"Unsearched" Rolls On Ebay

I just wanted to share with my friends here some thoughts and experiences.

First, a pristine roll of coins, be it from a bank or the FRB usually will contain whatever coins were circulating at the time, in whatever condition they circulated.

Just check the pennies in your change, and you will see what a modern bank roll would contain now. I found a 1963 in AU and a 1941-S in EF/AU(!). I do know that some local person here is dumping wheat pennies, likely because he/she figured their hoard was worth less than they fantasized it would. Heh.

Many ebay sellers are pushing rolls wich obviously were re-rolls of old coins with tantalizing ends. When you see this, you can bet that literally 'what you see is what you get'. Check the roll paper itself, very old coin rolls look...well, old....

I want to share two recent experiences with my 'coinmates' here.

1) Seller had two types of rolls for sale. One was defininetly recently rolled, the other looked as if it had been rolled a while ago. So, I purchased one of each.

The first one arrived, and I immediately smelled a rat. I opened it and let me tell you, "cull" wasn;t the word for these. JUNK. Holed, damaged, corroded.... Anticipating the arrrival of the next roll, I took action. I notified the seller, and told her I was going to return the second roll, unopened, and the coins in the first roll as well.

The second one (that looked 'old') had a gold QE on one end, and even as a type coin it alone likely would have justified the price at current Greysheet for the whole roll. But I just had a bad feeling, who knew what the other side of the QE would look like, and after the mess with the first one, I wasn;t taking chances.

Happy ending - seller refunded both. In appreciation I left good feedback.

2) The second experience was much different. I purchased two old rolls from a different seller. One was a really old bank roll, the other a FRB roll. I dated the first at around 1938-1940 and the second 1933-34.

What FUN. These were genuine old rolls, and it was really cool to see what was in peoples pockets. Interesting to see how worn - or not worn - some pieces were, and what was still circulating. Obviously, it being the depression, everyone looked behind the sofa cushions and under the fridge to scrape up every penny they could, literally. The FRB roll had 57 & 58 FE, 59 IH, and 79 and 94 IH's as well. Also, 32-D (in EF) and a 23-S in G.

So I guess the take home message is vigilance. No, not evryone is a scammer, but there are a lot of people trying to make a buck by pushing the envelope. This hurts honest sellers.

My advice is READ the FEEDBACK. If you see anything like "fast shipping" or "OK" in positive feedback, be careful. If people got what they paid for they will make it known. Also, someone will tell what they found. The second seller had customers who found some real keys, 11-S and 31-S namely. Also comments like "Got what I paid for" or "better than expected" are what you want to see.

Notice I did not mention names. If you want you can PM me and I will answer. I just don't want to you all to think I am endorsing or denigrating any particular sellers.

Anyone else with roll stories to tell? I'd love to hear them.

Thanks and "Better Dates" to you all :-D