Thoughts on "UNSEARCHED ROLLS" from E-bay?

I think it would be silly to buy the modern rolls that are the same as what you can get at the bank.

I've never done it but I am a little more tempted by some of those really old looking bank wrapped rolls of pennys that they CLAIM are unopened and have wheat or indian head enders. I'm sure many are scams and some are legit. Either way the treasure hunting can be fun if you look at it in the right light.

You buy a $7 hotdog at Disney World you know your getting ripped of but your having fun so why worry about it? It's okay to do that once in a while.

 

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hey if you want some real treasure hunting buy a metal detector

 

I have some legitamate unsearched cents that I just can't bring myself to go through in addition to the wheats that my kids always pull from the boxes of cents they do.

i have a container full of mostly 68-72 S coins that were given to me but had been accumulated by a non-coin person. There were a ton of other rolls of bank wrapped cents also but we ended up just dumping them into circulation. The only reason I saved the S mint coins is because you guys on this thread told me to. They aren't all BU coins, as most of these werne't in rolls.

I keep telling myself to put them on ebay but they just sit on the floor in the container

 

These would be far better to search than the ones ebay sellers are hawking.

 

Gentlemen I have not bought any rolls on ebay that say unsearched as we all know the chance that no one has search a roll of cents that could be 110 to 53 years old is 1 in a million. I have bought rolls on ebay with no claim of unsearched and maybe a silver bonus. The last one was last week and I recieved a roll with 5 teens 5 IH 7 20's 25 30's and 8 40's and 50's. Unsearched no but nice mix of coins for the price which was 7.99. Is that a great price? Probably not but had great time looking. That being said this is a rarity.

 

On another note, how bout those lots of coins from those so called "hoards". They sell a set of coins that contain a set amount of silver/wheats and also claim they are unsearched. Questions/Comments

 

It is possible to pull culls from a hoard of coins without singling out any semi to full key coins. I've been pulling 95% copper cents from rolls and re-rolling them without respect to looking for double dies etc. but all the while pulling junk coins out. Therefore I have sorted the coins but didn't search through them. Therefore my memorial cent rolls are unsearched.

 

I think many people check em the way dealers check. Hit list of better date/condition IHC's, VDB-S, 09S, 14D, 31S, 10-16S, 22(P), 22D, 55 Dbl Die then away the rest goes. Some may even go for cheaper "semi" and hard to find dates and MM other than that. Most don't have the knowledge or patients to go through every cent with a cherry picker guide. I know I've got a 1/4 bag of 30's I'll never find time to really sit down and look through for varieties, overmints etc. I'll probably end up just bulking or parting them out.

 

If you do part it out, lemme know!

 

When I do I'll give you first consideration.

 

Let me add some points to the conversation.

I occasionally buy penny rolls on ebay. My expectations are low, just wanna fill my Whitman books. Usually I get 4 or 5 coins I want out of 10-12 rolls. I try never to pay more than $2 a roll. I could probably buy the coins straight out from a dealer but I buy these rolls for the same reason that I buy Brinks boxes from my bank...the hunt's the thing. I also rewrap and resell the coins with full disclosure that they've been searched, but are still good for filling out a collection or for kids. They still sell just as well. The last batch was 15 rolls, some of which came from sorting the Brinks and some from the pennies I bought earlier. It sold for $36.01, which I thought was a little high, so I threw in a 2000AM in a flip.

Here are the points:

1. Don't assume that a shotgun roll that appears to be machine sealed IS machine sealed. I buy shotgun rolls from N.F. String and I have a hand sealer (cost $3.00, also from N.F. String) that when used creates a rolled seal indistinguishable from a machine sealed one.
2. Always assume that "Unsearched" is a crock of beans. However, don't assume that its been searched for the things you want (Errors, Doubled Dies, etc.)
3. Never expect to see AU BU or MS quality coins. If you doo find one, don't expect it to happen regularly, cause it won't. What you will find are some ungradeables, a bunch of G, F, VF and a few EFs.

If you bear all that in mind, the whole 'unsearched roll' thing shouldn't bother you too much.

 

Buy large count bags of wheats, much higher liklihood of finding BU's and rarer coins... bags are typically put together by dealers.

My last bag was tasty... I try to buy a few a year, but at $200-$300 a pop (5k count) they're a tad pricey. That last bag gave up 7 IHC's, a '24-S in AU55 or thereabouts, and somewhere around 100 RD wheats, along with 150 or so RB's.

 

But they could profit even more by getting the rolls, taking out the silver, and then selling them on ebay to make even more money...i just don't trust people online to sell unsearched rolls and have never known anyone who has had much luck with them but i could be wrong

 

I understand not trusting people on the internet but like I said, why would I need to or want to spend the time searching rolls when I can make my average or more without opening rolls or dumping coin. I guess in my opinion, the hunt is great, but at the end of the day it's about money for me (don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is a very profiatable hobby if at all). I could go out and try and find four leaf clovers all day but if I don't have a market to sell them, what's the point unless I love finding them. I think perception plays a big part of it as well. Some people have admitted to paying up to $2.00 per roll for cents, but try selling an "unsearched" roll of halves for $40.00 bucks and see how you do. The mark up is the same percentage wise but I think the perception is completely different.

 

Dont be a get your "unsearched" rolls from the bank, not from Ebay!

 

I don't buy unsearched rolls. I just think of them as a bunch of no date wheat cents.