Advice on Wheat Cent lot

My son and I are headed out to look at the lot indicated below this afternoon and were wondering if anyone has any input on price or what too look for. The seller said he would be willing to separate the lot. Thanks.

Here's the text from the ad:

FOR SALE:

67 rolls of wheat pennies from an old wheat penny hoard.

This amazing, old, unsearched collection appears to have been put together long ago, by the appearance of the wrappers and tubes.

This lot includes 16+ rolls of steel pennies that appear to have been oiled and stored in plastic tubes.

2 of the tubes are sealed with old, unbroken tape and labeled 1909-1939.

1 tube is sealed and dated 1909-1940.

This is a great collection to add to yours.

The price is $440.

 

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I wouldn't spend $440 on a lot that is probably 99% late 40s and 50s wheats.

 

Seller already came down to 400 with little effort and as I said, is willing to break up the lot.

 

Looks like it is 13 cents each. I would be weary that all the key dates are gone. If you like variety's it might be worth the hunt.
I would check some of the rolls and make sure that they are all wheats, and the later dates are in xf-au or better.
It's a gamble,

 

If it will bring you and your son together in a mutual learning experience, going through checking and learning how to grade each ( a lot of time together), it is priceless. For an experienced person, no. I started my son on rolls of old nickels from the bank, and had him arrange first 5, then ten, then a whole roll in sequence of grade about 8 yrs ago. That is how he started to learn, now he can pick winners out of the club and coin shows better than my eyes. Our last 2 submissions to PCGS were 95% on.
Jim

 

Sounds like $200 max.

 

i agree, i wouldn't pay over $200 for that lot, that being said, if i was purchasing it to search thru with my son, i'd pay a bit more...

 

I counted 57 rolls (not including the partial). 57 x 50 = ~2850 cents. If the seller were to walk into a coin shop today, they would probably receive about 3 cents a piece. So, about 85.50- round up to $90 to be nice. I think $400 might be high unless there are multiple obvious higher value coins.

Besides that, the two close up shots of the plastic tubes (1909) look iffy and scream improper storage. +I don't trust old looking coin rolls- there is no guarantee those rolls weren't put together yesterday.

 

My guess is that the seller's willingness to break up the lot wasn't intended to mean a free for all for potential buyers to go on a picking spree, or to suggest a willingness to sell any finds at the would-be per-coin lot price. Still, stranger things have happened and I wish you luck.

 

Indeed, and you're a lucky man, Jim. Excellent post and one this hobby would be the better for if only more folks took the greater point to heart.

 

everybody here knows those rolls have been searched thru already.

 

Most likely, yes, but the question is searched for what? While I certainly wouldn't expect any key/semi-key examples within, there's still lots of coins out there that haven't been searched for varieties, even if the chances of finding any worthwhile are slim at best.

 

I'm at $200-$250

 

Based on looks, I'd go to $150 max. I'm sure of late dates and don't see many shiny edges.

 

I hope the OP will come back and tell us what happened.

 

Same here, there are Holy grails out there.
If I bought them I'd be looking for the 09S IHC among many others 17 DDO the 36'. Many, many valuable RPM's.
I might take the gamble if I cold open and check the 43's, they look BU.

 

So I ended up going with my son to look at the rolls and we ended up with most but not all of them. The seller wanted too much for the three rolls which were marked as 1909-39 and I wasnt particularly interested in all the steel rolls so here's what we ended up with:
47 mixed rolls
2 steel rolls
Total cost:$155
The seller threw in a nice 1909-2007 album for my boy too.
At just over $3 a roll I am pleased.
So far, after about 20 rolls, we have found 2 1909 plain, about 50 teens about 30 twenties and lots of 30s.
No key dates and the condition is F so we aren't going to be able to retire just yet. We haven't given any attention to RPM or DD varieties.
So there you have it...
Thanks for all the input.

 

SUPER

 

Nice! I'm jealous! That would be fun.

 

Here's the final tally...today after school we worked through the rest of the rolls and found some great surprises.

All told, there were:
Approx 50 1909-1919
Approx 50 1920-1929
Approx 150 1930-1930
A zillion 1940-59

16 indian heads
17 Roosevelt silver dimes (3unc)
1 1928 Mercury dime
1 1843 seated liberty
1 silver Canadian dime
2 clipped planchet wheats
1 Wheat with a weird 8 in 1938
LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN AND EXCITEMENT WITH THE BOY!
The seller also gave Henry a sheet of proof cents from 1970-1988