"Unsearched" Bags & Rolls on ebay

Anyone purchased any of these so-called "unsearched" bags or rolls of various coins on ebay? If so, any recommendations or warnings on particular sellers?

Everyone has a story about finding them somewhere (usually an estate sale) and there being too many to search so they don't even try, and so on... Alot of them seem to have feedback quotes from buyers finding high value coins in a cheap bag or roll.

I'm not really looking to strike it rich here, but thought it could be a good way to fill out some sets, maybe even with a nice find or two...

--Paul

 

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what i've purchased as unsearched lots on ebay have turned out terribly. Once i ordered 3 rolls or wheat cents each for 5 dollars, all the wheats were 50's and I was very disapointed. But, maybe there are treasures waiting to be found and if you buy enough unshaearched rolls maybe you will find something.

i think buying them is a bad idea IMHO


monkeyman

 

pbryan,

Every once in awhile, you will come across a Seller or two on eBay that actually sells so called "Unsearched" rolls and you can find a few Semi-Key, Variety or Error coins in the rolls! However, the majority of the coins you see up for auction have been searched. Also, look at some of the paper rolls! When a Seller states that it is an OBW (Old Bank Wrapped) roll and they only started producing that specific coin rolling paper within the last 5 or 10 years, then stay away from them. Many large volume coin roll Dealers/Sellers have their own Coin Rolling Machines and paper and re-roll the coins after they have been searched. Also, I have personally seen many Coin Dealers open and search rolls, then put the coins back in and roll the ends with their fingers so well that no one could tell that they had been opened.


Frank

 

It's just hard to tell what is inside such unsearched lot. Often when I get unsearched lots, they are very common coins but in this super corroded Russian copper coin lot (no joke about that - it's horribly corroded), it still went for good money but I decided to push my luck and I've found perhaps a shocking rarity that is still under investigation.

 

alot of sellers are probably telling the truth, not all, but possibly alot. Those who are telling the turh do so much buying and selling, they dont have the time search through a ton of cents. So they just resell them. with that said, you gotta understand that these cents have been out of circulation for a long time. at some point, they HAVE been searched by someone, maybe not the dealer who is selling them now, but the person prior to him maybe. the other dealers, search them, pull out every cent prior to 1950, and sell them as unsearched.

Once ina while, a hoard will surface, and these will make the numismatic cricles in news. Those are the ones people like us should look for to buy

 

In my opinion, there are no bags of wheats that have not been searched.

That does not mean you will not find what you are looking for, IF you are looking for something different.

If you buy a bag and think you are going to find a 1922 plain or a 1909-S VDB I think you are only kidding yourself, but if you are looking for die cracks.....well you have a good chance of finding some.

 

"Unsearched" is a long time ebay scam and only meant to dupe buyers into paying more money for common coins.

A similar scam is the old "sealed" mint sets from the 50's and 60's.

 

As P.T. Barnum would say
"There's a sucker born every minute"

 

If you are just starting shall we say a collection of cents then it is a very good way to amass most of the common dates without paying out a fortune and believe me you can find some very nice coins amongst them. As for them been unreserched perhaps who knows LOL also dont forget the fun you can have from the hunt

 

That's along the lines I was thinking... I have a decent collection of circulated Lincoln cents started by my father in the 50's... I'd say it has most of the common dates, so this probably isn't the way to go to fill the holes in that one.

However, I'm interested in building sets of Indian head cents and buffalo nickels, of which I have very few at the moment (less than 20 combined). I was thinking some of the rolls could help fill in the common dates anyway... Looks like the prices are reasonable even if I get a whole roll of heavily circulated common dates... I would consider it a failure if I got a roll of all the same common date though...

For those of you who have warned away from these lots, how do/did you go about getting started in a older date set?

--Paul

 

I agree, there is no such thing as a roll or lot of unsearched cents. When I started collecting it was with the Lincoln cent, like most everyone else. Alot of my "starter set" was built out of an old pickle jar full of wheaties my Dad had stashed away for quite some time. There was nothing in there to write home about but it sure did give me the inspiration to keep collecting.

 

I agree with Daggerjon and would like to add that if you get an HONEST seller, perhaps they may not have searched them (so they are unsearched), but someone, somewhere has probably gone through them. That was an interesting comment daggerjon.

As for starting a collection - then yes, there's no question that this is a great way to start up. Not just the "unsearched" lots, but rolls of mixed dates, etc. Very economical way to start. Of course, you can never guarantee what variety you'll get.

Another great way to "start" up is to look for the incomplete sets for sale. They will usually have only the common dates and may be of lower quality in general, but will give you a big leg up. And usually you can get them for a very fair price if you consider what it would cost you to hunt them down individually.

 

I think they've all been searched at some point. After all why would anyone have ever kept them if they weren't looking in the first place?
Dealers buy them cheap, many honestly don;'t have the time to search them so they sell them cheap as "unsearched".

Many will also "salt" a lot. Add a few better coins.
I used to do this, only difference was that I was up front about it. The higher the bidding the better I'd make the selection as knew most were 40s and 50s because I HAD searched them.

As for the "I found an 09-S VDB!" feedback. I never believed it. What that person probably found was that the seller was a friend and feedback like that helps suck people in.

 

One suggestion -- when reading auctions that use the word "unsearched", just replace that word with "searched" and bid accordingly. Virtually all of these are scams, in my opinion...Mike

 

My idea of unsearched wheats is to go to the bank and buy $20-40 of rolls of cents and search those. I've found some decent stuff...even a few IHC's.

 

unsearched

I actually did sell " unsearched" cents. I went to an antique auction where they occasionally have a lot of coins with the antiques. I bought thousands of old cents in boxes and took them home to look thru them only to discover that I just hate to look thru pennys. I asked my wife if she wanted to look thru them she said no. So I seperated them, teens twentys and thirtys and sold a couple of rolls on Ebay then someone emailed me if I wanted to sell all that I had I said yes as going thru pennys for me is very tedious and I was happy to get rid of them. I have no idea what was in the boxes except lots of teens. The previous owner said she never looked at them either just tossed the in boxes out of her change for many years. Wish I could come across a deal like that with barber dimes, THAT would hold my interest.

 

I have to agree. It's pretty hard to believe a potential rarity would go unsearched.

 

Can't believe anyone...
If I bought a box of old pennies... I WOULD LOOK THROUGH THEM
It is hard to believe that "I don't have time" or "I can't look through them" because you obviously had the time to start a listing, very detailed and descriptive, and basically guessed, what is in the box. If you don't know what is in the box or rolls, how can you tell that there are only wheats? Some sellers will never learn... Because some buyers will never learn...

 

I bought a roll of "unsearched 1930's Wheats," just looking to fill holes. I did fill 15 holes in my Whitman, as well as found an 1880 IHC in the roll! But my experience is unusual.

Joe

 

A Coin Fable-Or-What to do with your extra coins.

My friend bought an incomplete wheat cent folder on ebay and about 6 lbs of "unsearched" wheatbacks. He was just trying to fill some holes in an old Whitman album that he had since he was a kid. Every time he filled a hole he got that same childhood thrill of coin collecting. So, he went through all the pennies, keeping the ones he needed and separating the others into decades.

What he got left was about 6.3 lbs of wheaties he didn't need. So he figured out how many of each decade would be necessary to make a pound of wheats. He got 64 for 1950-58; 60 for 1940-49; 16 for 1930-39; 6 for 1920-29; 3 for 1909-19. Plus he added 7 random S mint marked cents per pound. That equals about 156 wheat cents/pound. He divided them into 1 lb packages, threw in an extra '43 or an IHC or another S MM or all 3,and sold them on Craigslist for $10/pound.

Anyone looking to fill in an album, or starting out would be thrilled to get this assortment. Granted, there were no 1909 S VDBs or '14 Ds, but he didn't get any either.

The Moral of this story is...whatever you get out of it. Give back what you don't need. Don't be greedy. Help another YN fill an album. :hail:

Bruce