Right - they charge people 9.8% for the service of converting loose change into a more spendable form of fiat. However - you may also choose to convert to an Amazon or ITunes gift card as well as other options for ZERO fee (presumably in this case Amazon/Apple etc are paying CoinStar a somewhat reduced fee based on volume.) So why couldn't Coinbase or Circle or?
do the same thing? Now - you might be talking paying a 15% or so premium by the time you get the btc - something akin to going the Paypal to Virwox to btc route, but we're again talking about small amounts of btc for the loose change sitting in a jar or on your bedroom floor right now.Anyway - I'm interested to see both the interest and the level of negativity that various users have about this. Glad to at least inspire a bit of conversation at least
amazon and itunes offer a retailer a nice commission anyways (probably 10%) and due to the fact usually to activate the itunes / amazon cards costs retailers the labour at a stores cashier desk activating plastic cards. and ofcourse the physical cost of plastic cards and shipping/display, thus its cheaper to offer it via the coinstar box as it removes those costs. so with the savings they make by having a machine do it electronically and automatically plus getting commission from itunes/amazon, a retailer/coinstar can offer the amazon/itunes codes at zero fee from the box.
just like if coinstar had a way to do bitcoins. they will make their commission from the variations of the markets (like how some bitcoinATM's and circle pretend to be zero fee)