CoinStar Dumping

Diver_Down

Silver Member
Dec 13, 2008
4,373
2,000
St. Augustine, FL
Before everyone assumes that I'm some rook for paying for Coinstar, keep reading. Recently, CoinStar has been trying to promote the gift card/e-voucher system. With the promotion, they will waive the fee. I needed to get some gift cards for the coming holidays so I figured to take a few rolls for $50 gift cards. Killing two birds with one stone... So I proceed with the first transaction and after the counting, you can hear it connecting via modem to complete the transaction. It kept dialing and dialing. I begin to think I just got scammed out of my money when an error message came up that they were experiencing technical difficulties and they were issuing a cash voucher with zero fees. Sweet! Completed the remaining coins that I had on hand the same way with no fee. I ran home and picked up the remainder of $1000 and dumped away. Zero fees, and the look on the store manager's face was priceless.

Other machines might also be having the "technical difficulties". If you begin the process with requesting a gift card, then there will be no fees. Try it first with a small amount. If it fails, then dump away...

Another benefit of dumping the coin in this manner is that Coinstar machines are notoriously not emptied on a regular basis. Some in our area will go a month before they are emptied. Storing your dumps in their machine, ensures that you won't be seeing your dumps for awhile.
 

Did they have enough cash on hand to cover your dumps. I know some retailers dont keep thousands of dollars sitting around.
 

AGCoinHunter said:
Did they have enough cash on hand to cover your dumps. I know some retailers dont keep thousands of dollars sitting around.

I only dumped a 1000 on them as I figured it would reject any amount over. Didn't want to push it. The other 7k will be dumped the usual way. They did have to scrounge up some 10's and 20's, but it all spends the same.
 

Do coinstar machines have a lot more storage capacity than other industrial coin machines? Found out one of my CU's has a coinstar machine that is free for memebers and i dumped about 600 in halves with no problem. Do they have multiple bags for each coin type? I have never seen the inside of one of these. I do know it rejected a lot more coins than the other machines. Kept having to put them back in the intake and one half rejected and was never picked up.
 

I saw a coinstar machine open once at the supermarket.The holding area looks to be the size of a metal 20 gal garbage can.
 

I look around the coinstar for reject coins and the other day I found 94 cents of coins sort of glued together with soada pop. So I scooped up the glob took them home tossed in a pot with water boiled them and rensed them poof one less dollar I had to earn. Probably could have found the other 6 cents if I had looked but was in a hurry. ::)
 

AGCoinHunter said:
Do coinstar machines have a lot more storage capacity than other industrial coin machines?


I saw a show about coin vending machines that talked about Coinstar. They said the Coinstar machines have a large metal safe in the bottom that can hold 500lbs of coins. It is set up to automatically "call" the courier company when it needs to be emptied.

Jim
 

jim4silver said:
AGCoinHunter said:
Do coinstar machines have a lot more storage capacity than other industrial coin machines?


I saw a show about coin vending machines that talked about Coinstar. They said the Coinstar machines have a large metal safe in the bottom that can hold 500lbs of coins. It is set up to automatically "call" the courier company when it needs to be emptied.

Jim

Nice to know. Perhaps, I'll dump some more on them while they are having "Technical Difficulties".
 

I've seen them empty one. All the money went into a single wooden box about 2 feet wide and high with a single hole. The guy put it on his wheeler and rolled it out the door and loaded it into a u-haul truck. I took a quick look but he wasn't too friendly.

Maine_Jim
 

I have heard that if you unhook the modem cable from the wall that they will always give you full cash back. (Probably heard it from someone on this forum). I can't say that I would recommend doing this though, you might get in trouble.
 

I'm not sure what coinstar does to get the coins back on the market but I have been getting some really cruddy coins in change lately, especially pennies. They look like some of the dug pennies I have put into coinstar locally.
Monty
 

With gift cards Fees are waived because the companies who have the gift cards on the machine pay for that spot and know you are using it for their business. The 8.9% is only when cashing out :)
 

iceman0xh said:
With gift cards Fees are waived because the companies who have the gift cards on the machine pay for that spot and know you are using it for their business. The 8.9% is only when cashing out :)

Not true. When you request the gift card and they are unable to generate the gift card due to technical difficulties, then they will cash you out while waiving the fees.
 

Monty said:
I'm not sure what coinstar does to get the coins back on the market but I have been getting some really cruddy coins in change lately, especially pennies. They look like some of the dug pennies I have put into coinstar locally.
Monty

Could be from me. I mix the slightly corroded pennies with good ones in rolls and spend them around here.
 

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