After much fanfare and well over 300 guesses, I brought my change jar in for counting on Saturday. The person who’s closest without going over wins a mental_floss t-shirt; second place wins free admission to our Law School in a Box.
This is all very exciting.
As a spill would have been disastrous, I took no chances on the way to Commerce Bank.
We arrived safely. “The change machine is out of order,” a fellow customer told me on my way in. “Just kidding!” I did not laugh, as the prospect of counting these coins myself flashed before my eyes.
Moments before the official counting, I took my first and only picture inside the bank. The camera seemed to rattle the staff, which isn’t necessarily crazy. This bank was robbed earlier this year. A strange man documenting his transaction (me) probably raised a red flag.
After approximately four minutes of dumping change into the Penny Arcade, my lovely assistant/wife hit the “End” button.
We learned the winning bid was much higher than we expected: $263.79.
That means the winning bidder, with a Kreskin-like bid of $263.17, is Dave R! Second place goes to Janet, who bid $257.37.
The oh-so-close award goes to Maeve, with a bid of $264.34. Had Starbucks not recently raised their prices by a few pennies, victory would have been yours. That’s the kind of thing that would drive me crazy, so I’ll use some of my change windfall to buy Maeve a t-shirt. Just email me to let me know which one, your size, and where I should send it.
One more thing. Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.
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Wow, the Penny Arcade is more awesome than I imagined. BofA has nothing fun like that. I might need to switch over.
posted by Karen (your little sister) on 6-18-2007 at 7:41 am
Did they charge you a transaction fee? If they did, was it already removed from the total you were given?
posted by Chet on 6-18-2007 at 8:26 am
No transaction fee.
posted by Jason on 6-18-2007 at 9:02 am
Congrats to the winners! Great job. And Congrats to Jason who now has a nice chunk of change!!
posted by JaneM on 6-18-2007 at 9:36 am
So close but yet so far! I was $7.96 too high. Dang it.
posted by Brandy on 6-18-2007 at 10:28 am
Congrats, winners! This definitely serves as inspiration to save my pennies. I calculated that I spend about $900 a year on Diet Coke (which, as a grad student, is about 1/12 my salary. Yikes! So, the first thing I thought when I heard the total was, “that’s 263 3/4 Diet Cokes!” Hopefully the owner will find something better to purchase with his pocket change.
posted by jamie g on 6-18-2007 at 12:13 pm
Jason, did you venture a guess with Miss Penny Arcade before commencing the counting? Commerce Bank rewards you with a free pen or plastic red bank shaped like a C or at least a red lollipop if you’re close.
There was way more in that jar than I thought – good for you! No shirt for me.
posted by muffy on 6-18-2007 at 12:48 pm
Man, I wasn’t even close! Congrats to the winners.
The only change machine we have in P.A. is a Coinstar in the local Safeway that keeps breaking down. Not nearly as cool as the Penny Arcade.
posted by heather on 6-19-2007 at 12:35 am