Filed under: Car Buying, Trucks/Pickups, Etc., Chevrolet
Man buys truck with change, LOTS of change
I once bought an ice cream cone with two fistfuls of pennies. It did not make me popular on that busy summer's day many years ago, but I got my sugar cone with a scoop of Black Raspberry. A 70-year-old Ohio man recently bellied up to the bar at his local Chevrolet dealer and allowed them to count $8,000 worth of coins as a down payment for a new Silverado. James Jones was badly injured by his last truck, a 1981 Chevy that ran him over when the parking brake failed, so it was time to put the old girl out to pasture. After the dealership spent an hour and a half counting through the various coinage in the 16 coffee cans that Jones presented, he got his truck. The full price of the truck was closer to $16,000, so whichever company is financing the truck should go out and buy a coin counter right now. You see, Jones explains that he just doesn't like banks, and wisely realizes that paper money will burn, so he kept his savings in coins all this time. When he says he bought his truck for pennies, he really means it. Thanks for the tips, everyone![Source: Cincinnati.com, Photo by Darren Hester | Creative Commons]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
vkchu 10:37AM (8/14/2008)
this again? didnt some dude already do this w/ truckloads of coins? i think it was 20-30k dollars worth of change.
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Allan 10:40AM (8/14/2008)
He doesn't like banks and paper money burns? WTF? Keep it in paper and bury it in your back yard or something... jesus.
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Tai 11:57AM (8/14/2008)
Because Ninja's will sneak into his backyard and dig up his money! I'm sure he's thought of every scenario and this was his best bet. ^^
Spiel 12:17PM (8/14/2008)
Yeah ok, instead of trying to change a single 70 year old, why not educate the thousands out there (mostly >50) to use a little thing called Check (ATM) Card instead of forcing us to wait an extra 5 mins at the checkout while they write their check. Mind you, they also wait until the end to begin writing out the check, instead of pre-filling it while waiting. Stupid mother-----
Allan 1:07PM (8/14/2008)
Haha... ya... people that still write checks bother me. I mean.... do they do it b/c they're morons? Have they never heard of a debit card? Do they have such a crappy bank that one is not offered? WTH?
Jrejre 2:11PM (8/14/2008)
As someone who has worked in retail a lot I can relate. You give them an excuse once in a while, they lost their debit card etc. . . but most the time the people who write checks are the same people every time. Lets waste paper and other peoples' time! Thankfully a lot of places have stopped accepting them altogether which is a step in the right direction. Welcome to 1980!
Amy Evers 5:17PM (8/14/2008)
I had to use a check once when I left my dc in my husband's wallet (who was now at work). I was mortified lol I hate writing a check.
Jules 7:04PM (8/14/2008)
burying money in the yard will not protect paper money, as I recall a man in China had his in a safe deposit box and the funds were eaten by termites in the bank. This man may have the best idea ever of keeping his money in one piece.
Epyx 10:46AM (8/14/2008)
Why not at least get $1 coins?
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kal326 10:41AM (8/15/2008)
Or I don't know, find a machine that counts coins. Like a coinstar or something like that. I'm sure that would have been a lot faster and safer way to get the coinage counted. Since I'm sure the dealer was making absolutely sure they counted every last coin and added the totals correctly.
Epyx 10:47AM (8/14/2008)
or buy Gold or Silver?
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Coolthough 7:25PM (8/14/2008)
+1. The value of gold always goes up.
Epyx 10:52AM (8/14/2008)
Why not roll it, take it to the bank and exchange for a certified check before going to buy the truck?
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jcar302 10:56AM (8/14/2008)
Why do all the work yourself, when you can make the dealer do it?
Dealers will do anything for a sale these days, especially on a full size pickup.
Stephen 10:54AM (8/14/2008)
A few years ago, a statement like "I don't trust banks" made me think of a paranoid, slightly disturbed, strange old person.
These days, I kind of feel the same way...
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Josiah 11:23AM (8/14/2008)
FDIC my friend.
Bob 11:08PM (8/14/2008)
yeah FDIC, first word in the acronym- Federal, i think what he's trying to say is that our government and economy aren't so stable currently, so you can't fully trust either one
Michelle 5:59PM (8/14/2008)
Stephen: I have to agree with you. Besides why pay their outrageous rates for a checking account, unless you have enough in there that they don't stick it to you. Besides, they are hoping, HOPING, (the gov.) that there will be a whole bunch more bank closing this year, and it is a known fact, that there is not enough reserve to refund everyone with money in the banks.
WetheSheeple 6:19PM (8/14/2008)
"and it is a known fact, that there is not enough reserve to refund everyone with money in the banks."
As someone who has a good knowledge of what money acutally is and how it is created, Michelle is correct about the banks not having enough reserves to pay out all these obligations they made, esp. with respect to paper currency, because usually that's the way it works.
It's called Fractional Reserve Banking and it's a total fraud to the average American as is the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve is unconstitutional.
I shall not bother you with an analysis of why the Federal Reserve System, fiat currency, fractional-reserve central banking, and unlimted "monetization" of governmental debt are extraordinarily bad things-America and the world are about to be given another opportunity to learn what they did notin 1932.
These things are what bankrupted this country.
Check out this video if you want to see the truth of how and why the Federal Reserve violates the U.S. Constitution:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5232639329002339531
Get rid of your worthless paper and get something of intrinsic value now!!
Stephen 7:18PM (8/14/2008)
Haha, yup you are both right. I didn't want to get into the whole fiat money debate, but WetheSheeple is right on. Ron Paul's thoughts on the topic are very lucid and well informed.