Good Or Bad Deal On Wheat Pennies

I think you may have over paid by a few bucks. Don't fall for the term "unsearched". I have seen 1000 count lots selling in the high $30 to low $40 range on ebay. Although most of these lots are not advertised as unsearched, they seem to be a decent deal and about on par with what I have seen in coin shops. Keep in mind that the term "unsearched" is merely a marketing tool used by an awful lot of not so honest ebay sellers, especially if the coins on the roll ends are strongly advertised or wrong denomination/coin type. 12 or so years ago unsearched rolls could easily be had as I knew several sellers who sold just that and I made face to face purchases with them where they would grab a handful from a bucket and weigh out a pound (about 147 coins) for only $5.99. I pulled one Flying Eagle and several IHC's from these lots but never did I get a key date or Merc/Seated Dime/$2.50 Gold. With that said I as well as numerous others here will tell you Buyer Be Ware when it comes to buying wheat rolls.

to CCF!

Glad to see that you have found us.

Now for your answer, that depends on a few things. First, the 31d generally is worth about $3.50 to $4 for VF. Now for the rolls, if you got them off of ebay, "ALWAYS" assume they've been searched no matter what they say. But with that said your deal boils down to about 10 cents a coin, if most or half are pre 1940 and half after, you got a average ebay deal. The pre 40 coins tend to be worth 25 cents to hundreds of dollars, and 40 and up about a nickel per coin with copper melt about 3.5 cents per coin for pre 1982's. So after factoring gas and time to go to your LCS more often than not it turns out to be a good deal. It also depends where you are at in your collection, beginning, you're more likely to need most of the coins, later not as many. So with this in mind figure it out for yourself.

What a lot of folks do is go to the bank and get a box $25 of pennies and search for yourself. But as in all things, if it was worth it to you because of your desires, wants and timing nothing we say can or should be used in determining whether or not you got a good deal. You already did.

Time for the FatMan waddle dance, watch out cause it's about to get ugly in here !

I wouldn't say that all rolls are not unsearched. Normally most of them are searched, however, I have found a couple of them that aren't. I agree with what you said about the end coins of dimes and gold pieces. However if I bid on them, I normally study the feedback and see what other people are finding. You can normally get a good idea of what's inside if you study feedback.

There was a feedback the other day where someone had bought a roll of solid 1955 D pennies and got a double die out of it. I can understand throwing in a double die if you are selling several thousand dollars worth, but this seller wasn't making much money off of these, nor did he have many listed. Therefore, I would say that roll is unsearched.

I definitely agree with what you are saying. I believe that most rolls on ebay are searched, however, I think there are a few out there that aren't.

I agree with Tim that you probably overpaid just a little bit, however, you also have to consider shipping price. I would say overall you did okay. Keep looking for the unsearched rolls. You can normally sell a few coins in them and make your money back.

Thx for the info guys the 1931d completes a collection my grandparents gave me and I figured of see if I can get lucky in the rolls, ill reply again here if I find anything good when I get it.

Price is just a number. How much fun is it to search through Wheat penny rolls, that's what you need to ask yourself :)

You have to expect almost all 40's and 50's, 90% of all the wheat cents struck were 40's and 50's.