So, at what ratio of keepers per box would you quit at?

[SFBayArea]

Boxes have been bad overall here. One might get an occasional box with 5-6 keepers to make up for all those skunks. Skunks are just taking over. Every bank, I go to and ask for loose or CWR's, they don't have any or they only have one or two coins from which are just clad. Has any of you guys decide to just hang it up for a while or just do just a couple a week just to past the time? I just find that the numbers have gone down so much around these parts that it may not be worth it anymore. I'm reaching that plateau. Everyone's turning into a CRHer. I knew this day would come. Yeah, all those fools who post Youtube videos of themselves CRHing for all those new CRHers in waiting. Thanks.

Right now, this month.. it has been 0.3333 per box or for layman out there - 1 keeper found per every 3 boxes of halves. This is the average this month. It's been declining for a while. It's the vast majority being skunks with some with keepers there. With high gas prices where they are, I'd say it's not worth it. Well, at least with this ratio and in my area. Need to take a break from it or a while. Time and money wise with gas, it's been bad. I'd probably still do a couple boxes here and there perhaps every other week or so. But just to tone it down a bit.

 

[namster]

How many banks are you pulling from?

I would have to hit a string of 4-5 weeks with less than 4-5 keepers/week to really hang it up. I have been cutting costs though, no more CWRs unless I am in the area already, only pic up/dump at banks that are clustered, etc. In reality, I expect the hobby will end due to number of CRHers before I give up.

 

[SFBayArea]

How many banks are you pulling from?

I have a rotation of order banks. So I order from one week and another in another. Around 4-5 banks I can order from. One isn't able to anymore due to new manager wanting to charge per box. The other CRHer swooping in and getting boxes (basically getting in the way) didn't help either. He was bringing them back to them after searching.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

I will NEVER quit searching halves, I had a tough 30 box skunk streak with no silver.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

If I averaged 1 40% per 2 boxes over the course of an entire year or two, then I would probably have to give it up for the most part. I'd likely still occasionally order a few boxes, much like I occasionally buy a powerball ticket - not expecting to win, but willing to give it a shot. I don't think I'd ever entirely quit, unless other factors force me to do so (outrageous fees, the U.S. goes coinless, etc).

 

[SFBayArea]

I will NEVER quit searching halves, I had a tough 30 box skunk streak with no silver.

How many do you do a week? I'm not going to quit but rather take more time off from it so to speak. Fewer boxes and concentration on other things that are financially more sensable. Like Arkie said, occasional boxes like lottery tickets.

Did you try other spots in New Jersey? Out of CNC's dump bin?

 

[golden silver]

I picked never but as long as I was pulling in some silver to feed the hunger I would probably continue. If I was going through hundreds of skunks in a row I would move to another denomination for sure. I don't think I will ever give this up completely.

Golden Silver

 

[BuffaloBoy]

I will NEVER quit searching halves, I had a tough 30 box skunk streak with no silver.

How many do you do a week?

2, i only have 1 half dollar ordering bank. I've had the best boxes and the worst boxes from this bank, seems like boxes are slightly picking up considering my skunk rate is 45% so far this year

 

[SFBayArea]

I picked never but as long as I was pulling in some silver to feed the hunger I would probably continue. If I was going through hundreds of skunks in a row I would move to another denomination for sure. I don't think I will ever give this up completely.

Golden Silver

Tough to give up completely and cold turkey. Don't think I could do that either. But definitely take a break or lighten the load. Skunks make it an unpleasant hobby. LOL

 

[SFBayArea]

I will NEVER quit searching halves, I had a tough 30 box skunk streak with no silver.

How many do you do a week?

2

That's probably the amount I'll probably be doing now. You are in a good area for this. You should take full advantage like I've mentioned before. Get yourself out of the dump stream and pick up from a better area.

With that said, I'll be looking forward to 30 skunks in a row.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

i do not like to overburden my banks with coin, so I limit myself to one dump a week. I recantly picked up another bank with a coin machine in it's lobby, this should slightly increase my CRH production. Remember, I am a very diverse hunter, I hunt pennies, nickels, dimes, and halves. Not quarters.

I just finished 1 box of nickels and 3 boxes of pennies, no skunks

 

[SFBayArea]

i do not like to overburden my banks with coin, so I limit myself to one dump a week. I recantly picked up another bank with a coin machine in it's lobby, this should slightly increase my CRH production. Remember, I am a very diverse hunter, I hunt pennies, nickels, dimes, and halves. Not quarters.

I just finished 1 box of nickels and 3 boxes of pennies, no skunks

Dumping 2 boxes a week is nothing. You should find a rotational set of dump banks. That way no one gets overburdened.

 

[The_EE]

I have not picked a choice yet but I would say I would quit when it no longer covers my gas to do it. That would be rather tough to do as it costs me about $7 a week. As long as I am pulling $28 worth of silver a month I am fine. Really though, I should honestly be pulling 16 oz on average with 28 boxes per week so it would take a serious slow down in silver before I see a need to quit... of course if I cant dump there is no reason to buy lol.

 

[SilverFace]

it would be tough for me to say for sure. Lately my boxes haven't been too good and I'm at about 1/2 a keeper per box avg from my last 20 boxes or so over the past 2 weeks. If I do decide to quite searching half boxes at some time and just search dimes, nickels & cwr's that wouldn't be to bad. I've had most of my luck with cwr halves anyway & ordering, searching & dumping half boxes can be a time consuming hassle anyway - esp if the finds are so scarce.

But if and when silver prices go much higher then each keeper will have more value so finding fewer keepers might still be worth the time and trouble of a low keeper per box avg. Just imagine when 90% halves are worth $20+, 40%'s are worth $10+ & silver dimes & nics are worth $5 or more each. Then each keeper will be much more sweeter to find - although maybe somewhat harder to find.

 

[namster]

But if and when silver prices go much higher then each keeper will have more value so finding fewer keepers might still be worth the time and trouble of a low keeper per box avg. Just imagine when 90% halves are worth $20+, 40%'s are worth $10+ & silver dimes & nics are worth $5 or more each. Then each keeper will be much more sweeter to find - although maybe somewhat harder to find.

This^

 

[Piledriver]

I like silver, and I do what I do to get more of it.

So, seeing that I have weekly attrition (losses) from gas, teller blunders and coin machine errors......

When the amount of my losses versus my finds makes it cheaper to get more AG at the Local coin shoppe...

Guess where I will be spending my money?

I'll be Rollin' in to wherever I can get more bang for the buck.

Keep on Rollin' !

 

[FormerTeller]

I voted 1 keeper every 2 boxes, but that was an attempt to get others to give up

 

[clovis97]

I'm not sure at what point I would give up the halves if my results were 1 keeper for every 3 boxes.

I do know this...even with my very meager finds, especially when compared to what many on this forum are finding, it is probably cheaper to buy silver than it is to search boxes every week from a bank that has a standing order for me.

Like the others said, I will never give up CRH all in all. I might be forced someday to work $100 in dimes at a time, and give up weekly boxes.

 

[jrf30]

Last year I hit halves hard. Averaged 1 silver per 8.3 boxes. But I persisted to see if there was a streak left in the system here somewhere. Thee wasn't. So - I haven't done halves much for about 5 months. I do pennies, as everyone knows, and nickels and dimes as diversions. BUT 1) I ALWAYS ask for all LOOSE halves here when I pick up pennies, nickels or dimes. I DO get some silver from the loose stuff (Which convinces me that the machines here separate the silver, as it IS going into the system, but never comes back out) and 2) I order halves once in a while. In fact, this past week I just did. First time since October or so. I ordered 40 boxes from a total of 20 banks (2 per bank) I pick them up next Friday. I do it once in a while, "just in case" (the eternal optimist) and also to remind me that it is fruitless out here to do halves. HA! These are the first boxes I've ordered in 2012, and I wn't order more until the fall after this. I'll do these 40 boxes over maybe 3 - 4 weeks, slowly doing them as I get discouraged with the skunks, and then continue pennies and the other stuff. PLus I'll keep getting all the loose halves each week from a LOT of banks. So I'm getting some silver, but I know it is not what it is elsewhere, and i'm okay with that.

Anyway, twice a year I order boxes evenwith my ratio of 1 per 8.3 boxes. I didn't see that ratio on your poll. :-) Other than that - 1 silver per 8.3 boxes was enough for me to stop ordering on an ongoing basis. After hundreds and hundreds of boxes too!

 

[The_EE]

Last year I hit halves hard. Averaged 1 silver per 8.3 boxes. But I persisted to see if there was a streak left in the system here somewhere.

I would not do them either at that sort of average. That would not even cover gas.