September 17 2006

iPod for Newbies – Count Your Coins

I started a series about iPods for Newbies in June but never did post a second article. So here we go. This time my advice is to count your coins using Coinstar. The Tabasco Man talked about Coinstar over on Wayne’s World back in November 05, but the Coinstar system has made a few improvements since. The biggest improvement being the ability to turn your coins into iTunes goodies!

By getting a gift card or eCertificate from Coinstar you bypass the processing fee of counting your coins, maximizing your precious coins. Coinstar touts eCertificates for several stores such as Amazon, Starbucks (didn’t see Starbucks on the Coinstar machine I used), Eddie Bauer, Borders, Virgin Digital, Linen ‘n Things, Pier 1 Imports, and Hollywood Video, but to me, getting stuff from the iTunes Store is the best deal. For one thing, several of these stores aren’t in Hawaii. Second, shipping costs for on-line purchases will silently steal away from your coin total. While Amazon has all kinds of stuff, shipping to Hawaii is going to cost $10-$20 on average. Lose money.

Now that the iTunes Store offers music, videos, television shows, games, and movies with no shipping costs, this is a great way to fill up your iPod for what feels like for free. Let me illustrate.

Get your jar of coins that accumulates somewhere in your home.

Drop by a market or store that has Coinstar.

Pour your coins into the machine.

Watch the coins start adding up.

Get your receipt and enter the information into iTunes.

Redeem your iTunes Gift Certificate.

And look at your iTunes credit go up!