8 ms·
There's a whole industry selling real $2 bills for more than face value https://smile.amazon.com/Two-Dollar-Bill-Pack-Bills/dp/B01N2ABL3Q/ https://smile.amazon
by kirykl 9y ago
There's a whole industry selling real $2 bills for more than face value
https://smile.amazon.com/Two-Dollar-Bill-Pack-Bills/dp/B01N2ABL3Q/ https://smile.amazon.com/Two-Dollar-Bill-Pack-Bills/dp/B01N2...
- notyourwork 9y agoI find that really strange because yesterday I literally walked out of my bank with 50 brand new $2 bills.
- otterley 9y agoFor some people, time is money. So the convenience of avoiding a bank branch visit is worth paying a little more for the bills.
- Double_a_92 9y agoWhat do people do with them? Store them in mint condition in hope of creating collectors items in the future?
- danielvf 9y agoGive them to friends and kids, see them smile.
- briffle 9y agoMy dad takes clients out to lunch a few times a week. He always tips the server with $2 bills. Every server on his side of town remembers him, and his favorite drinks, meals, etc. (and really impresses the clients!)
- scrumbledober 9y agoWhen I used to work as a valet it was a big deal every time we got a $2 bill in tip. When we were splitting the tip we would always ask if any of the new guys had never gotten one before and make sure they got one.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoThere was a factory in a town somewhere that paid all its workers' bonuses in $2 bills so that the town could see the effect that the factory had on the local economy.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoI love Woz's trick of having uncut sheets perforated and tearing them off for tips.
- smoyer 9y agoMy recollection of the story is that he would laminate them into "tablets" with rubber cement and then tear off the top sheet(s) to make a payment. I think I have that story bookmarked somewhere. EDIT: I'm not sure where the "printing" part of this story comes into play but it looks like his tablets do indeed have multiple bills per sheet in addition to being laminated at the top. (https://hackaday.com/2012/08/03/woz-prints-and-spend-his-own-2-bills/ https://hackaday.com/2012/08/03/woz-prints-and-spend-his-own...)
- cwkoss 9y agoYou can buy uncut sheets of bills directly from the US mint. I got a sheet of 12x $1 bills when I visited DC as a child. See here: https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/1currencysheets.aspx https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/1currencysheets.aspx
- saganus 9y agoDoes anyone know how is that not illegal? Even if they meet the required standards I thought only the government was allowed to print bills. Does anyone have any links or references to what Woz is saying?
- dsnuh 9y agoMy son is in kindergarten and one of his Vietnamese classmates gave everyone a red envelope with a $2 in it for Lunar New Year. I have also received a similar gift from a Chinese co-worker, so maybe that's where some are going?
- logfromblammo 9y agoThis boggles my mind. It's even worse than that psychology experiment where they auction off $20 bills. (Often for more than $20.)
- pdx 9y agoThat's called a "dollar auction" and it works because the rules are such that the 2nd highest bid still has to pay the money they bid, even though they won't get the prize. Given that incentive structure, it is cheaper for you to pay $21 for a $20 (and lose $1), rather than being the 2nd higher bid at $19, and lose the entire $19. It is meant as an introduction to other occurrences in peoples lives, where they invest something that they will lose if they abandon the activity. Being on hold is one such example, where you lose the time you've invested in being on hold, if you give up and hang up the call before it's connected. Thus you end up in a situation where you are somewhat trapped.
- woobar 9y agoI once bought a sheet of uncut $2 bills from BEP [1]. They go for much more than a face value, but it was a nice souvenir from America. [1] https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/2currencysheetsbeptestsheet.aspx https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/2currencysheetsbeptestshee...
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoThat looks like nothing but thinly-disguised money laundering. Hack an Amazon account, buy some cash, repeat. Why else would someone buy $20 for $32?
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoBecause $2 dollar bills are rare to find and get in bulk; iirc if you buy rolls of change at a bank (for change, e.g. if you need it for your shop) you also pay a bit more than the face value of the currency.
- AuthorizedCust 9y agoNeither are true. I get fresh straps of $2 bills all the time. They are still printed.
- deadmetheny 9y agoThis is absolutely untrue, I get cash of all denominations for my business at the bank all the time, including $2 bills. They usually have to pop into the vault to get some since there's not a lot of call for them, but they're by no means impossible or cost extra to get.
- mod 9y agoI "buy" rolls of change at the bank constantly. I also turn in unrolled change, which they count for me. (I own machines that take quarters) I've never paid a penny extra for the rolls, and my bank does the coin-counting for free as well. I have never in my life heard of paying extra for rolled coins. In fact, there's a whole subreddit devoted to people who buy rolls of coins and then hunt through them looking for old (silver) coins. They turn the coins back in later, at a different bank/location. This would likely not be a viable hobby if there was any upcharge.
- wink 9y agoIn my local bank (Germany) I get up to 2 rolls of any denomination for free, per day. I can also cash in loose coins (to my account) at an automatic counting machine (but not many branches have them). For people who don't have an account at this bank, iirc there's some kind of fee for getting rolled coins, might be in the ballpark of 50ct per roll or something.
- the-dude 9y agoI believe Steve Wozniak was/is a $2 bill fan. As far as I can remember he just ordered them at the bank.
- aidenn0 9y agoActually it's better than that; he buys uncut sheets of bills and pulls various pranks with them. He ends up paying more than $2 per bill, so it's mainly just to weird people out. He got sheets of 4 perforated and then bound with a gum binding (like a pad of paper). He then whips out the book and pulls a $2 off of the perforation. He'll carry larger sheets folded up and then cut a bill out with scissors in front of the person he is paying it to. Apparently he got the secret service called on him once. http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html [edit] If you want to buy uncut bills you can yourself, but there's about a 50% markup on even the largest sheets: https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/2currencysheetsbeptestsheet.aspx https://www.moneyfactorystore.gov/2currencysheetsbeptestshee...
- redmaple 9y agonote to self: become rich enough to buy money
- saganus 9y ago...to buy expensive money
- an4rchy 9y agoAt least the url is self descriptive. Is the government allowed to make money (more than its value) by selling money?
- couchdive 9y agosheets use to be at cost with free shipping, but the dang card churners killed everything related to this site. They would buy monsterboxes of coins of various monies on credit cards and turn them back into the bank and pay the bill for perks. They eventually changed the Merchant category codes to cash advance, and then raised the prices. :-(
- kyleblarson 9y agoI live in a rural mountain town in North Central Washington and the local IGA always gives crisp 2 dollar bills as change when you pay cash. Not sure why they do but it's pretty neat.
- saganus 9y agoWhat is a "local IGA"?
- Maultasche 9y agoIGA is a grocery store chain. Well, actually it's a franchise where each store has the IGA brand but it is individually owned and operated. They tend to be popular in smaller towns where a local resident owns and runs the store. There aren't any near where I live, but I've seen them a lot when traveling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGA_(supermarkets) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IGA_(supermarkets)
- saganus 9y agoThanks! I thought it was an accronym.
- Animats 9y agoYes, and you can get them in tear-out books for a huge markup.[1] That idea is old; it was supposedly created by the marketing director of Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey, mid 20th century. [1] https://www.moneypads.com/products.html https://www.moneypads.com/products.html