Big sale at the Apple store yesterday.
$11 off iPods and $101 off some Macs. Yawn.
Yesterday I took my 1 pound coffee can full of coins to the coinstar machine. I’ve spoken about the joy and wonder of this machine before. Except now it’s better.
You can dump in coins and get back cash for US8.5 cents on the dollar. Really, not a bad deal.
Or, you can get all of it back if you get a gift card. Starbucks, iTunes, Amazon. All the biggies are represented. You can’t mix and match tho.
Anyway, I’m there with my 1 pound Trader Joes coffee can. Full of coins. And some pocket lint. There might have been the odd screw there too. And a paper clip.
As the coins slid and whirred their way into the machines coffers, I was thinking I had about $80. Boy was I surprised. Here is the breakdown.
dollars: 1 quarters: 400 dimes: 328 nickels: 184 pennies: 674
For a grand total of $149.74. Not to shabby eh? Got it as an Amazon gift card.
Took it to Amazon. Picked up an 8GB Nano. Only cost me about $39. Now THAT’s a sale.
November 25th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Hey, not bad! I think the most I’ve ever gotten from my jar of coins was $40. I did read an article on how to “hack” a coinstar machine- I don’t think it’s worth getting caught by the Publix police for your other $.08, though.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hi!
As a Coinstar Rep I thought you might be interested in knowing that there’s more than $10 billion (yes, Billion) in loose change hiding in homes across the U.S., which is roughly a $90 stash among those households that accumulate.
That’s great that you went for an Amazon.com gift card and bought an 8GB Nano! We would love to share your splurge story on our website if you’d be willing to tell us about it here: http://coinstar.com/us/html/userStoryWithFile.html
Also check out our Coinstar YouTube video of an Oregon man cashing in 7 years of saved coins. He went for the Circuit City Gift Card and got an HDTV! Click here to view it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn7sZJrgKqA
Enjoy your iPod Nano!
Sydney