Monday, June 25, 2007

You know you're an addict when....

Back in February, I wrote about getting hooked up with Where's George after finding a dollar bill in my change with some strange markings on it.

I quickly went out and got my stamps and started marking some bills.

Well, 4 months later (today), I am totally hooked on it. So far I have:

  • entered 727 bills worth a total of $5,177 (many of them are $1s).
  • gotten 44 hits on my bills, most of them coming in the last month or so (seems you need to build a certain amount of inertia before the hits start rolling in)
  • achieved a "George Score" of 637.36, placing me above the 85th percentile of Where's George users!!!!!
  • joined Friends of George where I get to pay extra money for the joy of entering my bills and tracking them :-).
  • started paying cash for many transactions that I had been paying with credit cards (so I can mark more bills and cause money to flow).
  • learned that it is better to mark small bills ($10s, $5s, and $1s) as they circulate alot more than $20s, $50s, and $100s which frequently just go to the bank awaiting a future withdrawal.
  • learned that it is better to get a stamp that needs little to no alignment (rather than the nice circular stamp I bought that goes around the treasury seal and must be aligned somewhat carefully -- taking way too much time when trying to stamp a stack of 100 or 200 $1s).

The real signs of my addiction:

  • The anticipation that I have when checking emails looking for hits.
  • The groans that I hear from my "friends" when I pull out my wad of marked bills trying to exchange them for unmarked bills in their pockets.

In any case, I still find it lots of fun and my friends seem to be mostly amused with my addiction. If you're interested, go get a stamp and enjoy marking your bills!

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