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Coinstar Hunting

Coindigger1960

Full Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Messages
110
Location
Logansport Indiana
When does everyone who Coinstar hunts find is the best time to go check them? We have two here where I live and 99.9% of the time I find them empty. One time at our local Walmart I found a 56 Rosie with smooth edges and the last time I found anything was 2 crusty Zincs that looked like some one just pulled them from the ground and threw them in their change jar.
 
Coinstar finds

Doesn't seem to be any set day that has the best odds , I would think that Fri-Sunday would have higher odds though, some people run out of paycheck and cash in their coins for food or gas money. I usally just check when in the stores no special trips the payoff not worth a special stop unless you just have time to kill. My biggest haul was 22 coins and game tokens about 1/2 were tokens so didn't amount to much.The other day found 6 crusty pennies.:laughing:
 
I'm sure theres gotta be a science and a pattern for Coinstar Cowboys hunting...Humans are somewhat predictable, have certain times throughout the week when they are the most active...that would be the basis of a scientific study in this regards I would think...lurking around the CS machines during the busy hours of Friday Afternoons and throughout the weekend, and then snatching rejects before anybody else does..and paying attention to details...

Then, setting up a route of all the CS machines to run in a 10 mile radius, and working it like a guy would a totlot route or something! It might be sort of fun to try for a Month of Fri/Sat/Sun afternoons just to see exactly what a guy could pull? Hey, everybody needs a hobby right?...:laughing:

Like most things in life, CS hunting is most certainly about being in the right place at the right time and a whole lotta Luck!!

If a guy approached this thinking scientific, A guy could figure out which stores are the most productive, and then extrapolate why this is...is it the neighborhood? What? and how come? Then narrow down your CS route to only the producing stores and cut your mileage/expenses etc..just like a guy does with a fleet of totters!

Rumor is here, right in MY area, just last Fall, a guy found a $5 gold coin in the reject tray!...He didnt do a post about it though, so I'm just going on heresay...:laughing:
 
Probably one of the best 'Git Rich Quick' Ideas I have ever had...... is to acquire my own CS route franchise in a lucrative area...then, I'd simply rig the machine to dump
ANY and ALL rejects into a special hopper down inside the machine, and not kick out Nothing into the reject tray!

Or else maybe a guy could fab up some fake CS machines out of 1/4 plywood and paint and an old computer monitor screen... Put them out and around, and have them not even spit out a cash script! Just a big Malfunction message! 'Error 404' kind of deal? Thats a great idea! :laughing:
 
Coinstar treasure

I'm sure theres gotta be a science and a pattern for Coinstar Cowboys hunting...Humans are somewhat predictable, have certain times throughout the week when they are the most active...that would be the basis of a scientific study in this regards I would think...lurking around the CS machines during the busy hours of Friday Afternoons and throughout the weekend, and then snatching rejects before anybody else does..and paying attention to details...

Then, setting up a route of all the CS machines to run in a 10 mile radius, and working it like a guy would a totlot route or something! It might be sort of fun to try for a Month of Fri/Sat/Sun afternoons just to see exactly what a guy could pull? Hey, everybody needs a hobby right?...:laughing:

Like most things in life, CS hunting is most certainly about being in the right place at the right time and a whole lotta Luck!!

If a guy approached this thinking scientific, A guy could figure out which stores are the most productive, and then extrapolate why this is...is it the neighborhood? What? and how come? Then narrow down your CS route to only the producing stores and cut your mileage/expenses etc..just like a guy does with a fleet of totters!

Rumor is here, right in MY area, just last Fall, a guy found a $5 gold coin in the reject tray!...He didnt do a post about it though, so I'm just going on heresay...:laughing:

Be fun to find some good data on how often the machines are used and time of day and day of the week. Putting the odds in favor of finding some thing. Winter will be here before we know it and we will need something to do while the detectors are naping till spring. Can't say I have ever found any thing valuable in one yet and no silver. Mostly crusty pennies , foreign coins ,tokens ,paper clips , bobby pins , pull tabs, etc.
 
I wonder if anyone even uses the machines in my area. I check them every time I am in a store that has one. So far I have made one find and it was a 2017 dime All I usually find is some crumbs of dirt.
 
I do very well hunting the Coinstar machines. My part time job gets me into a number of super markets and Walmarts every week so I'm able to check them at least 12 times per week. There's really no way to tell what time of day is best but I seem to find more at the end of the month when people are scraping up whatever money they can so they dump their coins at Coinstar. So far this year I have more than $30 in US clad, 10 silver coins, and a pile of Canadian coins, foreign coins, and various odd items.
 
My best guess would be wednesday or thursday, as that's when people would be running short on their paychecks. Just to get them through til Friday
 
mine is full most of the time, in fact I got a silver Washington an rosie my second time checking. I must not have much competition here.
 
I scan them when I am in a store but I don't go out of my way for one. Just not much of a return for me.

BCD

agreed, I just check when i am there anyways. Seems like even if you found a silver dime or something cool you've spent more in gas if you made a special trip.
 
Well anyone stupid enough to run silver through a coinstar and leave it behind, is probably an unemployed degenerate. With that logic, I'd say after the Price is Right is over, that's a good time to look. :laughing:
 
The best time to check is when the homeless bed down. That’s when your competition drops to nil.

I saw a 20/20 episode once where this "Former" homeless guy got himself a backer and a U-Haul style Box truck.. set up in an alley in Downtown LA or somewhere and opened up a late night recycling business catering to the homeless.
The homeless would bring him their cans and he would give them 50 cents on the dollar and in the morning drive his cans to the legit recycling center and cash them in.
Win-Win for the homeless guy who didn't want to wait for morning..and him who planned on waiting until morning.

Supposedly this "former" homeless guy was now making $100k + a year doing this.

I say BRILLIANT !!
 
LOL, seems like if you use a coinstar around here there would be 12 people waiting in line behind you just to see if you leave anything. At every location I know there are employees that watch it like a hawk.

As far as what time I think you could find the best stuff in those machines, it would be at the end of the month when the welfare check is gone and those folks are looking for some extra scratch. maybe grabbing jars of change that have been sitting around awhile. grandpas old coin collection etc.
 
LOL, seems like if you use a coinstar around here there would be 12 people waiting in line behind you just to see if you leave anything. At every location I know there are employees that watch it like a hawk.

As far as what time I think you could find the best stuff in those machines, it would be at the end of the month when the welfare check is gone and those folks are looking for some extra scratch. maybe grabbing jars of change that have been sitting around awhile. grandpas old coin collection etc.

Such is the ignoble fate of many a fine G'paws lovingly collected silver hoard! Cashed in at the bank in rolls for paper fiats, or traded OTC at the corner store by a degenerate grandkid for peppermint sticks and pennywhistles! Or cigarettes and beer, whatever...:laughing:

Some Kids now a days dont even have the gumption of taking old G'paws coin stash into a pawn shop!...Where they MIGHT get 2x face! Its just not convenient!:laughing:
 
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