Avagos Goodies

[Avago]

2017 Roundup

Due to our house-buying and wedding/honeymoon hiatus, we didn't search as much as we did in past years.

Total searched: $178,972 ::::: 123.67ozt ::::: 612 silvers

-----354 Boxes ($177,000)-----552 silvers

90% - 147 :::: (108 x Kennedy; 26 x Ben Franklin; 11 x Walking Liberty; 1 x Barber; 1 x Seated)
---Notables:::: 1856 Seated, 1908-O Barber; 2000-S, 2004-S,
40% - 405 ::::
---Notables:::: 1976-S x2

-113.07ozt-

-----$272.00 loose/teller tray-----37 silvers

90% - 1 (Kennedy)
40% - 36

-5.69ozt-

-----$1,700 CWR-----23 silvers

90% - 1 (Kennedy)
40% - 22

-3.62ozt-

__________________________________________

Box Stats

90%/40% ratio: 1:2.76

Silvers per box: 1.56
--90% per box: 0.42
--40% per box: 1.14
$ searched to find each silver: $320.65

Oz. per box: 0.32
$ searched to find each ounce: $1,565.41

Enders: 50
Silvers per ender: 11.04 (theoretically we should find 10 silvers per ender)

Skunks: 197
Non-skunks: 157
% Skunked: 55.65%
Best silver streak: 16
Worst skunk streak: 14

Best box: 21 x 90% :: 7 x 40% (8.63ozt)

Average week (not including skipped weeks):
--8 boxes :: 4.0 x 90% , 10.7 x 40% :: 3.0ozt--

Best week
--10 boxes :: 45 x 90% , 39 x 40% :: 22.04ozt--

Worst week
--10 boxes :: 0 x 90% , 1 x 40% :: 0.15ozt (we had another week where we found 1 x 90% from 10 boxes)

Average month
--31 boxes :: 17.8 x 90% , 44.8 x 40% :: 13.10ozt--

Best month (February)
--48 boxes :: 59 x 90% , 81 x 40% :: 33.32ozt--

Worst month (December)
--26 boxes :: 2 x 90% , 6 x 40% :: 1.61ozt-- (November was a close second, 50 boxes with 2 x 90% and 18 x 40%)
_____________________________________________________

We found 100 ounces less this year but also searched around $87,500 less. The last quarter of the year was the worst BY FAR, accounting for 32% of the boxes but only 9% of the silver.

Between eyeball finds and coin machine rejects, we found $48.18 face value of loose change ($16.00fv in clad quarters found 12/29) including $1.80 face value in 90% silver (2 x half dollars and 8 x dimes)

With the price of silver at $17.25 per ounce (today's price), we "profited" $4.68 per box (average $ silver per box found minus face value invested)

Over the past four years, we've searched $726,496.00 and found 3,434 silvers equal to 710.15 troy ounces. That means we've kept only 1 out of every 423 coins we've set eyes on. How about that??

 

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[Zomotion]

Great year Avago! I know it wasn't your best year, but your volume is amazing and some incredible finds! I love your breakdown on stats, especially your breakdown on profit per box.

Best of luck in 2018 and hopefully you get to kick that volume back up!

Also congrats on the marriage and new home!

 

[Avago]

Thank you Zomotion, good luck to you in 2018 as well!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

Very cool yearly breakdown Avago, I love it! 2017 has been the worst year for me too, your numbers blew mine out of the water. Hope 2018 much better for both of us.
HH
Buff

 

[TheMastermind]

Congrats on getting married!

Nice breakdown! That is a pretty good year despite having some of your worst months on record. Hopefully 2018 has some good luck in store for all of us, I know I could use some. Haha.

Cheers, bro!

 

[Dozer D]

Avago: between you and Zomo, you both have some very good record keeping scores. It would be interesting to see both of your BOX SCORES etc set side by side to see if there is any Trend. Enjoyed reading the details, well documented.

 

[Avago]

Oh January. What can I say? I can only wish to forget you as soon as possible. Absolutely pathetic half hunting results, barely worth a mention.

We did 40 boxes and only turned up 1 x 90% and 4 x 40%. Yes, that's right. Less than ONE OUNCE of silver from FORTY boxes.

36 out of 40 were skunks, 90%. What a disaster! I hope this breaks soon.

I hesitate to be optimistic, BUT the very first box of February had more silver than ALL of January. 2 x 90% and 4 x 40%. Light at the end of the tunnel, or a fluke, getting my hopes up only to have them skunked up? We shall see...

 

[Zomotion]

My January was the same way but midway into February it has been much better. Hope it's looking better for you Avago!

 

[Avago]

Well February was both interesting and terrible, once again. Four boxes out of 40 gave us all of the silver for the month. Three of them were above average boxes for good-time hunting!

Box 41: 2 x 90% and 4 x 40%
Box 49: 1 x 90% and 0 x 40%
Box 52: 4 x 90% and 4 x 40%
Box 54: 3 x 90% and 4 x 40%

Ended up with 5.39 ounces out of 40 boxes. In previous years we would average 3.5 to 4.0 ounces per week. We're currently on a 26 box skunk streak, worst I've ever been through. Been skunked on 90% of the boxes we've searched this year.

Something has got to change soon or I'm going to need to take a vacation from CRHing. It's sad to think about, but it's not any fun when you spend all kinds of time picking up, searching and dumping just to come up with nothing.

On a side note, I popped into some banks during some brief free time. One bank told me that another branch had a ton of halves that they wanted to get rid of. So of course I zoomed right over and they had $1,450 sitting in the back. I don't think I've ever come across a stash at a bank quite that large.

They told me that someone was cleaning out a house and just brought them in to deposit. My silver senses were tingling of course, that's the kind of story you want to hear about a bank's half dollar cache! She started bringing them out for me and yes, they had that look... Old, papery rolls. My hopes were high!

The entire hoard yielded 9 x 90% and 14 x 40%, 5.33 ounces, just about the same amount as I found in all of February's boxes. Not bad! But by the looks of the rolls I was honestly expecting more. My determination is that the hoard was just somebody's way of saving ten bucks at a time. Stroll into the banks, ask for halves, set them aside without looking at them. Most rolls had nothing but one roll had five Franklins and a couple 40%. Doesn't appear to me that it was a silver stacker's unfortunately, BUT, still glad to come away with something!

March has historically been our worst month for half dollar box hunting so my hopes are not high. We'll push on and report back with our findings (if there are any!)

 

[Zomotion]

I sure hope things change up on your boxes soon Avago.

 

[silverhound74]

Its been sucking big time here too, for about the last 6 months... Had a good box in Nov. Otherwise its been about 1 silver per 10 boxes... When I go road tripping and hitting banks for halves, its usually in small towns. Pretty much no one has any, and the ones that have had some loose ones and a roll or two have yielded zilch...

 

[TheMastermind]

Well February was both interesting and terrible, once again. Four boxes out of 40 gave us all of the silver for the month. Three of them were above average boxes for good-time hunting!

Box 41: 2 x 90% and 4 x 40%
Box 49: 1 x 90% and 0 x 40%
Box 52: 4 x 90% and 4 x 40%
Box 54: 3 x 90% and 4 x 40%

Ended up with 5.39 ounces out of 40 boxes. In previous years we would average 3.5 to 4.0 ounces per week. We're currently on a 26 box skunk streak, worst I've ever been through. Been skunked on 90% of the boxes we've searched this year.

Something has got to change soon or I'm going to need to take a vacation from CRHing. It's sad to think about, but it's not any fun when you spend all kinds of time picking up, searching and dumping just to come up with nothing.

On a side note, I popped into some banks during some brief free time. One bank told me that another branch had a ton of halves that they wanted to get rid of. So of course I zoomed right over and they had $1,450 sitting in the back. I don't think I've ever come across a stash at a bank quite that large.

They told me that someone was cleaning out a house and just brought them in to deposit. My silver senses were tingling of course, that's the kind of story you want to hear about a bank's half dollar cache! She started bringing them out for me and yes, they had that look... Old, papery rolls. My hopes were high!

The entire hoard yielded 9 x 90% and 14 x 40%, 5.33 ounces, just about the same amount as I found in all of February's boxes. Not bad! But by the looks of the rolls I was honestly expecting more. My determination is that the hoard was just somebody's way of saving ten bucks at a time. Stroll into the banks, ask for halves, set them aside without looking at them. Most rolls had nothing but one roll had five Franklins and a couple 40%. Doesn't appear to me that it was a silver stacker's unfortunately, BUT, still glad to come away with something!

March has historically been our worst month for half dollar box hunting so my hopes are not high. We'll push on and report back with our findings (if there are any!)

Ouch, bro! Sorry to hear. Seems like you're getting into the batch of boxes I was getting last year. Dude, I had like a 70-box run of skunks. Sure takes a toll on ya, no doubt.

Hope your luck begins to change soon!

 

[Avago]

March roundup time, should be a quick one...

We did 50 boxes over 5 weeks in March (a long month) and ended up with 7 x 40% from all of them. One week I was skunked on 10 and another week I was skunked on 12. I found a silver dime in a Coinstar each of those two weeks... Sad when you find more silver laying in a reject chute than in $5k-$6k of half dollars!

Right now I'm on a 14 box skunk streak and have only found one silver in the past 33 boxes. Only four out of this month's 50 boxes had any silver (8% silver, 92% skunk).

Oh, and the icing on the cake? One of my boxes was short an entire roll! So we found $17 worth of silver all month and lost $10 on that box. Due to either supplier or coin counter error, we're short $18.00 on the year so far which makes up nearly 10% of our profit.

Absolutely. brutal.

 

[TheMastermind]

Maybe switch up your whole pick-up/dump strategy? Not sure the logistics of that for you, but it might be worthwhile.

After enduring last year's abysmal boxes and paltry silver haul, I sat down and worked on my strategy. Easiest option for me, I turned most of my dump banks into pick-up banks and vice versa. Seemed to have made all the difference, totally a positive result for me this year.

 

[dibdab]

Damn, that is brutal. Was the missing roll in a properly sealed box?

 

[Avago]

Damn, that is brutal. Was the missing roll in a properly sealed box?

Naw, it was clearly busted open, probably in the hands of the courier and taped back together. Whether or not they consciously "forgot" to put all 50 rolls back in, I'll never know......

 

[Avago]

Checking in for the April round up... It was the best month since September but still a far cry from our previous averages.

We searched 42 boxes on the month... 8 boxes had silver and 34 were skunks, an 81% skunk rate (previous years we usually hovered around 50%). In those 34 skunks were 23 in a row, our second longest skunk streak of the year.

The silver boxes yielded a total of 6 x 90% and 36 x 40% for a total of 7.49 ounces, about what we used to pull in two weeks of searching.

Most of the silver came from two boxes this past week, one with 8 x 40% and one with 11 x 40%.

Nothing much of note going on, found a silver quarter in the reject chute this month which is always a nice surprise. Haven't done any CWR hunting in awhile, was waiting for the weather to warm up to take a cruise around to see what we can scrounge up.

Who knows what May will be, we'll see!

 

[Avago]

Hi Everyone, May was another nothing-special month with high volume and low returns.

We searched 46 boxes, 34 were skunks including a 21 box skunk streak in the middle of the month.

From the 12 silver yielding boxes we pulled 6 x 90% and 29 x 40% including four Franklins for a total of 6.46 ounces. That's 0.76 silvers per box for the month, ouch.

Still better somehow than the first several months of the year so I'm hoping things continue to trend in the right direction. Maybe things will go back to normal soon! I hope so!

OH! And I had another box short an entire roll this month. Before the teller handed me one of my boxes she goes "oh wow, they're really loose in there" and yup, the rolls were kicking around with some empty space. This time I checked before I left the bank and walked back in to let them count the rolls. I know it's not their fault so I hope they mention it to the courier. Got my ten bucks back this time at least.

 

[Avago]

We hunted a little less in June due to a pickup teller's vacation and one of my pickup branches closing. I was able to move some of my ordering to another branch of the same bank which should hopefully begin this week.

Our 31 boxes for the month yielded 5 x 90% and 35 x 40% for a total of 6.99 ounces including a Franklin and two Walkers It's hopefully the new norm (back to consistently finding something). No record breaking numbers but 6.5-7.5 ounces a month is better than what we were doing.

We also went on a "fun run" in June, where I took a day off from work and spent 6-7 hours bank hopping trying to scoop up any loose or CWR halves. I think we ended up hitting 50 banks over the 150-200 miles round trip we did and found very few halves at all. Usually when we go we'll come across a big dump or two but this time we only found $200 in CWR and $74 in loose halves... yeah, from FIFTY BANKS.

We did strike some silver from two banks back-to-back in a town that usually never produces anything for us. In the end we found 1 x 90% and 18 x 40% for a total of 3.03 ounces, enough to cover fuel at least, which is more than I can usually say for our fun runs.

We're about to break 250 boxes which puts us on pace for a 500 box year. I will likely be missing a couple weeks for vacation through July-August so hopefully the boxes I'm able to pick up are decent!

 

[Zomotion]

The silver vein is starting to trend in your favor again. Hope it continues