So I went to Albertson's over the weekend with my jar of change and dumped it out into one of those coinstar machines. I now have a $40+ credit from Amazon. Best thing is unlike when you converted the change into grocery store credit, Amazon apparently picks up the charge for the service so there's no 7-8 cent/dollar exchanged fee.

So tell me what I should use this on....I've got some stuff picked out already but could use some recommendations. DVD's, books, etc. Anyone care to recommend a Lester Bangs book or is he not all that worth reading?

thats actually pretty cool....

It may be sacrilege, but I have a lot of problems with a good bit of Bangs' writings. Unreadable. That being said, I thought this book was awesome.

I haven't seen this Coinstar/Amazon thing anywhere around here.

I'd assume you have 'em...there in supermarkets in california. they don't advertise that there is any amazon affiliation...but where they used to just give you supermarket credit, they now give you options where the credit can be used. If you pick amazon, you get 100% credit no fee. And surprisingly, amazon lets you use it towards z-shop purchases.

The only Coinstar I know of around here is in a supermarket right down the street and when I used it about a month ago it didn't give me that option. I need to search around for another store with one.

If you go to their website you can search for locations and it can also show you which stores have the amazon option.

http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/a-home

Don't listen to the heathen Bloor. Bangs wrote like he lived: passionately, messily, and with very little self-discipline. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung and Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste are wonderful collections of writing on the subject of music. His style has been imitated, but never equalled.

you win.

yeah, this is pretty boss. i did it at the end of last year and got $60-something for a small jar on my bookshelf. red and i are competing for the most change this year. i think we're about even so far.

$64.52 -- what should I buy?

well, it's not enough for a new pair of shoes so i'm at a loss.

me a few drinks.

Whoa, this is awesome. I'm going to Kroger tomorrow.

a few dvd's...maybe wattstax and be here to love me (the doc on townes van zandt)

I should do this with my change. Thanks for the idea Billy.

the coinstar at my grocery store gives me a receipt for cash.

So, I finally got around to bringing my change to the coinstar machine yesterday. My change has been piling up for about 5 years in various boxes, gladwear containers, etc.

My lady friend and I both took a guess as to how much change I had. There were no quarters because I always take them out for laundry, so it was all nickels, dimes, pennies, and a couple dollar coins.

I guessed $80 and my girlfriend guessed $90.

Man, were we off! The total ended up being $272.35. I got the amazon gift certificate so there was no service fee.

I've got some shopping to do!

I agree with Radcliffe, I'm no fan of Van Morrison for instance but when I read Bang's piece on 'Astral Weeks' I played that album two or three times on the trot. I still don't quite why Bangs loved it so much but his writing on it was wonderful.

The only music critic in history good enough to use 'I' in a review.

Because its great.