Dealer Junk Boxes Vs. Ebay "Unsearched" Lots Of World Coins.

I would rather have the fun searching through dealer junk boxes.
You only end up buying the coins you want, rather than the whole lot.

You get to keep that part of the catch you want and throw the rest back, much like fishing.

"One man's meat is another man's poisson".

nicwinner : that's not necessarily true, dealers are usually specialized in some types / countries, you can still find good stuffs in their junk.
Sure, any coin looking pretty old will have been checked - but one can still find rarities in more modern coins (your dealer won't look for special dates / overdates / particular types for all the coins he get and sort to junk for example)

And then again - it depends on what counts as "rare"
I've been able to find a 2 Rentenpfennig coin (1923-J for the record) worth $20 (or so a collector I asked said) in a dealer's 20 rubles (about $0.70) bin. Since then I've been taking all Rentenpfennigs I've came across in junk bins, and while I hadn't been able to strike it so rich anymore, all of them were worth more than what I paid.
Then again, we don't have junk silver over here, it's all just various world coins, and while I did hit a few silver pieces in under-dollar bins they tended to not even look silver (I only bought them for the age: one in particular was from 1820, the date being almost the only thing still visible).

P.S. I've also never bought anything from ebay, and but one coin from our local version (a dateless Matron cent). So don't have anything to compare with

The possibility and probability that you will be disappointed from an ebay purchase are very high.

You have much lower chances of being disappointed from a junk bin as you don't walk away with anything you don't choose. The downside is there is a much smaller selection.

I get majority of new coins from local " ebay" and those bins (usually 4-5 pcs for euro). At least in our local internet auction it is very easy to get "unsearched" lot at a reasonably price (my max bid is normally 10 euro/kilo incl. shipping). The quality has been good; I have found silver, scarce dates/mintmarks, exchengeable coins and coins from harder countries. Same for dealer's bins. I think the main reason for good succes is high frequency in checking what's available on internet and bins. Of course it is important to look pics well and analyse what kind of coins there are.

I don't have the luxury of having a dealer nearby.
The closest dealers to me are in Perth and I only go to Perth to either catch a plane or get off one for work, So ebay and CCF are my only options.

I have built probably what is the World's largest collection of machine struck square coins from a dealer's junk bin. About 90 different types and counting! Most of them were accumulated 20+ years ago. Lots of fun, very little money spent.

My local coin shops sells unsearched lots on ebay. He says that he doesn't have time to search the lots and, judging by the volume that he takes in, I believe him. Unfortunately he also gets a lot of his poundage from tollbooth rejects, so there is a lot of duplication. In particular, it appears that Dominican Republic 25 centavos are accepted as quarters at tollbooths, because his bulk lots have an abundance of them.

On the other hand, his junk bin always has some good deals if you are willing to look. The coins are all in 2x2 flips and often has quite a few proofs (something that is rare in ebay bulk lots). It just takes time to search through everything.