The $2 Bill Conspiracy Continues

[kevin_standlee]

At lunch today, I stopped by my local bank branch and, after a bit of fumbling around and getting them to go back to vault and actually get the last bundle they had in inventory, bought every $2 bill they had in their tills. This obliged me to withdraw another $200 from my bank account and use some of the money that people changed out with me over last weekend. I ended up purchasing $316 worth of $2 bills.

David Clark (Cargo Cult Books) has a call on the first $100 worth of these, for change-making purposes at his dealer table. Besides those I need for personal use, I will change out the rest with people who want them during the convention. See me at the Montreal in 2009 Worldcon Bid table. I do ask that people buying bills off me do so not to hoard them as "collectibles" -- they aren't, not really -- but to spend them around the hotel and local area, especially on individual tips for housekeepers, restaurant servers, etc. This puts more bills into circulation and makes us memorable to the staff in what I think is a positive way.

Comments

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

You know, Kevin, in thinking of this, the only thing that bothers me about it is that the $2 bills are less useful for a lot of things that some of the folks you'd be giving them would use them for. For example, you can't use it for the bus, it's not accepted in a lot of vending machines, etc. I understand what you're trying to do, and it's cool, but I've also been someone who depended on small bills like that, and $2 always annoyed me, because yes, they're cool, but they're also a hassle for many things.

Have you considered dollar coins instead? More widely accepted. I mean, just for the future.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I do dollar coins sometimes as well, but I'm leaving that up to Cargo Cult and Other Change of Hobbit, who were giving them out at BayCon as change.

I'm not expecting people to use $2 bills for bus fare or vending machines. In fact, even if machines did accept them, it would defeat my purpose. Ideally, you spend these on interpersonal transactions, not machine-based ones. When you're done, a lot of people have $2 bills in their pockets and remember you as a group that tipped well, even if you didn't actually give them any more than you would have done otherwise.

This little $500 rock isn't going to change much, I know, but I'm eccentric sometimes.

And dollar coins won't work in BART machines anyway, which is something I've complained about for a long time. (Yes, I know they work in Caltrain TVMs, and good for them.)

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

I wsn't saying that you and your people won't be able to spend them, I was saying that your maids and waiters and busboys will find them mildly irritating. You know, I spend my days talking to *those* people, and they get frustrated about exactly this sort of thing -- being given tips in currency they can't easily use in their day to day life.

Dollar coins work on the bus; many of the people you're targeting use the bus, and not BART, particular in the area you're going to be. (The hotel is served by the 292 and Caltrain, not BARt.)

So, I'm not talking as a fan who likes cool bills, I'm talking as someone who has been one of the working poor and has had the experience of going, "Great, those crazy people gave me a tip, but I have to take it to the bank to be able to use it for anything, because I can't get change in a machine, and the bus, the machine for the cokes, the paper, they don't take this money. Idjits."

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

If you'd like to pay for your fez (if you do get one) in two dollar bills, that's fine with me.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Set aside a red one for me.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

Okey dokey!

Seems like you have some competition...

[ceemage.livejournal.com]

At least, according to that most reliable source, The Onion.