Best way to increase volume?

[cuneo187]

Hi all,

I'm wondering what tips anyone has for increasing my volume. I live in a fairly large city, almost equidistant to several branches of several banks. I use them all. I've probably been to 50+ banks in the past week, gobbling up CWR of halves, dimes, quarters (not so great) and nickels.

I have a pending order for a box of halves. But my question is, do I need to start just ordering more coins? Like order 2 boxes of dimes, 2 halves, 2 nickels, etc every week? I only have an account at one bank and there are maybe 5 branches within driving distance. I could open other accounts...I think this is a smart idea. But I've only been turned down on coins one time, and my aunt had an account and so we went back to get those rolls. I like CWRs because they are a wildcard-you never know who is turning in what, and you can easily score solid silver rolls, especially in halves. I've had very very bad luck with $500 boxes of halves but much better luck with stuff customers just turn in. I've been running around all week and now I'm starting to run out of places to ask and drive to. I've literally hit up almost every bank within 10 miles of me, calling/going in and asking for halves and taking 100% of what they have.

So does everyone who puts in volume pretty much order stuff and just pick up/dump each week?

I asked my bank to order bags of halves but they can "only" order $500 boxes and a few of the branches are giving me a hard time. Should I look around for good banks that will basically order whatever I want? I want to get some loose $1000 bags of halves because again people might just turn in a bunch of silver at the counter and it goes straight to the bag-no one will pull it out in the meantime.

I will give a few tips for others who have patiently read through my post.

-Be creative. Use everything/everyone at your disposal. I've had great hits at bank branches inside of supermarkets. I've also had nice hits thanks to friends/family letting me use them either for pickups or dumps. I always take care of them and buy them dinner. Also, use different sites such as Craigslist for local deals. It doesn't hurt to watch out for promotions on sites such as APMEX or Kitco, especially with free shipping. And I can't stress it enough. Be creative. Think outside the box. Use credit unions. I even use my local casino for dumps sometimes. They have a counter that does not charge a fee (I know, I took in $500 in halves and got back exactly $500, and I asked and they confirmed). If you're in a pinch, borrow the money from a friend or family and simply pay it back from the dump. Like if you have a bank that has $750 in halves but you only have $200 cash, borrow the rest if you can and pay it back after you dump, then take the person out and thank them. Who knows, you may hit solid silver!

-Keep a positive attitude. There will be periods of bad runs and good runs. Keep it all in perspective. Do as much volume as you can handle.

-Be friendly. No one hates a sore loser, so if you're running skunky keep your head up. Also if the bank doesn't or can't meet your request, don't be rude. You never know when/how you will need to use that bank in the future.

-Don't be too open. You don't want tellers to catch on and start grabbing your silver. Make conversation and jokes but don't brag about big hits.

-Be smart. Ask banks when you pick up CWRs if they get them in often. Some banks get halves every other day, some have them for months at a time. Pay attention. If you hit silver, make sure you keep checking back at the same place every few days. Check during summer travel season and the holidays. People in a pinch will trade in silver without even knowing it because they are hard up for cash.

Good luck! I look forward to some good tips as well. Mainly to increase my volume, but any others are more than welcome!

[beauanderos]

Welcome to Realcent, nice first post. I order ten boxes of halves per week, assuming it would be too time-consuming to be worth the effort, however it's likely I'm wrong in that regard. Ok, so I'm lazy. You will encounter streaks no matter how you strategize your pick-ups. And with the increasing attention being directed to silver as the price rise causes it to bask in the spotlight, it's more than likely your yield will soon drop enormously.

[twentybux]

Welcome to the forum. It really depends on where your neck of the woods is according to each realcent member. If your formula works for you, go for it. Best of luck!

[rainsonme]

What large city are you mining?
I have been doing this 5 days a week (Tue-Sat) for about 5 years. I have my pattern; for each pick up bank, there is a dump bank near by, with a different armored service provider, so I am not dumping back into the pool I hope to draw from. Silver is much more scarce now that when I started. I have contemplated giving up a few times in the past several months, but I cannot say that I have as much silver as I would like to have, so I persist even though the return is diminished. I never say no to an opportunity, except quarters. You never know when you will be surprised.
I think most if not all bank tellers are aware of what I am doing. I tell them the truth: I don't find much any more. I always ask them if they've seen anything unusual; it's interesting to know what they've found, what's out there, and it builds a little comradery.

I only ask for one $500 box per bank branch per week. I was getting 2 boxes from a couple of banks, but that required tying up $1,000 per visit, and it meant I had to dump $1,000 in a day. I try to only dump ~$500 per dump-bank-branch, so that I am not a burden and the bag isn't too heavy. For each pick-up bank, there is a dump bank on the route.

I always thank the tellers, even if they did not get the order they promised me. After all, they are doing me a favor; it costs their company money, and I am getting the service for free.

I do all CWR I can find, except for quarters. I keep a $50 bag of pennies at home, and go thru it over a longer period of time; $50 isn't too much carrying cost. Everything else I try to turn in 24 hours or less.

[newton7]

I like the fast turn over on rainsonme's post. I usually flip them within a week but have never got any silver out of machine rolled coins. I always, always get them out of CWRs or loose but I know there are others in my city. I have asked for loose halves before and the teller says, "I have 800 dollars some guy just dropped off, do you want them?"

As for volume you might need more banks. I have three brands of banks all with the required amount of money in them to keep them free of fees. I mainly use the for back up when my regular banks goes dry or there is a flood of new coins coming out. Nothing worse then picking up all your boxes for the weekend and discovering all new coins, unless you plan to sell them here or ebay.

The most I can get out of any of my banks is 1 or 2 boxes with out going down the 20 questions route about what for and cost etc. I also play the kid card when they ask. Pictures of my kid with coins.

If I have to make a big change today and needed more coins, I would go to another brand of bank and open up an account to tap a new source.
OR
Look for places that use coins, a buddy I work with just bought a coin operated laundry mat and pulls about $500 dollars a week in extra quarters. People are always bringing in quarter from other sources to wash clothes. I just havent attempted to buy them yet as I do not think the payout would be worth the trouble.

Good Luck!

[cuneo187]

I try to turn things around in 2 hours or less most times. I work 2 jobs and whenever I get a day off during the week I'm pretty much pounding the pavement trying to flip coin. So I will start closest to me and work my way out, figure out who has what and pick an area. I will get as many coins as I can afford and sort them in my car (yesterday sorted $290 in halves outside, on an empty bench downtown!) and then immediately look to flip them. I'm trying to build my cash up so I can handle more than a few hundred at a time, making it less costly to take trips to and from banks.

I guess my question was easily summed up as: is ordering more coins a good way to increase my yield, or should I simply chase down CWRs? For example if you gave me the choice of $500 halves in a box or $300 CWRs I would take the $300 CWR every time. One solid roll makes up for like 5 boxes. If you hit the jackpot of like 3-4+ solid rolls you made up for a month's worth of 3-4-5ish boxes. There is little upside to a box in my experience. You either get a skunk or maybe hit nice for like 10-15, but usually pretty steady at around 3-5. It's the same with nickels. I've found almost every box contains 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 war nicks. Anything else is extremely rare.

One other tip, that someone else mentioned. Use EVERYTHING at your disposal. I work at a restaurant and have found about 5 war nicks, one V nickel, one buffalo nickel, a few wheat pennies, one silver dime and even a silver quarter just in the past year, working part time and casually checking the coins in the register. I will keep checking there from now on.

Thanks for all the replies. How would I go about finding out which armored services the bank uses? Simply ask the head teller?

Also if anyone cares to share which banks really will work with them (aka, order whatever you want) I'd love to hear it. Then again around here we probably use different banks and people in other parts of the USA all have different banks.

I think I have some good leverage to use, as far as not having accounts at more than one bank. Now I can call up and ask for halves, pick them up, and then say "by the way, if I open an account, would you possibly be able to order me coins?" Or something along those lines. These days I'm sure banks will do whatever they can to get new money and new customers.

[twentybux]

Unless you have a had a long term relationship with the banks you are using I would be careful on asking them what armored service they use or ask them when they receive shipments from the armored service. If you do not have a strong relationship with the banks before the questions you may just weaken your relationship. In my experiences you hang around your favorite banks long enough and you usually get the answers to those questions without having to ask. I know of a friend a state or two away that asked just those questions to a bank he had limited dealings with. Lo and behold when he has visited the bank after asking those questions they (the bank staff) wonder if he is casing the place for a heist. In my experience you are friendly to bank staff but also don't ask too many questions about their procedures. Don't get me wrong. You talk about the kids etc. You just don't want to bring about more attention to yourself than what you have to. Just my two cents. Welcome to the forum.

[fusscharles]

Okay- rookie to the site and don't have any clue what percentage you guys are hitting on. What do you reap from this kind of sorting? Can you use a Rydale (and change out the balance) for something like this?

[twentybux]

Still a handsorter. From the more tenured rc members, no in regard to the Ryedale. Usually 2-3 silver halves in each box, however if you take a look at the tracking topic on the site, some members are doing pretty while others, like myself, are getting skunk boxes left and right. The discussion recently is if the silver is finally drying up. Definitely a valid topic. Best of luck!

[chris6084]

As far as asking about the time of the armored truck deliveries, I have found asking general times to be acceptable. They are much more comfortable to tell you it comes at the end of the day or the beginning of the day as opposed to it comes at 2PM for example. When I order coin at a bank that I don't normally order at, when they tell me what day to pick it up, I just ask if I should come by at lunch or the end of the day. They have never seemed uncomfortable with that.

[fusscharles]

So twentybux..... is that 2-3 40%'s or 90%'s? Heck if you are finding a couple 90's per box, im game..

[twentybux]

So twentybux..... is that 2-3 40%'s or 90%'s? Heck if you are finding a couple 90's per box, im game..

2-3 40%'s if I am very, very blessed. Nowadays I have been getting nothing more than skunks.

[hejira11]

Welcome! I know my reply is not what you are expecting, but it works for me. I only sort through pennies as a hobby. I like the % return on my time. I do not enjoy searching for the harder to find silver. Instead, I sell things I don't need or use and buy bullion on here (or other rare places where I am not paying premiums that are out in orbit.)

Last week I sold a copy of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" that I bought on the failed DVD-Audio format a few years back. I bought it for $20 and I got $100.00 for it last week. That money made it's way into the wallet of a fellow member here in exchange for some of their silver.

You don't know what you have around you that is worth as much to someone else as Silver is to you!