28,633 wheat pennies

I just got a call today from someone selling their wheat collection. It has over 28,000 pennies ranging from 1909-1953. They want $2,600, I'm going tomorrow to pick up the list that tells me what they all are. At $.10 each, I don't think it's a bad deal unless they're all from the 30-50s. What's your take?

 

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$2,600 is a heck of a risk. That list is going to be invaluable (but you already know all this). Just a pointer: what are you going to do with all the common dates? How are you going to sell them?

 

Sounds a bit pricey to me for a bulk buy but since it is inventoried you will be able to tell if it's worth the money.

 

$.10 not a bad deal?
The people on TV sell them for $.07/8 a coin, and they're always over priced.

 

Wheats from the 40s and 50s go for like 3-5 cents unless they are high-grade so it really depends what is in there. Even if you have a couple of better dates in there from the earlier years, 10 cents apiece is too much.

 

Given that they said the coins range up until 1953, it might just be a decently valuable collection.

Are you planning on buying when you go tomorrow, or are you just going to pick up the list? If the former, then you should make sure you memorize the key dates/MMs.

 

I think FE21 is right on with his thinking. If half of those 28,000 are common dates that you will be lucky to sell for .04 a piece then you are already in the hole $840. The second half of lot needed to be pretty nice to make up the difference. Unless there are some really nice coins in the group I think at .10 a piece is too much. It will be a lot of work getting rid of those coins with no guarantee of a profit or even covering the time you will invest in to it. That just my opinion.
Derek

 

Im going tomorrow to pick up the list. I told them I want a few days to go over the list. This is the same people I bought the 36 graded coins from 2 weeks ago. They said most are raw but a few are slabbed. Ill let you know when I find out more tomorrow.

i did tell them I was just interested in D&S marks prior to 1930 which she said there was over 3,000 of those.

 

That's what emails for Unless he hand wrote the inventory...

But yes, it seems a bit pricey for what sounds to be more like a circulated hoard.

-LTB

 

all hand written. I even asked if they'd just take pictures of the list but they have no way of sending it. I guess they don't believe much in the Internet?

 

In my area this is a very pricey collection. As was mentioned here earlier the going price is $.04 to $.05. I just picked up a grouping for that over the weekend and it had some coins going back in the teens. I grant that it wasn't 28,000+ of them. There might be a premium of a whole army of them, but still.

Are you planning on opening up a coin store for wheat cents in your area? If so I really wish you well that price is to steep for me. When I checked out Numismedia modern cents from the 40's in G4 grade were valued at $.04 - $.07 each. I would hope that this offering is way better than that grade for your sake. If you going over to pick up their list, why don't you ask to see a sampling of 100 of these coins.

If it was me, I would pass on this deal or offer them substantially less than what they're asking. I would think that if I was going to be paying $1,200. Look the listing over, if they are heavily weighted towards the 30's to the 50's I would pass on the whole deal.

I wish you well, but without seeing the inventory listings (date and quantity) I would most likely pass.

Best of luck.

 

I have a little different take on the downside of this deal. I'm already suspicious of the inventory.

There's 560 rolls; at 10 minutes (optimistic) per roll, sorting and separating and writing, that's over 90 hours of seller-work. Something doesn't add up here. And unless the coins are separated with one date per tube (or, ugh, wrapper), forget it - there's no way you could ever verify the inventory. Even if separated, what's your time worth? No B&M LCS would touch this deal.

 

They told me the ones not slabbed are all in 2x2s

im just looking to get better dates in good condition. I'm hoping they have some nice ones to put into my book. Like I said ill update this tomorrow afternoon after I get the list.

I want to keep a good relation with these people as they've told me this is only the tip of their collection. Lots more coins. If I can buy a few to keep and flip the rest, ill be ok. But I don't know if I have the time to deal with 28,000 wheats.

 

Too much.

 

I would pass just due to the fact that they are all in 2x2s... I'm annoyed when I have to rip out a few hundred coins, I couldn't even fathom the amount of time it would take to rip thousands of coins out of 2x2s. It's hard for me to even imagine taking the time to put that many coins in 2x2s in the first place. The 2x2s cost more than what some of the coins are worth!!!

 

Just curious, how did they arrive at their price? That's a clue to how you might do on "future" deals, which is why you're giving them the benefit of the doubt on this iffy deal... You can point out any number of dealers selling Wheats for $xxx a bag, and of course, the date "1953" instead of "1958" really doesn't confer any extra value.

 

I think you would be doing a lot better to just use the $2600 to but some nice Lincolns for your book and forget this deal. What I see is a little less than six bags of wheats worth about $1200 for sale for $2600. Remember 90% of all of the wheat cents are from the 40's and 50's, and most of that other 10% from the teens, 20's, and 30's are also common.

 

That seems awfully high. If you really want them, if you haven't already negotiated, don't take that offer and talk them down a lot.

 

I'm really hoping they have these 2x2's organized in some way...or this is going to be impossible for you to pick out the dates you need. At ten cents each, though...this is REALLY quite expensive. Unless there are some 1909 S VDB, 1909 S, 1922 no D, 1931 S and 1914 D (not counterfeit ones) in there this seems like a huge pass. If there are tons of better quality teens and twenties with mintmarks, plus some keys...then you might do okay. If it's organized.

I'm just throwing my two cents in as someone who has had to sort through this amount of product before...2x2s and the people who wrap their coins in little plastic wrap...ugh. Takes forever. I'd only search through it if that list was really, really promising or if they were someone else's coins...

 

Just off the cuff, I'd go 4X-5X face.