It's a little hard to believe that Black Friday has already come and gone and Christmas is right around the corner. I'm honestly a bit late to the party. I technically should have written this post a couple of weeks ago, but mind just doesn't work like that.
I'm not usually a fan of shopping on Black Friday. I don't do crowds very well and I'm not a huge fan of buying something I don't need just because it is on sale. I went out for three specific things on Black Friday and quite honestly, it ended up being a pretty disappointing trip.
I happened to stumble into a Walgreens drug store and they had this ATM sitting at the entrance. I've only seen a Bitcoin ATM in one other location in the small town where I grew up, so seeing one in a pretty well known chain of Drugstores was a surprise to me.
Apparently the Allpoint ATM uses the libertyX service to help you purchase BTC. If you check out their site, you will see the network is pretty impressive! Except in the badlands out West, but that is kind of to be expected. I honestly would have expected more locations in Wyoming given their pro crypto stance, but then again, cities are few and far between out that way.
It is time again for another Finance Friday/Friday Finance. This is a series I started where I talk about random bits of financial stuff that I have seen, gathered, or experienced during the week. I hope as a reader you find it informational, entertaining, or both. I also hope it can generate some good discussion and edify the community.
As I said, I had a few specific places I wanted to visit on my excursion out on Black Friday. @mrsbozz wisely stayed at home. Given my level of frustration by the time I got home, it was definitely the smart move for her.
My first stop was the local record store. I was there looking for a Mac Miller album for my niece, but unfortunately they didn't have it. Record Stores have been doing Black Friday sales the past couple of years with special releases that are only available to a few stores on that specific day. Luckily by the time I got there, most of the crowd was gone. I saw on their Facebook page that people were lined up at 2 in the morning waiting to get their hands on some new and exclusive vinyl.
Unfortunately, they didn't have the Mac Miller album I was looking for. They also didn't have the Oscar Peterson Black Friday album I was looking for. There were only a couple thousand shipped worldwide and my local store wasn't lucky enough to even get one of them.
I did end up picking up the Yardbirds Greatest Hits album that you see above. I didn't think it was a bad snag for $22. It's a bit more than I like to spend for records, but as you will see it was actually quite cheap.
I also noticed they had 1989 Taylor's Version by Taylor Swift for $40. I felt bad that I hadn't gotten anything for my niece, so I picked up a copy for her. Plus one for myself of course. I plan on giving her the one to the right. The one on the left is pink vinyl and my niece isn't much of a pink girl, so I will take the hit on that one as I don't really care what color the vinyl is.
After leaving the record store, my next stop was Harbor Freight Tools. If you have never been to a Harbor Freight, it's kind of an outlet store and they sell all kinds of really cheap tools. Some of the stuff is decent quality, some of it is crap, you just have to pick and choose. I was looking for a wood moisture meter, but unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock.
I've been thinking it might be nice to have a little meter to tell me how much moisture is in firewood before I buy it while we are camping. There's nothing worse than spending $40 bucks on a truckful of wood only to get it back to the campsite and realize it's totally wet and won't burn easily.
Even if it isn't 100% accurate, knowing ahead of time might save us some headaches down the road. I'll probably just pick one up from Amazon before the camping season starts.
After leaving Harbor Freight, I ran over to a new store called Kzoo Bullion. I had seen their site before, but it was only by chance I realized they had a physical location in a town near where we live.
Unfortunately, they were closed for the holiday, but I was able to order some stuff online when I got home. I still want to visit their store, but I am going to have to wait until I get out of work early on a weekday to do it.
A bit bummed out that they were closed, I headed across town to a local coin store that I had been trying to visit for a while. Luckily, they were open, but they didn't have a great selection when it came to silver.
I picked up a couple of 1 oz rounds for $29 USD a piece which was just a little over spot price. I get they have to make a profit, so I didn't mind paying.
One of the coins I picked up was the 1 oz round you see above. It's the only piece of silver I own that has Queen Elizabeth on it.
On the back side is a photo of "Little John". It's from 2022 and it was part of the Royal Mint's Myths and Legends series. It would have been cooler to get Robin Hood, but as I said, he didn't have a huge selection. He had about five of these, so I picked the nicest one and he put it in a sleeve for me.
The silver piece is actually in really good shape. What looks like dirt in the photo above is stuff that was on the sleeve and doesn't reflect the quality of the piece. I should have taken it out before I photographed it.
There were only three pieces in the series, but I didn't notice how many of these were minted in total. I'm guessing it was quite a lot for a random little coin shop in the middle of Michigan to have five of them (well, four now).
Although I didn't get everything I wanted, it was still a pretty good haul as I headed towards home. I got some music, I got some silver, and I didn't get assaulted by any Black Friday shoppers, so it was a relatively good day I guess!
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