional. People would have to check and trust those machines so they dont get caught shorting them.

Lastly the coins most people have are not very old or valuable- I would assume that most people that would use this service would have the same mix of rolled coin at a bank- the same copper percentages and the random silver coin here and there. You might stumble on Grandpa's hoard from an old lady or two and might get some wheats or silver halves at face if you can live with yourself =)

Then unless your a professional business or have some kind of way to remove the coins once you get them. Buying large amounts of change and you having to deal with them can be costly.

But I can see a visit to house and the question being asked 'do you buy older coins?' and might give you the foot in the door to buy collections or older coins- maybe

@Robarons, the ad says to take it to them.

I'd think that this would be a good idea for someone to do at one of those "PayDay" loan places. Work with the owner for a split of the profits. Their business probably already deals with lots of change.

I have offered this service by email on CL when I get an inquiry on selling wheats, not an ad...also i have done this service for my neigbors...of course the fee was I exchange the change for fiat...so far no big dumpers yet....and no silver...however occassionally I will dump rolled halves for a silver searching coworker....fee free.

Well if it says take it to them then it does change my opinion somewhat.

I would assume its a store front/ or business some where that can take these.There is a feeling its already a different business doing this as a side operation. If you can over come the overhead of running the operation (the labor, electric bill, disposing of coin) and can beat a coinstar in most location grocery stores at anytime (4am coin returns anyone?) then I can see this working. But I cant see your simpleton planning to drive 10 miles for example to return $10-$50 in change to save $2.50 versus using a coin star if not going to a bank coin machine (which can be free or 2% in most cases).

Man I tend to play the devil's advocate a lot.

I guess many consumers are getting conditioned to think that they need to pay some percentage to have their coins counted and turned into paper cash. I can understand as most people who have a pile of coins to turn in probably have been saving them for years perhaps so they do not mind a small convenience fee to finally get all that cash. Not the same story with anyone who sorts. I'd sooner convert any coins into an Amazon gift card at the Coin Star then pay a fee. Down the road I could pick up a book or CD or silver coin with the card. BTW, I'd love to see Ebay sign aboard Coin Star. Probably hard to merge the PayPal monopoly with a side payment plan like CS gift cards.