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 Replies: 26 / Views: 2,566 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
The shop I work at gets alot of wheat cents , along with everything else. There is no way we can search them , if they have more than a couple rolls- they just run them through the counter into a bag. We tell the customers with large amount that we cannot look at them all, and if they want more than 2.8 cents a piece for them- they need to look for the keys and other dates. Am I saying that these are not searched ? No, some customers get to look at a few here and there, but they just get sold by the bag before they all get searched. Some sellers do sort them themselves, but rarely find anything.
That said, I have purchased a couple bags in the past from them, no keys or semi- key dates ,But the mix was better than I was used to from e bay. There were quite a few XF- AU coins, and more teens than I would have thought. I bought mine awhile back, before his price went up, they are $200 for $50 face- still a good deal, so $ 95 for half of that is decent too. I should have bought more at $150......sigh.....
I wish I had the time to search every coin that walks in that store, between 4 full timers, two part timers, and me- it is still impossible to see everything up close. I know things get through, I have found a few things in the past - Doubled Dies, RPM's, etc. If I caught a few..Much more is not being caught. The bags of common date silver no one cares to look at are great for cherry pickers, anything that is bought in bulk could be good searching at a B&M. Get friendly, and be first !
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Valued Member
 United States
95 Posts |
Yeah its always good to get to know the people you buy from. Luckily I'm the ast mgr at the largest furniture store in south jersey and in the past week have seen two of the five owners of the coin shops I frequent. One of them is furnishing his shore house and pretty much told me that if I can save him a few hundred he can save me some money as well. I wonder how much Ill have to hook him up to get that 1909s vdb Ive had my eyes on :)
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Valued Member
United States
429 Posts |
Dealers almost always seem to be the way to go when it comes to bulk coins because they are more like us and want a little surprise out of what they buy as well. If I opened a roll/bag and all I found was 40-50's I better not have paid more the $1.50-$2.00, and that is for nicer conditions. For older dates 4x would be a great price since most of those are 10-25x face value. But with a dealer they most likely will throw in a good mix of dates, a semi key or two and the occasional really low grade key date depending on how much they know you and the business you bring him. I have done enough business with my dealer that I know a 5-15% discount is coming out without saying a word, and feel that is the way it should be. If you go somewhere a lot, they get use to you and you get a little extra attention, just don't push it or bring it up in front of others.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6326 Posts |
Well, at an aforementioned "yard sale"...although this was an estate auction.....I ACTUALLY DID GET AN UNSEARCHED BATCH OF WHEATIES !
I know it was "unsearched" because I was the first one there, other than the auctioneer service and the surviving spouse of the guy who died....
The "container" was a beat up old tin thing.......and I scored many semi-key dates including a plain 1909....many in the '10's....many in the '20's....many in the '30's.......now, granted mostly were '40's & 50's.....but what can ya expect anyway ?......they're NEVER going to ALL be in the '10's & '20's decades right ?
And so I won the bid for $50.00 for about 985 Wheat pennies...(counted em' when I got home.....a great deal !
Trying to "get the bids up" and coax people to jump in....the auctioneer even said "There might be a 1909 in there !"......(and there was....just not an S VDB!)
There were only a very small token amount of other coins there.......the other people mostly came for the "advertised auction bill" which stated ......motorcycle....garden tools.....pickup truck.....lawn mowers.....wheat pennies and other coins (obviously this is what got me to drive an hour to this auction) .......furniture.......books......lamps.....some antiques.....some kitchen appliances and utensils.....washer and dryer.....all kinds of other stuff.......very few people showed any interest whatsoever in the coin part of this auction at all.......I was lucky and that's why I like going to those !
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Moderator
 United States
16679 Posts |
I'd say that was a score eaglefoot! Not to mention kind of like opening a gift not knowing what your going to get. Those are the deals you want to find.  swcoin.ecrater.com
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Valued Member
Australia
52 Posts |
Good onya, Eaglefoot. My hands would have been trembling just paying the money. No actually I may have even given the auctioneer a tip (be kind to your Mother). If he had one?
regards
Roger
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1083 Posts |
Well my story isn't quite as exciting. I found a roll of Wheaties in a box of misc junk at our local flea market. I gave the guy four dollars for it. All the coins were well circulated, but there were four 1909 plains, a 1910-S, and a 1916-D, a bunch of 1919s and the newest date was in the thirties. They filled some holes in my Dansco until I bought better examples. I still have them, except those I give away for those who need a date.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Why is it people buy "unsearched" Wheat cent and then get upset when most of the bag is 40's and 50's? Think about it folks, most of the wheat cents struck were from the 40's and 50's. And most of the wheat cents in circulation when the Memorial cent came out and people started hoarding the Wheat cent were from the 40's and 50's. So naturally most of the wheats they put back into their stashes were 40's and 50's. Look at it this way. If the Lincoln memorial was discontinued tomorrow and you started hoarding them what dates would most of them be? 1990's and 2000's. And twenty years from now when you went to sell a random $50 bag them the vast majority would be 90's and 2000's with a moderate numbers of 80's, a smattering of 70's, a few 60's, and maybe a 59 if you were lucky. And infiniteinterest is right, most dealers aren't going to take the time and effort to search all of the wheat cents they buy. The potential return for the amount of time invested is too small. If a dealer had someone go through a bag of wheat averaging two seconds per coin it would take three hours and he would have to come up with coins worth a $30 premium just to break even at minimum wage. And are they all searched before he gets them? Probably not. Sure as said no COLLECTOR would sell them without searching them, but I would bet than most bulk purchases of wheat cents by dealers are not from collectors they are still from hoards that people have put back from what they find in change and hoards passed down to them by others who hoarded them from change. |
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Valued Member
United States
201 Posts |
I couldn't have said it any better.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
615 Posts |
I have sold wheats on ebay. I always say they are common dates. I have never had anyone get mad at me. I would say less than 4 cents is a fair price. Make you some 1941-1958 whitman coin folder starter sets and resell them on ebay. I bet you can get $0.99 plus say $6 S&H then mail using media mail (put that in the details of the auction so someone does go nuts when the postage is just $2 and change). That is giving them all the dates they need for like $7 which isn't bad and you will make a little bit after shipping. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
I'm with steam and topher....four cents/coin isn't bad at all. Likely, the majority of those coins is each worth that in VF+ condition. I've got up to Twenty Cents a coin for early wheat rolls (1909 - 1930's) and up to six cents a coin for later wheat rolls on ebay. |
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Replies: 26 / Views: 2,566 |
First Page
Posted 07/07/2008 01:02 am
