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)
In regards to the OP's suggestion, I would say that it would be possible however it would need to also accept cash bills as well (and likely offer a better rates with the bills). If the machine did not accept bills then the amount of bitcoin that could be purchased would be very small and few people would likely want to buy it this way