Comments on: Private Currency Lost in the Sofa http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2006/03/private-currency-lost-in-the-sofa Ben Hyde Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:26:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Ben HYde http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2006/03/private-currency-lost-in-the-sofa#comment-10012 Ben HYde Tue, 11 Apr 2006 04:26:23 +0000 http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2006/03/private-currency-lost-in-the-sofa/#comment-10012 Yeah. What your seeing there is a hint about the margins on gift cards. The retailers that sell gift cards don't pay face value for them and coinstar's usual 8-9% fee is smaller than the discount the retailers purchase the card for. Coinstar's niche opened up when the US banks became obnoxious and stopped letting people convert coins to paper currency for free. I presume that they had to get the US treasure to change some banking regulation before they dropped that service; but who knows. Thanks for the pointer. Yeah. What your seeing there is a hint about the margins on gift cards. The retailers that sell gift cards don’t pay face value for them and coinstar’s usual 8-9% fee is smaller than the discount the retailers purchase the card for.

Coinstar’s niche opened up when the US banks became obnoxious and stopped letting people convert coins to paper currency for free. I presume that they had to get the US treasure to change some banking regulation before they dropped that service; but who knows.

Thanks for the pointer.

]]> By: James http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2006/03/private-currency-lost-in-the-sofa#comment-10011 James Tue, 11 Apr 2006 03:44:58 +0000 http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2006/03/private-currency-lost-in-the-sofa/#comment-10011 I'd never heard of Coinstar (probably because they're not in Australia), but now they offer direct <a href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/4/10/3542" rel="nofollow">coins to private currency conversion</a>, without their usual commision. So the currency operators must be paying it to get the money into their system. I’d never heard of Coinstar (probably because they’re not in Australia), but now they offer direct coins to private currency conversion, without their usual commision. So the currency operators must be paying it to get the money into their system.

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