Posted a craigslist ad to sell copper pennies today....

dasherhunting

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Jul 8, 2008
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I sell 50 dollars face all the time on ebay, actually to some memebers on here should just try and skip the fees but its not a super profitable endevor I only do it so its that many I dont have to dump saves me trips to the cu.
 

SFBayArea

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Aug 28, 2009
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dasherhunting said:
I sell 50 dollars face all the time on ebay, actually to some memebers on here should just try and skip the fees but its not a super profitable endevor I only do it so its that many I dont have to dump saves me trips to the cu.

Yeah.. it's not very profitable because Ebay takes 9% commission + 2.9% Paypal Fees.. It would be ok without the fees. I wish that a competitor to Ebay would be popular. Have you sold to anyone on Ebay & do deals with them privately afterwards? I would like to sell some on Ebay & maintain contact with the buyer. Tell them, if they like to buy some in the future, let me know. Ebay is so unfriendly towards the seller, it's ridiculous. I remember it used to be that Ebay allowed checks. They force people to use Paypal & charge another 2.9% just from that. That's why I didn't vote for Meg Whitman in California.
Wish I had a Ryedale right now. I contacted Andy of Ryedale, only the $500 unit is available.
 

jrf30

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May 7, 2006
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dfx, Ryedale!
j_gold said:
How much do you usually get for $50 face on ebay ?

On ebay right now the going price for a $50 bag is about $85. SO asking $50 for $25 bag is a little high. MIght not sell at that level, but if you do then great.

I get about $85 now, pay my fees, and net about $74. Still almost a 50% gain on my investment. And while I am gathering the copper I find wheats and the rare IH which I keep, so my profit is actually a little higher. :-)
 

DrDetector

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Jan 20, 2007
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jrf30 said:
j_gold said:
How much do you usually get for $50 face on ebay ?

On ebay right now the going price for a $50 bag is about $85. SO asking $50 for $25 bag is a little high. MIght not sell at that level, but if you do then great.

I get about $85 now, pay my fees, and net about $74. Still almost a 50% gain on my investment. And while I am gathering the copper I find wheats and the rare IH which I keep, so my profit is actually a little higher. :-)

So if you net $74 for it, do you pay shipping out of that amount or is your quote of $85 not including shipping? I assume you would use the flat rate box from USPS.
 

FiresEye

Sr. Member
Aug 17, 2010
322
5
SFBayArea said:
dasherhunting said:
I sell 50 dollars face all the time on ebay, actually to some memebers on here should just try and skip the fees but its not a super profitable endevor I only do it so its that many I dont have to dump saves me trips to the cu.

Yeah.. it's not very profitable because Ebay takes 9% commission + 2.9% Paypal Fees.. It would be ok without the fees. I wish that a competitor to Ebay would be popular. Have you sold to anyone on Ebay & do deals with them privately afterwards? I would like to sell some on Ebay & maintain contact with the buyer. Tell them, if they like to buy some in the future, let me know. Ebay is so unfriendly towards the seller, it's ridiculous. I remember it used to be that Ebay allowed checks. They force people to use Paypal & charge another 2.9% just from that. That's why I didn't vote for Meg Whitman in California.
Wish I had a Ryedale right now. I contacted Andy of Ryedale, only the $500 unit is available.

Dude, I've been sifting pennies by hand for months.... I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale. And to this date, I only have $100 in face.
Ryedale are worthless except for the fact you can "set it and forget it" Even still, you miss all the key dates and errors you get by hand.
SO yeah
I can sort at least 2x fast by hand, AND in the end, you still have to dump the pennies somewhere...Thumsdown on the ryedale....

Silver silver silver
 

AGCoinHunter

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Aug 13, 2009
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I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale.

I really, really would like to see this. So you handsort more than 18,000 an hour? That is amazing!
 

woody420

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Jan 24, 2008
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Is there any other way to sell copper pennies? Would a scrapyard take them or is that illegal? Does anyone think that down the road coinstores would take them for X times face like they do with silver coins? Or is that way way down the road?
 

woody420

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Jan 24, 2008
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mts said:
woody420 said:
Is there any other way to sell copper pennies? Would a scrapyard take them or is that illegal? Does anyone think that down the road coinstores would take them for X times face like they do with silver coins? Or is that way way down the road?

That is WAY down the road when the melt value gets to be 5 cents each or so. Since there is no "collectible value" some dealers may still refuse to buy them. Some coin stores don't really even like to deal in junk silver because it is "beneath them". Eventually they realize that there is good money in it so they "lower their standards" for the sake of profits. But when you go in there and ask about junk silver they roll their eyes at you. You can probably tell that many of the coin stores in my area are run by stuck up snobs who look down their noses at anything that isn't slabbed. ;D

The coin stores near me love to buy circulated silver coins from me. easy quick cash for them. just wondering when the time will come when they will buy copper pennies?
 

SFBayArea

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Aug 28, 2009
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woody420 said:
mts said:
woody420 said:
Is there any other way to sell copper pennies? Would a scrapyard take them or is that illegal? Does anyone think that down the road coinstores would take them for X times face like they do with silver coins? Or is that way way down the road?

That is WAY down the road when the melt value gets to be 5 cents each or so. Since there is no "collectible value" some dealers may still refuse to buy them. Some coin stores don't really even like to deal in junk silver because it is "beneath them". Eventually they realize that there is good money in it so they "lower their standards" for the sake of profits. But when you go in there and ask about junk silver they roll their eyes at you. You can probably tell that many of the coin stores in my area are run by stuck up snobs who look down their noses at anything that isn't slabbed. ;D

The coin stores near me love to buy circulated silver coins from me. easy quick cash for them. just wondering when the time will come when they will buy copper pennies?

I always wondered about why local dealers won't buy them. They buy war nickels and the melt ban prevents war nickels from being melted. It makes no sense to me.
 

jrf30

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May 7, 2006
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dfx, Ryedale!
DrDetector said:
jrf30 said:
j_gold said:
How much do you usually get for $50 face on ebay ?

On ebay right now the going price for a $50 bag is about $85. SO asking $50 for $25 bag is a little high. MIght not sell at that level, but if you do then great.

I get about $85 now, pay my fees, and net about $74. Still almost a 50% gain on my investment. And while I am gathering the copper I find wheats and the rare IH which I keep, so my profit is actually a little higher. :-)

On ebay I normally have them pay shipping. then if they do repeat business, I use free shipping as an incentive. And do that off ebay, so I don't have fees. The shipping brings it down to about the same for me, but the buyer likes it and buys from me the next time. :-)

So if you net $74 for it, do you pay shipping out of that amount or is your quote of $85 not including shipping? I assume you would use the flat rate box from USPS.
 

jrf30

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May 7, 2006
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dfx, Ryedale!
FiresEye said:
SFBayArea said:
dasherhunting said:
I sell 50 dollars face all the time on ebay, actually to some memebers on here should just try and skip the fees but its not a super profitable endevor I only do it so its that many I dont have to dump saves me trips to the cu.

Yeah.. it's not very profitable because Ebay takes 9% commission + 2.9% Paypal Fees.. It would be ok without the fees. I wish that a competitor to Ebay would be popular. Have you sold to anyone on Ebay & do deals with them privately afterwards? I would like to sell some on Ebay & maintain contact with the buyer. Tell them, if they like to buy some in the future, let me know. Ebay is so unfriendly towards the seller, it's ridiculous. I remember it used to be that Ebay allowed checks. They force people to use Paypal & charge another 2.9% just from that. That's why I didn't vote for Meg Whitman in California.
Wish I had a Ryedale right now. I contacted Andy of Ryedale, only the $500 unit is available.

Dude, I've been sifting pennies by hand for months.... I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale. And to this date, I only have $100 in face.
Ryedale are worthless except for the fact you can "set it and forget it" Even still, you miss all the key dates and errors you get by hand.
SO yeah
I can sort at least 2x fast by hand, AND in the end, you still have to dump the pennies somewhere...Thumsdown on the ryedale....

Silver silver silver

If you say you can sort faster than the Ryedale AND that you find the errors when you hand sort, then you are using the Ryedale wrong. I can go through the pennies form Ryesdale as fast as I can OPEN them. take a sealed roll, break it opena nd put it int he ryedale, opena new one and put it in the Ryedale and the first one is about sorted. It is impossible for you to sort 50 pennies in the 2 seconds it takes besides the time (A few seconds) to open the rolls.

As for missing key dates. I don't. Why would i miss key dates?
 

FiresEye

Sr. Member
Aug 17, 2010
322
5
jrf30 said:
FiresEye said:
SFBayArea said:
dasherhunting said:
I sell 50 dollars face all the time on ebay, actually to some memebers on here should just try and skip the fees but its not a super profitable endevor I only do it so its that many I dont have to dump saves me trips to the cu.

Yeah.. it's not very profitable because Ebay takes 9% commission + 2.9% Paypal Fees.. It would be ok without the fees. I wish that a competitor to Ebay would be popular. Have you sold to anyone on Ebay & do deals with them privately afterwards? I would like to sell some on Ebay & maintain contact with the buyer. Tell them, if they like to buy some in the future, let me know. Ebay is so unfriendly towards the seller, it's ridiculous. I remember it used to be that Ebay allowed checks. They force people to use Paypal & charge another 2.9% just from that. That's why I didn't vote for Meg Whitman in California.
Wish I had a Ryedale right now. I contacted Andy of Ryedale, only the $500 unit is available.

Dude, I've been sifting pennies by hand for months.... I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale. And to this date, I only have $100 in face.
Ryedale are worthless except for the fact you can "set it and forget it" Even still, you miss all the key dates and errors you get by hand.
SO yeah
I can sort at least 2x fast by hand, AND in the end, you still have to dump the pennies somewhere...Thumsdown on the ryedale....

Silver silver silver

If you say you can sort faster than the Ryedale AND that you find the errors when you hand sort, then you are using the Ryedale wrong. I can go through the pennies form Ryesdale as fast as I can OPEN them. take a sealed roll, break it opena nd put it int he ryedale, opena new one and put it in the Ryedale and the first one is about sorted. It is impossible for you to sort 50 pennies in the 2 seconds it takes besides the time (A few seconds) to open the rolls.

As for missing key dates. I don't. Why would i miss key dates?

Ok I turned it into a big fish story.. a little. I can't go through faster than a ryedale, but I can do a box prettyy darn fast.
Not to mention I've been culling CU for half a year, and at a rate of a few boxes a month, I STILL don't even have enough copper to pay for the ryedale.

And not to mention, dumping pennies is a pain, so I prefer to hand sort.

PLUS, the ryedale is kicking me out all those 1995 errors, the 1984 double ear and many other zincoln errors.

So yeah :thumbsup: for handsorts.
 

LemonThrower

Full Member
Jun 23, 2008
104
0
I buy copper pennies at 1.3X face shipped to me. the postage is expensive, the best way to do this is to accumulate $100 FV and then stick it in a 9.95 medium flat rate usps box. you have to really pack them securely because it will weigh 68lbs and the box will break if not reinforced with lots of tape. i'll buy smaller amounts but shipping will eat a bigger percentage of your profit.

it is not legal to melt u.s.pennies at this time in the u.s. so scrap yards won't take them. i think you can melt canadian pennies here, not positive. the speculation is that when congress eventually eliminates the penny, then it will become legal to melt pennies. but that day may be very far off.

but really there is no need to melt them. they are government minted bullion rounds, one-tenth troy ounce of 97.5% pure copper. why would you melt them only to put the name of a less well known refiner on them?
 

OP
OP
cdickrun64

cdickrun64

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Nov 12, 2009
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Lemontree.....1.3x face? Really? Less than half of their value?
 

cyberdan

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Dec 12, 2006
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AGCoinHunter said:
I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale.

I really, really would like to see this. So you handsort more than 18,000 an hour? That is amazing!
I was going to question that also. I used to have a ryedale and those cents shoot out of there so fast they are just a blur.

I had to quit the copper sorting because the ryedale was too fast.
Every weekend I would bring home bags of cents and I had to carry them up the stairs and carry back down about 80% zincers. Got a hernia from all the lifting. >:(
 

FiresEye

Sr. Member
Aug 17, 2010
322
5
cyberdan said:
AGCoinHunter said:
I can sort by hand way faster than a ryedale.

I really, really would like to see this. So you handsort more than 18,000 an hour? That is amazing!
I was going to question that also. I used to have a ryedale and those cents shoot out of there so fast they are just a blur.

I had to quit the copper sorting because the ryedale was too fast.
Every weekend I would bring home bags of cents and I had to carry them up the stairs and carry back down about 80% zincers. Got a hernia from all the lifting. >:(

I answered that question a few posts up.
I just think they are kinda cheap... I mean, and it's like the story of Moses in the wilderness when they would gather mana, if they got too much, it would rot and spread disease. So they only gathered what they needed. Each persons needs are different, and I find myself perfectly content slowly hand picking pennies. Enjoy.
 

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