Fair price for 5,000 "average circulation" wheat cents?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by nealb, Apr 22, 2012.

  1. nealb

    nealb New Member

    A part-time dealer at the local flea market wants $250 (5 cents each) for these. I suspect they are searched. What are your thoughts on this price? Should I attempt to haggle down closer to $150 (3 cents each) which is about melt value? I definitely would hoard these after searching them, rather than reselling them, I don't know how that should affect my decision.

    What is the max you'd consider paying for these?


    Thanks for the input.
     
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  3. jhinton

    jhinton Well-Known Member

    1. $250 for a bag of 5000 is the going rate in my area. I think it is fair.
    2. The part-time dealer probably paid 2-3 cents each for them so why would he sell them for that?

    If I were going to buy them, I would offer .04 cents each but also offer to buy all that he had to make up for it. Then again, I don't really buy bulk wheat cents anymore...
     
  4. BooksB4Coins

    BooksB4Coins Newbieus Sempiterna


    $0.03 each is in no way an unreasonable starting offer and $0.05 is pretty much retail with no bulk discount. 3.5-4 cents each is more than reasonable considering he is a flea market seller and could easily offer by the roll. Seems obvious he wants to bulk them out. JMO.

    OP,

    "Searched" is an over-used and very generic term. If your hope is to find keys/semi-keys, the odds are probably not in your favor when buying bulk lots - it does not take long to scan through the coins and pull dates. However, if you are variety searching, especially for your own collecting interests, such lots can often yield many (albeit low value) RPMs and other minor varieties.
     
  5. Detecto92

    Detecto92 Well-Known Member

    I found bags of 5000 for about $200 not including shipping. I have never gave more than 3 cents for wheats.

    If he won't take $200, then move on, plenty more to be had.
     
  6. LindeDad

    LindeDad His Walker.

    Well since you can't melt them why think of melt value at all? BTW anyone figured out how much the energy costs to melt a wheat penny?
    So now how much is the collector value of the coins if most are culls?
     
  7. BadThad

    BadThad Calibrated for Lincolns

    My dealer charges me the same, $250/5000. However, has bags usually have some BU 40/50's in the mix.
     
  8. petro89

    petro89 Member

    Like the others said, 5 isn't out of the question but they should be willing to do 4. Dealers around here pay 3 cents apiece.
     
  9. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    About the whole "searched" thing, of course they have been searched, many multiple times. The best batches of these I ever got were from coin shops in the 80's where everything not the top 5-6 or high grade teens were thrown in. Used to be for average lincolns only the top 5-6 dates were really looked at. That is about the best "unsearched" you could ever hope for really.

    Now, if someone claims a bag is unsearched, by gosh it should not be full of just 40's and 50's coins, I would call shenanigans if that happened.
     
  10. kookoox10

    kookoox10 ANA #3168546

    I buy them for .04 cents at the shop I go to. I've just went through about 11,000 of them over the last few weeks and found some nice stuff. In total 35 1909's in VDB and none, a 24-D, 3x 10-s, lots of semi key teens s & d's, 33-d's, 26-s and lots of BU.

    Yes...I'm tooting my own horn because you don't see a lot of good bags from dealers. :yes:
     
  11. Marshall

    Marshall Junior Member

    Shipping on bulk wheaties is a significant part of the pricing and valuation. If you find them at 3 cents, I can almost assure you that you pay the postage and the total price winds up near that 5 cent each mark.
     
  12. Leadfoot

    Leadfoot there is no spoon

    I would pay no more than $0.04 each for searched Wheaties in qty of 5k.
     
  13. Merc Crazy

    Merc Crazy Bumbling numismatic fool

    USPS large flat-rate box = $15 and will hold $50 worth in copper cents weighing 68 pounds. :)
     
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