Those coin lots/estate ebay auctions?

Just wondering if anyone has purchased many of these. You see them ALL over ebay, usually it's some coin shop that purchases estates or some such thing and now they're selling smaller lots to make a profit.

When it comes to buying/collecting coins I've always gotten more joy and excitement not knowing exactly what I might be getting. Anyone can hop online and order exactly what they want especially if they're willing to pay for it.

That being said, I also didn't just fall off the turnip truck. Despite all the "guarantees" they make in thier ads about what's going to be included, they're all vague enough to be sure you dont' get anything of real value. That's OK, as long as it's not all total garbage. I'm a low end collector anyway, I can't afford big boy coins and looking through stuff like this with my son would be fun.

Thoughts? Would love to hear from those that have done it. I might just get a $20 one and 'analyze' it to see how it goes.

 

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When it comes to coins I’m not in the market for grab bags.

 

Grab boxes?

 

Grab sack perhaps?

The ones I was looking at give you an "idea" of what you're getting. such as - you will receive 1 90% silver US coin (junk silver no doubt) you will receive 1 pre 1920 wheat penny, you will receive 1 mercury dime.

oh oh and they LOVE to throw in - GOLD...which is literally just those gold foil flakes suspended in oil or whatever, gimmicky, attention grabbing, whatevs.

 

Yeah.... I live by the "If it looks to good to be true" rule myself.

 

Agreed - this is only looks too good to be true if you assume they didn't already pull out all the good stuff. lol Maybe the only way to find out is to try it, I like a good mystery is all just wondered if people tended to get hosed or if you actually get about what you pay for.

 

I'd say you'd want to find one that is actually a non-collector selling inherited coins or something. You can kind of tell after awhile if the presentation looks too manicured or if someone who doesn't know what they're doing just dumped a ton of coins out on the table and took some blurry photos. Even so, in my experience these lots tend to get bid up so high that you're not likely to come out ahead if you win it.

I get what you mean though. I love searching through lots of random coins way more than I like just looking for a coin and buying it. If you like foreign coins then many coin shops have boxes like this you can look through or buy them by the pound, and most of them don't know or care what's good so you might find something. For American coins it's really hard to find a deal because too many people know the value.

 

I have bid on "unsearched" rolls before, but only ever won one auction. If I needed a specific date for a wheat cent, I would consider an "unsearched" roll but only bid on the coin I needed. I would not pay more than reasonable for the unknown. On my one winning bid, I bought a roll of Buffalo nickels for around $20. All had dates and there was a nice 1925 D in around VF/XF condition. I decided to stop while I was ahead.

 

From the OP’s description it sounds more like you’re getting a grab bag than coins.

 

I've scored some great lots off eBay from sellers who truly did NOT care what they were selling. But eventually it just got too tedious looking for them among all the assembled-for-eBay lots. I haven't bought anything of the sort in years, and don't have any intention of getting back into the game any time soon.

 

Unless it's this, and I don't recommend it, you're skunked......

 

I’ve always figured they know what’s in there for the most part… unsearched but they know there’s silver and a cent from before x…. Never made sense to me.

 

I was reading today about a ship that sunk in 1694 of the reef of the Bahamas. For nearly 10 years the Spanish Navy salvaged the wreck because it was the richest "overloaded" ship to leave for home. By the way it is said to have been overweight because the generals, captain, and passengers had looted the kings wealth for themselves. It was packed undr the beds and hidden in the bows.
The ship had sunk ontop af a reif after being rammed by the lead ship with a battering ram.
Anyways the ship was said to be picked clean especially after it was salvaged between the 70's and 90's.
A company that uses an electromagnet type of under water device has mapped lost emeralds, silver ingots, amethists and other items that span 3 to 4 miles. Guns cannon balls, musket balls have all been recovered.

The point is some folks overlook the diamond in the rough.

 

I seem to remember ads from coin magazines in the 70s where the seller spun a long tale about the barrels of cents he'd bought from a hoarder (with photos), and how he'd seen bright red Indian cents in the mix, and how he'd thrown a couple of S-VDBs into the batch just to make sure it was possible to get one, and showing a photo of the scoop he'd use to dig out each batch before sending them to you.

 

Then again there’s the flip side. I’ll never forget the album of standing quarters you posted that you just missed

 

Yup. There was always the risk that the good dates were fake, but... sometimes you win.

 

My eye told me they were absolutely right. A couple cleaned or problem coins. But some super nice tough semi key coins in nice higher circulated grades. If I’d gotten that I’d have really tried to get a standing set in vf-xf

 

I have gotten a couple of good deals and two spectacular ones when buying SPECIFIC lots (not grab-bags) but there sure is a LOT of searching through dreck to find them. In the spectacular deals, one was where they didn't know what they had and the photos were blurry so you couldn't tell WHAT the coins were. The listing called them "uncirculated and proof Lincolns" so I paid less than a dollar each expecting to get a range of late date low value proofs... but got several 1938-s RPMs (FS-501 and 502) instead. Two of the 502s came back from ANACS MS66RD and MS65RD. There were also several gorgeous 1960 SM date proofs, and a 1952-d/s FS-511. Amazing.

 

Something like that...

 

I don't know if my advice helps, but I sometimes find myself talking myself into purchasing a coin. I usually regret it. James Gook luck anyway.