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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,424 |
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Valued Member
United States
90 Posts |
Anyone ever order those $50.00 bag of wheats from APMEX? They are supposedly "unsearched". Hmm. I think it may be a tad expensive, but just wanted to know if they really were unsearched or are they as "unsearched" as the wheats are on eB*y. On that note, is there really anywhere (any site online) to buy honest to goodness unsearched wheats that someone has had good experience with? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
quote:
I think it may be a tad expensive, but just wanted to know if they really were unsearched or are they as "unsearched" as the wheats are on eB*y.
What remains is bulk copper with possibly a few varieties, but the high-value coins are in dealer display cases and collections. Imo, the only "unsearched wheats" are those which their origin can be proven as untouched, unsearched, unsorted, uncatalogued or otherwise unmolested by dealer or collector. What remains is a tiny population of cents held by ordinary people that can't possibly be sold in bulk by dealers. As an example, let's say someone's granpa went to the bank in '22 and got a bag of cents, which he carefully archived in the sealed bank bag until today, when he passed these coins on to a fortunate beneficiary. Now, that's an unsearched bag of cents!  Pardon me for possibly belaboring the point but scarcely a single dealer will sell a bag like above without having a careful look first. If a coin in such a lot passes by their scrutiny, it's merely by chance. I once did a careful analysis of a "unsearched, sealed bank bag" I bought from a dealer, and I discovered statistical anomalies that could only be attributed to searching, then later seeding the lot with a few ok coins. Nothing free comes from dealers--unless you cherrypick it from them--my modus operandi Edited by KurtS
04/17/2008 7:36 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
90 Posts |
Thanks KurtS. Makes perfect sense. I can understand searching through a bag of statistical anomalies with a few not-so-random seeds. You could look at it as just getting an unlucky draw, but chances are that you are right and the only thing unsearched about the whole deal is that they didn't have to search for the bag before they sold it to us! =P
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
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...the only thing unsearched about the whole deal is that they didn't have to search for the bag before they sold it to us!
Exactly.  "I have your 'unsearched bag' right here--how many you want?" --dealerspeak. Edited by KurtS
04/17/2008 8:10 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
Kurt is right, but they are out there. Just not from anyone who is advertising unsearched wheats.
Jim
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
On that note, is there really anywhere (any site online) to buy honest to goodness unsearched wheats that someone has had good experience with?Not that I've seen or bought. Zero, zip, nada. And for any plausible auction on ebay, those bank bags of "unsearched wheats" command a hefty auction price (sometimes almost 10x face value)...a price I'm not going to pay for hundreds (thousands) of 40's and 50's wheats.
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Valued Member
United States
280 Posts |
My first instinct (prior to visiting the site) is that APMEX requires a minimum of $1000 value to sell to them. Given their volume, I can't imagine searching a bag of wheats would be worth their time. But, then I visit that section of their site, and I see a whole lot of "single" better date wheat cents listed. That causes me to question whether they truely are unsearched. |
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Valued Member
United States
178 Posts |
I don't know anyplace that's a good place to buy unsearched wheat cents besides estate or garage sales.
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New Member
United States
48 Posts |
While I understand that most online auctions are probably suspect, if you have an local dealer you can trust, you can lucky there. I know I was at my local dealer one day searching his IKE silver UNCs and noticed a half dozen large coffee cans full of wheats he had just purchased. I asked if would sell one of the cans to me and he told me that dumps all his wheats into a big bucket to mix them up.
He said that he always does that as he believes that most of these lots brought in are searched by the people who collected them. He mixes up all the lots to give everyone a chance at whatever might be in the wheats he buys. He told me he does not have time, nor enough people to check all the wheats he gets, he just repackages them and sells them off.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
936 Posts |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,424 |
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Posted 04/17/2008 7:49 pm
