Continuing My Lincoln Cent Collection

I am also new to this. My kids and I started collecting about a month ago. Despite hearing nothing good about the large unsearched lots, I chose to go that route anyway, because I was literally starting from scratch and figured it was the easiest way to find all of the non-key dates.

My first purchase was a bag of 1,000 wheats, then I bought a bag of 5,000 wheats, then a "grandpa's old coin jar" of 1,100 wheats. Overall, I'm thrilled with my purchases. Sure, I knew I wouldn't find any key dates since I seriously doubt there are any truly unsearched lots out there, but I was able to fill in most of my book, then I re-sold the coins for more than I originally paid. I also got VERY lucky with the "grandpa's jar" lot...it contained 92 1909 cents! (I thought it was 91 until last night, but I found another one hiding).

Every Wheat cent in my book is now filled in from these three lots except for the following:

1909-S V.D.B
1909-S (there is a slim chance I might have this one in worse than AG condition, but the date is too messed up to tell for sure)
1911-D
1911-S
1912-S
1913-D
1913-S
1914-D
1914-S
1915-S
1922-D
1922 Plain
1924-D
1926-S
1931-S

So overall I think I did rather well. Huge unsearched lots obviously aren't going to be much help to non-beginners since they are looking for quality, but they worked out great for me. In the short term, I just wanted to fill in the holes. Some of the coins in my book aren't in great condition because I've only had one or two to choose from, but most would be considered at least good, and most significantly better. The dates which I think would only grade as AG are 1911, 1912, 1912-D (VG condition, but a little bent), 1915, and 1931. Now I can work toward upgrading the quality and filling in the remaining holes.

So that's my opinion for what it's worth. Good luck!

mahgobbi,
Where did you get the bag and jar? (You don't have to specific, coin dealer, ebay, garage sale, etc.)

I've been getting them from ebay. The coin jar was a listing by somebody who I could tell was truly selling off a family member's collection. She had no prior sales or purchases of coins on ebay. I got 1,100 coins from her and it included the 92 1909s, plus a few earlier-teen dates with mintmarks that I was missing.

The other coins came from a dealer on ebay. I personally stay away from any small-time sellers of "unsearched" coins, because they are usually people like you and me who buy the bag of 5,000 from a dealer, cherrypick the good ones, and resell the 40s and 50s. At least if I'm buying from a dealer, I have a shot at them only cherrypicking the keys/semi-keys and leaving some decent older coins behind.

As for price, it seems like the 5,000 coin "unsearched" bags range from about $200 shipped from a small-time reseller, to about $325 from a dealer. On average, the price if you buy from a dealer seems to be around $255 - $270 shipped. I paid $240 shipped for my bag of 5,000 and I've since done additional business with this seller outside of ebay. His ebay ID is levite_9999 . He ships lightning fast and the coins I got from him in the bag of 5,000 were GREAT for a beginner. The mix included about 30% to 35% from the teens and 20s (many S mints), and there were a LOT of EF and AU coins in the bag. There were even a bunch of indian heads mixed in.

Large lots are probably good if you need practically all the dates. However, if you are looking for specific dates/conditions you're probably better off sticking to singles or lots where you know what you are getting.

Edit: Once you reach 50 posts/2 weeks whatever the limit is, check out the buy/sell/trade forums. They'd be a good place to find what you are looking for.