what scale should I get?

[capthowdymp]

I have been lurking here for a few months. I want to sell ctu's what is the best scale to weigh this heavy package on, what features do I need? The people at the post office near me are kinda crabby. I am sure they will try to give me a hard time.

[henrysmedford]

You might look at this old thread "Shipping Pennies the Proper Way" http://www.realcent.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=201&hilit=shipping+bst+ctu+flat

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

You should be able to do it with a reasonably priced digital scale. Get one that is good to a tenth gram. One that is good to one hundredth gram is better, but you don't have to have that. You should be able to get one for about $10. If that is too much, you can make your own balance scale out of a pencil and popsicle stick. Weigh each penny.. the copper ones will weigh 3.1 grams. Count them as you put them into the bag. When you get to 5,000, seal the bag. Repeat. When you get two bags, place them in a medium flat rate box and tape with good 3M tape. Since your PO folks are crabby, you can be sure these packages are going to make you their favorite customer.. and they will handle each package with care.

Then, find a buyer.. collect the money.. and ship it off.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

For heavy packages a good name brand scale is best.. but can cost $Thousands. Next best is a vending scale.. about $600-700. You could probably do it iwth a reasonably priced postal scale.

A CTU is done by count.. not by weight. It is 10,000 coppers. It weighs approximately 68 pounds before packaging. But if you are selling by weight rather than count you need to be clear in the wording of your ad.

[capthowdymp]

I want to purchase a decent scale that is affordable. what is the best scale to buy for weighing a ctu before shipping? I was not aware that a ctu is done by count. would I be better off buying a coin counter? I am new to this and I have recently purchased a ryedale machine with the intent to sell some ctu's to offset the cost. I will probably end up buying a postage scale as well as a coin counter thank you for your input I love this hobby.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

A coin counter costs more, but has a lot more practical applications. You can generally get a good used name brand counter in the $200-300 range. If you have a counter, you don't really need a scale unless you are selling by weight. You can always just use the scale at the post office for free. If you package up the CTU right it should come in at just over 69 pounds with packaging.

There are buyers right here on the forum that you can sell to.. just check the Want To Buy/Trade forum in the market section. You could sell on eBay also.. but by the time you deduct eBay and PayPal fees it is hardly worth the additional hassle. Plus, it you do not start it at a high enough price it can sometimes go too cheaply. I have bought copper cents on eBay for below face.. including shipping.

Congrats on purchasing the Ryedale.. that is the most important machine of the whole equation.. and the best bang for the buck.

[capthowdymp]

I had no idea a counter would cost so much. I guess I will just advertise that they are weighed. I really want to have a nice hoard of coppers. I hear by 2018 there is going to be a severe copper shortage and I want to have a huge stockpile to sell.


Some call it a Kaiser blade I call it a sling blade.

[duane1966]

I got a great Downey Johnson counter off eBay for $30. It is the manual kind but I can count $25 in pennies in about 3 minutes. If you look hard and are patient you can get a great deal on a counter on eBay. For me it was the best investment I've made, it has saved me tons of time. It works great to find and remove bent coins before sorting so my ryedale does not jam up as often.

[capthowdymp]

Hey I will keep an eye open. I appreciate your advice

[fasteddy]

save your money and buy a reliable coin counter. Once you use it you will be glad you bought it. Scan coin 303 can be had off of ebay and sometimes here for less the $250.00. For an affordable scale check out your local outdoor sports store, look in the food processing area. 150 pound scale can be had for less than 75 bucks. And welcome to the madness...and get a sortin'.

[MrIncredible]

I agree with fasteddy - invest in a coin counter for sure. I bought a scale but don't really use it much. The Scan Coin 303 lets me know exactly how much goes into each bag. As fasteddy says, you can get the counter used on ebay or here. In fact, I bought mine from fasteddy! Go figure!

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

I agree with the others that a good counter is an excellent investment. I hoard them myself.

No need to count them if you keep them all for your own hoard rather than selling them while they are cheap.

Jus keep eating biscuits and mustard and sorting as fast as you can. The percentages will never be better then they are right now.

[slickeast]

HCBTT, nice slingblade reference.

I have a Toledo digital scale that goes up to 100lbs. Bought it off ebay for $75.00 several years ago. It is nice to have when I am shipping packages that aren't in flat rate boxes.

I use a Scan Coin 313. (303 with a auto feed hopper) Just set it to count out 10000 cents. In just a few minutes a CTU is ready.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Glad you caught that Slick. I want to know what kind of bags you use for 10,000 cents? I just set a pair of my Glory CN-12's to 5,000 and let them rip. 10,000 isn't enough to bother firing up the pair of Mach 7's.

For a scale I use a vending scale.. something like a Digi-scale. I think they are $600-700 new, but I bought it on the bay several years ago for around $100. It weighs up to 60 pounds with up to 2 hundredths of a pound accuracy. It will also count individual denominations and tell you how many coins and the total face value of the coins in the pile on top. I mostly use the scale for when I am buying large lots of wheat cents by the pound.

[fansubs_ca]

I picked up a shipping scale here:

http://www.canadianweigh.com/scales/my-weigh-ultraship-series

They are a good source if you are in Canada, if you are in the U.S. you might find a
better deal on your side of the border.

It's sometime handy to check the weight on a package before going to the Post Office
just so you know what to expect. (Also you have a chance to figure out if you need to
repack something a different way _before_ you leave your house. ^_-)

I've also used it for weighing some of my coin dumps before taking them to the Safeway
self checkout. (It get's me within a few coins, the self check out machine will give me
an exact count, this is just so I know I don't dump so much at once that it jams the
machine. ^_-)

[MUTiger]

Here is a nice counter on ebay right now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LYNDE-ORDWAY-COMPANY-380-1-COIN-COUNTER-USED-WORKING-/380591783247?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item589d09bd4f

I have the model 30-PH. It is virtually the same model but it was made in the late 50s. I gave about 60% after seeing on ebay and did a local pickup. It will count about 1200 pennies per minute. Larger coins are a little bit slower.

mutiger

[weezerfan]

I think I'm going to check out the scan coin ones. They seem pretty good for counting pennies. I too plan to sell some until after I pay for my ryedale.

[capthowdymp]

I ended up winning a bid on a Lynde Ordway. It is a hand cranking older style machine. I can't wait for it to get here. Next I am going to try to find a decent afordable scale to weigh these ctu's.