airborne1092
Hero Member
You folks are killing me with these CRH posts!
I was getting itchy fingers, sweating profusely at the thought of doing some CRH. Alas, I'm in Germany and it's tougher than all get out to figure how to do it. Or, something like it. The banks over here are stingy, under contract and are not willing to do much other than take your money and put it into your account or take money out of your account and give it back to you. CRH in the traditional sense was out of the question because I could not order coinage in volume and they sure as heck don't want to take coinage back if they can help it - it's costs them enough to ship all that weight, that we don't use pennies here in our communities because of that exact reason. So, I had to get creative.
I worked sales and marketing a couple of years back (long, unhappy story but good ending) and I dusted off my mental facilities and went over the basics I learned at that time. I sat down and thought it through, dissecting the concept of CRH and war-gaming it to the point where I settled on two ideas (actually three, but one a long shot, but worth doing if these other two don't pan out) an alternative way to find the coins in question and a method for getting the coins to come to me. As of right now, I settled on getting the coins to come my way as the first part of my two pronged attack. Please allow me to share with you, my idea.
I live in a military community overseas that has two things going for it. One, there is a large retiree population and two, there is a large turn over of folks coming here on Temporary Duty (TDY) to support our current posture in the war on terror and to a lesser degree, departing here on TDY to the states to attend professional development courses for career progression or other tracks of training. I read this to mean, folks coming and going bringing back interesting pocket change, refreshing the 'pool' as it were. Now, back to the retirees. they travel back and forth occasionally, but they've also been here longer and might have something squirreled away to reintroduce back into the coinage locally here, too.
I set the plan in motion by registering for an email address that was simple and catchy, and ordered business cards off the internet and had my message printed on them in plain language. Who I was, how to get a hold of me, What I was looking for and what I can do for you, in return. That is to say, I made up a name so as to disassociate myself with this little project (i.e Ag Exchange). Next, I printed a catchy little statement that hopefully, will encourage folks to check their pockets and change jars, doing the work for me. I included my email address for folks to contact me and set up a place to meet (our base is small, to say the least!) and how much I would 'exchange' their pre-1965 silver coinage for. I was set for part two, penetrating the market, and saturating it with my 'service.'
I printed out a phone list for the four installations in my community which I'm using to track where I hand out or leave my cards. After they were stapled together and placed in a binder, I highlight the location and place the date next to it indicating when left a card, so I know when to go back or follow up with the location. If the person was particularly helpful or enthusiastic, then I annotate that as well. I used to do this in my last duty and I hated it but this time around I find it exciting to talk to folks and hand them a card. Weird. I prioritize locations such as the quickie marts, the gas station and the car wash. I give special attention to the varied and numerous so called "snack funds" that abound on the bases. I always leave a card in the cash box (after searching for myself, of course!) and I try to speak with the folks who are in charge of restocking the products I pitch it to them one of two ways depending on my gut feeling of what type of person they are. Either they can keep an eye out for me personally, gleaning the pre65s and 'buying' the coins themselves to exchange with me, or they can keep an eye out for me for the greater prosperity of their fund in general. Allow me to segeway to my final point of this stage of the operation. I will begin approaching the different organizations in the community like the spouses clubs, the scouts, the community and unit sports teams and pitch the latter method to them: glean your pre65s from you operation funds and I will increase their value for you, exponentially, thus giving your club more monetary latitude. As time goes on, I would even consider posting my card on the bulletin boards of the individual stairwell housing units on the bases and taking my message to the community flea markets and street/garage sale events hosted in the summertime around here. I've already talked to the cub scouts at a recent flea market, for instance.
After that's all said and done, the name of the game is sustainment. Personnel turnover and time itself is the greatest enemy here. with my binder of dates and locations, I can select one a day and go back to visit, reiterating my message to the new folks or those who've forgotten to sustain the effort. At this point, only time will tell how successful I'll be. So far, I've gotten several hits and have turned over three Roosevelt dimes and a quarter. Some might say that's not enough for so much effort, but I'll have the naysayers note that I have gotten this message out to less than 5% of the community, based on just the locations in my rosters.
If folks reading this are interesting in hearing more, I be happy to share my second idea. Although not as well thought out as of yet, it may prove to be a great idea because it's really low maintenance and it does serve a more benevolent and visible cause, if you will. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, I welcome them as it would only serve to force me to think about this effort and my return on investment for this project. Think for yourselves, how much effort and though is going into this, then try to fathom how bad the itch may be...
Thank you all! I enjoyed writting this up to bounce off you. I welcome all comments!
I was getting itchy fingers, sweating profusely at the thought of doing some CRH. Alas, I'm in Germany and it's tougher than all get out to figure how to do it. Or, something like it. The banks over here are stingy, under contract and are not willing to do much other than take your money and put it into your account or take money out of your account and give it back to you. CRH in the traditional sense was out of the question because I could not order coinage in volume and they sure as heck don't want to take coinage back if they can help it - it's costs them enough to ship all that weight, that we don't use pennies here in our communities because of that exact reason. So, I had to get creative.
I worked sales and marketing a couple of years back (long, unhappy story but good ending) and I dusted off my mental facilities and went over the basics I learned at that time. I sat down and thought it through, dissecting the concept of CRH and war-gaming it to the point where I settled on two ideas (actually three, but one a long shot, but worth doing if these other two don't pan out) an alternative way to find the coins in question and a method for getting the coins to come to me. As of right now, I settled on getting the coins to come my way as the first part of my two pronged attack. Please allow me to share with you, my idea.
I live in a military community overseas that has two things going for it. One, there is a large retiree population and two, there is a large turn over of folks coming here on Temporary Duty (TDY) to support our current posture in the war on terror and to a lesser degree, departing here on TDY to the states to attend professional development courses for career progression or other tracks of training. I read this to mean, folks coming and going bringing back interesting pocket change, refreshing the 'pool' as it were. Now, back to the retirees. they travel back and forth occasionally, but they've also been here longer and might have something squirreled away to reintroduce back into the coinage locally here, too.
I set the plan in motion by registering for an email address that was simple and catchy, and ordered business cards off the internet and had my message printed on them in plain language. Who I was, how to get a hold of me, What I was looking for and what I can do for you, in return. That is to say, I made up a name so as to disassociate myself with this little project (i.e Ag Exchange). Next, I printed a catchy little statement that hopefully, will encourage folks to check their pockets and change jars, doing the work for me. I included my email address for folks to contact me and set up a place to meet (our base is small, to say the least!) and how much I would 'exchange' their pre-1965 silver coinage for. I was set for part two, penetrating the market, and saturating it with my 'service.'
I printed out a phone list for the four installations in my community which I'm using to track where I hand out or leave my cards. After they were stapled together and placed in a binder, I highlight the location and place the date next to it indicating when left a card, so I know when to go back or follow up with the location. If the person was particularly helpful or enthusiastic, then I annotate that as well. I used to do this in my last duty and I hated it but this time around I find it exciting to talk to folks and hand them a card. Weird. I prioritize locations such as the quickie marts, the gas station and the car wash. I give special attention to the varied and numerous so called "snack funds" that abound on the bases. I always leave a card in the cash box (after searching for myself, of course!) and I try to speak with the folks who are in charge of restocking the products I pitch it to them one of two ways depending on my gut feeling of what type of person they are. Either they can keep an eye out for me personally, gleaning the pre65s and 'buying' the coins themselves to exchange with me, or they can keep an eye out for me for the greater prosperity of their fund in general. Allow me to segeway to my final point of this stage of the operation. I will begin approaching the different organizations in the community like the spouses clubs, the scouts, the community and unit sports teams and pitch the latter method to them: glean your pre65s from you operation funds and I will increase their value for you, exponentially, thus giving your club more monetary latitude. As time goes on, I would even consider posting my card on the bulletin boards of the individual stairwell housing units on the bases and taking my message to the community flea markets and street/garage sale events hosted in the summertime around here. I've already talked to the cub scouts at a recent flea market, for instance.
After that's all said and done, the name of the game is sustainment. Personnel turnover and time itself is the greatest enemy here. with my binder of dates and locations, I can select one a day and go back to visit, reiterating my message to the new folks or those who've forgotten to sustain the effort. At this point, only time will tell how successful I'll be. So far, I've gotten several hits and have turned over three Roosevelt dimes and a quarter. Some might say that's not enough for so much effort, but I'll have the naysayers note that I have gotten this message out to less than 5% of the community, based on just the locations in my rosters.
If folks reading this are interesting in hearing more, I be happy to share my second idea. Although not as well thought out as of yet, it may prove to be a great idea because it's really low maintenance and it does serve a more benevolent and visible cause, if you will. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, I welcome them as it would only serve to force me to think about this effort and my return on investment for this project. Think for yourselves, how much effort and though is going into this, then try to fathom how bad the itch may be...
Thank you all! I enjoyed writting this up to bounce off you. I welcome all comments!
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