SO I HAVE BEEN TOLD BRICK SEARCHERS ARE GUARANTEED A PROFIT?????

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

I just started this thread to see what other brick searchers or non searchers think is the actual facts and fiction to this comment.

I know that I will not be going to the CNA because I did't make any money yet!

FRIEDSQUID

The amount of profit would depend strongly on how frequently you could "recycle" your bricks back to the banks and how frequently you could obtain Unc bricks in the first place. If you searched only one brick a year then the profit would probably be zero or minimal at best, unless you were very lucky. However, if you could search one or two bricks a week for an entire year then I would imagine that the annual profit could be substantial. I often wonder how many brick hunters are bank managers .... 

I have never purchased a brick but I had always assumed that the cost of a brick was equal to its face value. Is this correct or incorrect? Do the banks levy an additional charge when supplying a brick to a customer?

I usually do a minimum of 2 bricks per week and when possible more depending on the denominations of the notes.
Being in a rural area is tough because the bank will order limited amounts and travelling to larger cities to get quantity is the issue.  Also, rural branches will not accept large amounts of cash, now more than ever because of tighter risk management practices. Robberies have sky rocketed in the rural areas and no bank managers want the added responsibilty of extra cash in their banks since pick ups and deliveries are only once per week.
I have been recently told that I cannot be accomodated by the banks in my area and this has definitely ticked me off.  I understand where they are coming from but they are a bank

If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts on how I can continue, I would appreciate there input greatly.  I would prefer you pm or email me since I do not feel certain things should be posted on this forum.

Thanks FRIEDSQUID

Most banks I have dealt with charge a fee per bundle. Now without getting into details to screw others who collect bricks I must say all banks are different.
I have received bundles and bricks for no additional cost above face but that is rare. Usually if a mistake was made in an order or there was an extra amount in the bank that they did not want to hold I would get a call if I wanted it.
I have heard from others that some banks will charge up to a $60 service charge upon pickup and/or dropoff because they will be required to make a special order to the armed courriers because of this.
When I lived in Toronto I knew a bank manager that allowed me to go through bricks at the bank before opening hours.  Obviously this is not allowed in most banks that I am aware of but unfortuanetly did not last long to to policy changes.
The best suggestion that I can make is give the bank you deal with a call,l but frequent large transactions always raise flags.  On Friday my flag fell off the pole

Some Forum members may not be aware that special serial numbers (resulting from brick searches) are popular with collectors of foreign notes too. I've attached a scan showing Hong Kong and Suriname notes with "vertical radars" plus an interesting Afghanistan note with an "Arabic radar".

Most banks I have dealt with charge a fee per bundle.  ........
I have heard from others that some banks will charge up to a $60 service charge upon pickup and/or drop-off because they will be required to make a special order to the armed couriers because of this.

Thanks for this info. I can understand better now why brick searchers are not automatically guaranteed a profit.

I've attached a scan showing Hong Kong and Suriname notes with "vertical radars"

These are very interesting.
I wish the Bank of Canada would start to print the serial numbers vertically
because then the "LADDER NOTES" would really be a showpiece

Some Forum members may not be aware that special serial numbers (resulting from brick searches) are popular with collectors of foreign notes too. I've attached a scan showing Hong Kong and Suriname notes with "vertical radars" plus an interesting Afghanistan note with an "Arabic radar".

Wow, suddenly I'm a bit more interested in international paper money!

No, Brick Searchers are NOT guaranteed a profit but if one is lucky you can break even (if you sell some of the notes you find). On the ODD occasion you might be really lucky and find something that is worth more money.

But.... Sometimes you might go through MANY MANY MANY bricks before you find a single thing.

The fees are getting higher and higher as well.

Friedsquid. your situation is VERY common. I actually don't know ANYONE who have gotten a supply of bricks on a regular basis and have is last more then about 6 - 8 Months before they cut you off. Setting up your "network" of branches and lining up everything is VERY tricky and time consuming. And it is one large House of Cards that is ready to collapse at any time. 

Some searchers go through hundreds of bricks a year and it is ALWAYS a challenge to keep the house of cards held together by a thread.

Do not be discouraged but it is an uphill battle the entire way.

Just as a side note, Fees are getting so high that many people have quit doing bricks because it is impossible to gain a profit from it. At some of these rates you would need to sell a Replacement for $3000 each to try and break even. With Replacements getting even harder to find now this will get even worse.

This is another reason people MUST understand about the rare Replacements. They ARE hard to find and you have most likely spent THOUSANDS of dollars in fees getting bricks that did not yield ANYTHING before find one or two Rarer Replacements   

My Article all about Journey Series and Replacements is complete and is in proof reading stage before I will post it for everyone. It should answer a lot of questions.

Ok, so if I understand this correctly than brick searchers:

- need a large investment to search bricks,
- take a large risk if a brick they are holding onto is lost or stolen,
- have great difficulty in obtaining and returning bricks,
- incur costs in obtaining bricks, and
- usually suffer losses and rarely make a profit searching bricks.

So why do people search bricks?  Where is the motiviation? 

Brad

Ok, so if I understand this correctly than brick searchers:

- need a large investment to search bricks,
- take a large risk if a brick they are holding onto is lost or stolen,
- have great difficulty in obtaining and returning bricks,
- incur costs in obtaining bricks, and
- usually suffer losses and rarely make a profit searching bricks.

So why do people search bricks?  Where is the motiviation?

What is the motivation for VLT's or Slot Machines? 

It is along the same lines.... As a Brick Searcher I don't think I could stop if I wanted too.... 

Brick searchining in my opinion is helping  a hobby that relies on up to date information, given by many people from all over. 

if we never had brick hunters, we would not of known of replacement notes, asteriks, short runs, error notes etc.  The whole hobby would be lost. 

To be able to look at a note that is crisp/clean and uncirculated in the general public and be able to give that specific note a new home to be admired, and investment increase possibly is  satisfying. 

1 other thing that we have to take into mind is that we all as papermoney collectors are a special breed, when we recieve change back what do we first do..... flip it around and look at the serial numbers.  Is it a rare bel, a changover, a low number, etc etc etc.  This interest would not be possible if we never had brick hunters give us information on short runs.  rare notes, changeovers. 

Can you make a profit on this..... Well the largest profit you make is knowing you are educationing a large group of intellegent people with a similar hobby.  I have not covered all my cost yet but  in time will find the notes that really mean a huge importance to me.  And it will hopefully be ing unc. 


My humble opinion. 

cheers

Polarbear

Ok, so if I understand this correctly than brick searchers:

- need a large investment to search bricks,
- take a large risk if a brick they are holding onto is lost or stolen,
- have great difficulty in obtaining and returning bricks,
- incur costs in obtaining bricks, and
- usually suffer losses and rarely make a profit searching bricks.

So why do people search bricks?  Where is the motiviation? 

Brad

Don forget dat there is a teeny chance you can get robbed on da way to and from da bank mon. Some times you could use a helpful Brinks guard with an armored SUV.

Tink happy tots, Dei Gratia
PD

My (and my parent's) opinion/personal experiences:

-My parents work for the HSBC bank (no, they aren't tellers) and I can get rolls and bricks for free.

-My dad thinks brick searching is a waste of time and he'd rather go buy a $20 4 digit radar for $25 for me than going brick searching with me.

-My trick is to withdrawal from one bank branch, and spend or deposit to another (preferably different banks (I W/D from HSBC and deposit to RBC)).

-Some banks are evil and take out the radars, 1991 Quarters, etc. My dad was withdrawing $500 from a BMO ABM, dispensing completely new notes The next number, a radar, was replaced by another note (which was quite circulated, not a confirmed insert, or anything).

-And no, you won't lose anything. I keep my coin rolls and bricks in a small dollar store bag. Thieves and muggers won't bother looking through them.