Wasn't sure whether to post this in this section or coin chat. Anyway a customer of mine came by my shop yesterday. He is a Walmart manager. I started off by asking him about Coinstar rejects which evolved into other coin conversation. He told me he has a big jug, maybe gallon size full of nothing but wheat pennies he inherited from his grandparents. I asked if he wanted to sale them? He said yea probably but not sure what they are worth. So without being able to go through and search for key dates what should I be willing to give/offer for them?
Wow.... Oddly, I helped a friend liquidate his late fathers collection and he too had a glass jug full of wheats... I married up my friend with my dealer buddy and that dealer bought that jug based on weight. He then subsequently divvied the jar up into ziplock bags and sold those too by weight. He never looked at a single cent in that jug..... For the life of me I cannot remember what that dealer paid but I am thinking it ended up being about .03 cents each based on weight alone.
Seems like it would be worth taking the time to see for more valuable dates. I was thinking, 1. Search valuable dates. 2. Build a complete set of wheats. 3. Put the rest away and hopefully copper will climb in value. 4. Keep key dates and build set then sale the rest and buy silver coins.
It is for coin junkies like us... Not so much from a dealers standpoint though. He can't afford to dedicate hours of his time to hunt down a few coins worth a few dollars in a jugful of untold thousands. Not a practical use of his time.
I agree with Randy, buy them by weight if you want to hunt for varieties, errors. 3 to 5 cents a coin would be a good start.
My local coin shop is SELLING them at 3 cents each, and is paying 2 cents each. If I were you I would offer 2.5 cents each rounded up to the nearest cent at the end. Also if you don't have a coin counter you can just weigh them, each one should weigh 3.11 grams.
Randy, we don't want you risking your life on a matter such as this...it's probably good that you don't remember!
Agree with our fellow enthusiasts. 2-3 cents each, pay by the weight. It would be fun to sift through but it’ll take time. LCS folks will move them in bulk. And more than likely, you’ll build incomplete sets. What I would do with the hoard: Sort by date and mm Variety and error hunt Keep a roll by date/mm (highest grades) Build a set of the best Sell off the bulk Have fun most of all!!
