Am I really crazy?

[Catfish4u]

My friends, family and girlfriend think I am crazy for saving/buying copper pennies. My Mom even took it a step further. She said 'are you stupid? Driving 600 miles (actually 668 miles) to buy pennies? What is wrong with you? Why didn't you just go to the bank?' I tried to explain the 95% copper to her but she said 'so you are going to get rich saving pennies'? I tried to explain I am not trying to get rich but just place my money somewhere besides the bank where they offered me .1% interest - Yes 1/10th of 1% and they acted like they were doing me a big favor there! She did not understand..........

She thinks my brother is perfectly sane (and even great) taking trips several times per year to Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and also cruises all over. Never mind the fact he does not have the money and maxes out his credit cards and then takes more cards out! He does have MUCH more fun than I do though!

Sometimes I think they may be right - maybe I AM crazy! Most times I think I am sane and the rest of the world is crazy......... Anyone else receive these kind of responses?

[theshoenlebens]

I get that at times. When the tellers asked what I was doing with the pennies, once I explained they seemed to understand. Tho, maybe they were just humoring me.
Plus, your money is good with me.

[TXBullion]

Yes you Are. Means you are probably onto something

[scyther]

Hm yep, driving 600 miles to buy pennies is crazy. Where in the world do you live? Nunavut?

[NDFarmer]

Yeah you're crazy. Just like the rest of us. Don't worry someday you will be able to say "I told you so". When the ones that are telling you now that you are crazy are wiping their butts with that worthless paper and you will have coins that are worth something. Might be a good a idea to diversify and buy some silver and maybe even a little gold when you can.

[shinnosuke]

I'll take crazy and right over broke and stupid any day. Stay on target, catfish. You'll be OK.

[Rodebaugh]

I'll take crazy and right over broke and stupid any day.

This

[fansubs_ca]

Hm yep, driving 600 miles to buy pennies is crazy. Where in the world do you live? Nunavut?

Um, I don't think Nunavut has that much road! ^_-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highways_in_Nunavut

Nope! It doesn't, 70 miles short and nowhere near contiguous. ^_- I once
read an article about communication going out in the much of the north
(including Iqaluit) because of a single satalite failing so I got curious about
the region's infrastucture and started reading. Well, you know how one link
leads to annother... ^_^

As for what the people you know think about what you do I deal with it by
not telling them too much.

[Engineer]

In 2007 people were telling me I was crazy for paying off my mortgage instead of maxing out my 401k contribution. Most of those people were hurting when the economy tanked.

Whenever you're in doubt, find a well meaning idiot and ask their advice...then do the exact opposite of whatever they recommend. Using this method, you don't even have to watch the news to determine which way the wind is blowing.

[BenG76]

You know at one time people thought it was a waste of time to save silver coins. I know a guy that owns a small store and in the 60's-70's he saved all the silver coins that came through his store. When silver got high during the Hunt brothers thing he made a ton of money and paid of his farm and bought more land.

[LooseChange]

Crazy has it's own definition to everyone, but peoples mood really changes when Money is involved.

It just so happens that your hobby is investing in currency with a set value of $0.01 each. If you are getting coppers at 1.2 cents each, I'm sure that 20% markup is less than the interest on all of your brother's credit cards.

About the "Fun" thing. I think sorting pennies is fun, your brother might think cruises are fun...but if he was on that Carnival Ship last week, I bet you that he would have given anything to be sitting in his living room counting coppers.

[Broseph]

I showed my wife the news video with Adam Young and that other Ryedal using guy. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/laws-cha ... d=15076522

The she realized I wasn't quite so crazy.

Then there were times I sold some silver that I got CRH when we needed money. When I sold it for 23x face she was pretty surprised.

Now I sell Eisenhower dollars whenever I find them at banks (and I search for varieties) for about 2x face.

She no longer thinks I'm crazy (at least not for those reasons!). Sometimes it's good to prove to people what somethings worth to get them off your back!

[SilverDragon72]

Crazy? Nope. More like insane. Don't feel bad though, you are not alone!

I probably wouldn't drive 600 miles just for pennies, unless there was a large quantity of them to get.

I would, however, drive that far for other things....

[NHsorter]

Your not crazy!! And certainly not stupid.

Where do you get 2X face for Eisehhwers? I have some to sell. Guess I'm a dumbass for bringing a bunch back to the bank a year ago.

[NDFarmer]

Where do you get 2X face for Eisehhwers?

I was wondering the same thing. They usually go for $1.10 and once in a while you can get $1.20 if you are lucky.

[mbailey1234]

I don't think you are crazy. I think I may be for selling most of mine though. I think it's probably going to take some major patience to cash in big on them though.

I went from thinking I would never sell any until the ban was lifted to looking at what I had invested and deciding to try and sell half to all of a sudden having a guy not far from me that will take up to 8-10 tons So my thought's are if I can flip them right now and get a respectable return on my time and investment, why not?

I think you need to set a goal and if someone offers that I would let them loose and start again. We could always see copper back at $2 per pound and big brother never do away with the penny or the melt ban.

One of my concerns was the chance we may try and move in a couple of years. I don't have them in a place where I can just use a forklift to move them!

[scyther]

Hm yep, driving 600 miles to buy pennies is crazy. Where in the world do you live? Nunavut?

Um, I don't think Nunavut has that much road! ^_-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highways_in_Nunavut

Nope! It doesn't, 70 miles short and nowhere near contiguous. ^_- I once
read an article about communication going out in the much of the north
(including Iqaluit) because of a single satalite failing so I got curious about
the region's infrastucture and started reading. Well, you know how one link
leads to annother... ^_^

As for what the people you know think about what you do I deal with it by
not telling them too much.

Yeah, I had a feeling that might be the case. I just don't know where else might be 600 miles away from a penny supply.

[Broseph]

I sell on ebay. I make sets and sell the nice one's. After fees I make 1.5x-2x usually, give or take. But yeah, don't take those suckers to the bank, or i'll scoop em up and sell em

[JadeDragon]

I realized the OP drove to buy sorted copper pennies. Ya you are crazy. Should have been cheaper to let USPS deliver them. However if the trip was fun and you happened to get pennies than more power too you.

[OtusLotus]

Part of life IS being crazy.. I little nuts.. a little off the wall!

678 miles is really a long way to drive for Anything! but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than flying!

Listen catfish, you never have to justify anything to anyone except yourself. And never try and justify what you are or aren't doing by comparing yourself to others. You are NEVER going to get ahead that way.

Just observe what others are doing, and learn from their mistakes.

Who knows what will happen to the price of copper. Who knows what will happen to the penny. But in the meantime... just enjoy yourself!

[SilverDragon72]

Part of life IS being crazy.. I little nuts.. a little off the wall!

678 miles is really a long way to drive for Anything! but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than flying!

Listen catfish, you never have to justify anything to anyone except yourself. And never try and justify what you are or aren't doing by comparing yourself to others. You are NEVER going to get ahead that way.

Just observe what others are doing, and learn from their mistakes.

Who knows what will happen to the price of copper. Who knows what will happen to the penny. But in the meantime... just enjoy yourself!

Hmm. Words of Wisdom?

[baggerman]

I was told I was crazy for buying Ag at $10 ounce
I was told I was crazy for buying Au at $300 an ounce
I was told I was crazy for paying off my house instead of putting it all in the stock market
And YES I have been told I am crazy for saving pennies

[frugi]

its a chicken/egg thing. which came first? You are crazy, and then you started to collect pennies. OR You collect pennies, and you then you became crazy.

On the flipside which is crazier? A risk free investment or playing the stockmarket.

Which is crazier? A risk free investment or going to the casino?

Which is crazier? A risk free investment or spending $100.00 a week at your local tavern on booze.

Which is crazier? Buying a box of pennies every week or buying 5 packs of cigarettes a week.

I usually always find myself in disagreement with the majority. I guess that makes me crazy. Of course that is based on the majority being lazy, fat, stupid, sheeple Americans. You can always count on Americans who will tell you that you are crazy..... as they are lighting up a smoke, cracking open a beer, sitting behind the slot machine, while talking about how much money they made in the stockmarket.

[BenG76]

Your not crazy. They are. I would just keep doing what your doing and not tell them much more about it. Some people will just never get it. I am related to some people that are the same way myself. They want to offer me advice when they want to borrow money from me at times. I wish I had been doing this more over the years instead of getting away from it at times. Keep piling it up and ignore what they think.

[fansubs_ca]

They want to offer me advice when they want to borrow money from me at times.

I gave this picture to a freind who's sister kept asking to borrow money from her all the time
(and was not so good about paying it back):



Handy thing to have on hand.