Money Matters - Part 7

Coming from here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1176878/

Oil back up to 100 again. Can't win. The least bit of 'positive' economic news and oil goes flying up.

This may be playing with fire, but I believe the DC knuckleheads will certainly wait until the last possible minute to come up with a deal on time, or might even be a bit late. The markets might really tank in their usual overreaction. At that point I will be looking to jump in quickly.

Good to keep in mind.

Our energy saving program is called Peak Rewards. I'd guess other utilities on the region may do the same.
You have a choice of 50, 75 or 100 percent shut down during peak periods. 100 percent means you probably wouldn't get cooling during the afternoon but would get it later/earlier in the day. (bigger refunds for higher percents) THose who asked for 75 or 100 have many complaints during this heat wave and are being switched to 50. At 50 percent as we signed up, we have been happy.

I could never go for that, I like to have full control over my environment. Not saying it's bad, it's just not for me..

I'm with you WC

Kilo Watts are Kilo Watts. Up here you pull the light switch and you pay for them no matter what. You would almost have a better chance of fighting City Hall before the power company.

I signed up at 50 percent figuring: how often would it have to run constantly to keep temp, AND if it was warm upstairs we could retreat to downstairs. Not all houses would work out like that, of course. We are all "young" mobile, and healthy living here.
People voluntarily signed up for the level of their choice and got discounted accordingly. Under this rare situation, the company could not keep pace with the requests to change their level. If it were that critical they should not sign up at 75 or 100 percent.
The program is about avoiding the peak demands that cause brownouts, blackouts, or TRUE emergencies. And avoiding adding expensive infrastructure.
The hospital cut the lighting in non essential areas by last Thursday (mood lighting in the cafeteria for example. ) In the future I think that will become common in many places. And every body having lunch in the cafeteria seemed perfectly happy with the lower lighting, leading me to wonder why they don't just save that power all the time?

I'll shut up about this now = ^)

Yes it will be more common, especially with no new power plants. Another way to do it is with time of use rates, as I have. Most expensive between noon and 7 on weekdays, 'medium' rates between 10 AM and noon, and 7 PM and 9 PM weekdays, and lowest all other times, including the entire weekend. This used to be much better for me before deregulation.

If everyone had a programmable thermostat there would be less problems

Gas up again here. 3 67 is one of the lowest locally.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to sell US half dollars? I did some research and I know some of them are 90% silver and some are 40% silver while others have no silver at all. Should I try eBay or would I be better of going to a coin dealer?

I'd check Littleton to find out what it's going for and then do a search on ebay and compare the price on the same coin. I'd have to have a good idea of the value before I go to a dealer.

(Littleton)

http://www.littletoncoin.com/

You would probably get more on eBay.

A dealer will have to get less as he will resell. But in the same sentence less work with a dealer.

Yes - if you don't normally sell on eBay, do you want to deal with it?

I do sell fairly often on eBay but I've never sold coins so that is why I was reluctant to go that route without asking around first. I could sell them on eBay and I know the "market" would give me a fair price, but with some of these coins I don't know if I would do a very good job of accurately describing their conditions.

And less work does sound appealing at this point. What do you think a fair discount would be if I sold them to a dealer? 20%?

Go to a used coin dealer in your shop and scope it out. Find a coin or 2 that you have in the or about the same condition as yours and see what they have for a price on them. Then pull them out and ask what they will give and you will know what ball park your in.

You're probably set already with good answers. I can only comment that I had some silverplate flatware to sell, and the jeweler was delighted to buy it for scrap- 10 for a spoon or fork. I only scrapped damaged pieces. So delighted that I suspect 'scrap' is very easy but certainly not the best you can do. I've since gotten some better info about my stuff.

$10 for a single plated spoon or fork as scrap?

Key words, plated and damaged.

Right. Stamped sterling, silver plate , spoon with rough edges from getting dropped in the disposal so it could not be sold to one of those dealers in loose pieces of flatware, china, etc (Replacements)

Holy crap!

http://www.wtfnoway.com/

victor, your links are often highly informative and so so depressing...

Please don't kill the messenger...

Those are some crazy visuals

Yes, being happy and ignorant is nice, but the smell of flowers all the time can become nauseating. (lol!)

- I like the million $, it looks like it fits in a breifcase that I can put under the bed.. ☺

victor- Certainly not!

wc= and no one thinks to start bailing out the boat till their butt gets wet

That's right sally! lol!!

True!

I sold a big baggie full of scrap sterling that I got in a box at a Tag Sale years ago for $400 last week. So far selling sterling has brought in about $1100. I deliberately buy sterling when I see it at a good price in thrift shops, flea markets and tag sales and put it away for a rainy day: or in this case, a big car repair. I have a pile of copper put away as "savings" and a little gold.

Well, guess I'd better start looking for scrap silver and silverplate... Somewhere I have a few pieces of sterling flatwear I found in a drawer in a house I bought. It's pretty, but there's not much of it. I should find them and sell, although I doubt there's anyplace within 200 miles of here that I might get a decent price.

Darius - you might be able to mail it to a buyer. Years ago I did that with some scrap gold when I was unemployed and felt that I got a good price for it.

That's a thought!

If you know the pattern, you can sell to some places online as flatware pieces. . Replacements is a big one, but I was given Sliver Queen as a reliable site too. May be a chore for you to determine what the patttern is.
This has some info
http://www.silversuperstore.com/selling-silver.html

I can keep my eyes open but i am pretty sure Goodwill knows what to look for before they put it out on the shelf here. The jeweler said those ones (I had some) with the horrible black patina are usually low quality plate and not sterling (mine were not stamped) And for reference, for those who might look at the thrift store. my teaspoon and knife each got 10 as scrap . knife though big can have hollow handle. Candlesticks get less than weight because the base is filled with sand, still, pair of small candlessticks got 20 I think. maybe ten.

We just took in a bunch of copper and brass. Copper tubing and brass fittings. We got 3.65 per lb for the clean copper. The tubing that had some soldering on it was dropped to #2 and got less. I dont belive they take silver or gold.

http://www.schnitzersteel.com/

Oooo! I have a piece of copper that was a roof on a bay window - at $3.65 a pound that would be some money and I would have room in my garage as I have to keep it locked up or it would be gone.

The metals change price from day to day. 2 weeks ago - a car was paying 210 a ton. Last Friday it was down to 180 a ton. It seems to me,, my own opinion when gas goes up the price of metals go up and vise versa.

Thieves are stealing metal left and right.