Sheets of Money -- Cheapest and Uncut

Here's my advice:

If you really want to buy uncut sheets of U.S. money as gifts or collectibles, the cheapest place to get them is the U.S. government's Bureau of Engraving [link is no longer valid, see update at the end of this post]. On their website, in most cases you can buy sheets of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills for between 13 and 100 percent over the face value of the money on the sheet. (The amount of markup is highest for small bills in sheets of four, the lowest for larger bills in sheets of 16 or 32.)

This is likely where the World Monetary Reserve Exchange gets the sheets of bills they are selling in their latest advertisement (Star Tribune, Oct. 5, 2009), which featured life-size, full-color images of money, and urged everyone to "snatch up this year's hottest gifts."

Buying in bulk, WRME would pay the Bureau of Engraving the lowest of the prices listed (depending on the denomination, between a 13 and 72 percent markup over the face value of the bills). Then they cut the big sheets of 32 or 16 bills into smaller sheets of two bills each, put them into a folding case they call a "Bank Book" and sell them to the public for these prices:

• Two $2 bills in a Bank Book, $38 plus shipping.
  Cost from the government: $5.63 plus some amount for shipping; cost of the Bank Book unknown.
  Amount over WRME's cost if bought from the Bureau of Engraving: $32.37 (575 percent more -- over six times as much)
• The Investor's Book, which contains five sheets of two bills in $1, $2, $5, $10 and $20 denominations for $188 plus shipping.
  Cost from the government: $56.76 plus some amount for shipping; cost of the Bank Book unknown.
  Amount over WRME's cost if bought from the Bureau of Engraving: $131.24 (231 percent higher -- more than triple)
• The Millionaire's Book, including six sheets of two bills in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 denominations for $338 plus shipping.
  Cost from the government: $156.76 plus some amount for shipping; cost of the Bank Book unknown.
  Amount over WRME's cost if bought from the Bureau of Engraving: $181.24 (116 percent over -- more than double)

It's likely WRME has other Bank Books for sale that contain a single sheet of $1s, $5s, $10s, $20s and $50s for a price that is marked up similarly, but since the prices are not listed in the ad I can't say for sure. I only found out the price of the Investor's and Millionaire's Books by calling their toll-free number; they were not listed in the ad, although the Investor's Book was the item the salesperson seemed to want to sell me the most; she said that other customers were buying at least three!

It's interesting that the only price quoted in the ad was for the Bank Book containing two $2 bills. Here's how the price was worded: "...they're a real steal starting with an uncut sheet of the historic Two dollar bills loaded in the Bank Book at just thirty-eight dollars." It doesn't say that there are only two bills in the "loaded" Bank Book for that price.

I point this out because I found this story from the Cincinnati Business Journal, reporting that WRME settled with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office in July over ads for similar products, run back in 2006 and 2007. WRME "paid investigative costs of $38,000 and agreed that future advertisements will clearly disclose" the "cost of merchandise that is being offered for sale and what must be purchased in order to obtain 'free' items." Now, the current WRME ad does say somewhere else in the text that the bills are "two-up money sheets," but it doesn't say it anywhere near where it lists the price of "thirty-eight dollars" (better known as $38).

I also found an article from the North County Times (near San Diego) called "Two-page ad for money sale called 'misleading'," about an earlier version of this ad. In the article, the paper's publisher is quoted as saying "It's shameless. This ad should not have run in our paper and I apologize to our readers." (Star Tribune take note!)

I suppose one could argue that the brown, folding Bank Book makes it all worth it. I have not seen one of these in person, but in my opinion it seems unlikely it's valuable enough to account for the difference between WRME's cost and their price, even allowing for them to pay for the ads, compensate the people who answer their phones, and make a fair profit.

Let's hope all the people who want to give away uncut sheets of money this Christmas will have a bit of the do-it-yourself spirit --

1. Buy big sheets of bills direct from the Bureau of Engraving.
2. Cut them down into smaller sheets of two bills each.
   
3. Go to the office supply store and get some nice report folders to put them in.

You'll save yourself a lot of money, and think how much fun it will be to cut up those sheets of money yourself.
________

Update, December 2010 - I have just discovered that one of the links above to the Bureau of Engraving is no longer working. At this point in time the BofE is only selling sheets of $1 and $20 bills, which can be purchased on this page. I'm leaving the old link in above to verify that there was indeed a page at this location in October 2009 when I wrote this post originally.