I want a good honest deal and of course ebay does not seem to have it. $16 for 1lb of wheat pennies yea right. Any idea of where I can get 3 rolls of wheat pennies at a low rate? How much would you pay for truly unsearched wheat pennies?
I think if you want them cheap, you'll have to try to find them locally. "Unsearched" rolls are going to cost you anywhere from 5 cents to 8 cents per penny (minimum) plus shipping. So $16 is not too far off. Budgood has unsearched cents in the classifieds here which a few members were very happy with. I just sold a batch of searched wheats at 5 cents each to a dealer who tosses them into his bulk box and in turn sells them for 5 for a dollar.
Hmm, but .05 * 150 = $7.5 (Which BTW is 2 Wheats over a pound or 3 total rolls) So including shipping MAX should be around $13 and that's if the shipping methood is UPS Some people told me that I should not pay more than $0.03 ea so really: 105 * 0.03 = $4.5 + $4.99 shipping = $10.49
I'm in Canada, so the pricing my vary a bit. Hang tough until some of the other's put in their two cents (pun) worth.
I seriously doubt that you will be able to buy truly unsearched wheats from a dealer for 3 cents each.
It has been my experience that "unsearched" wheats are nearly impossable to find. Ive boughta few lots off ebay only to find a couple 30's and mostly 40's and 50's Having said that I did find some locally on Craigslist last year. I bought a can of 300 for 25 bucks. They were truly unsearched, I found a 1909, 1909vdb and lots of pre 30's along with the usual 40's and 50's. They can be found but it isn't easy, I just got lucky on that one.
As mentioned Budgood bags are a good purchase. My grand son and I enjoy going though his bags and have found some nice coins and even a few civil war tokens. Also as mention 5 to 7 cents per is the norm.
I've been buying them at local auctions for 3-4 cents each. Of course, some people at auctions go crazy. I stop bidding at 5 cents each. I've been getting a lot of teen date wheats but the condition is usually VG8 or less.
Thats more around the price range I am looking/wanting to pay. Local auctions it is. I can't believe this but I have actually found a website where they charge $20 a ROLL of wheat pennies!!
You get what you pay for most times. There are many sellers on ebay that claim these are unsearched. Read the reviews on completed auctions and check their feed back scores. If feed back reads mostly "thanks" or "nice", chances are the offerings are duds. Keep in mind that some sellers throw their "ace-in-the-hole" out there as bait. They'll put ONE expensive cent in the mix knowing it will sell more rolls and this will repay him/her in the long run. How long has it been since you won Powerball? Same goes for finding 1909 S VDB, 1914 D, 1922 no D etc. However the hunt is the fun part. Good luck in your quest!
Good point, coinhead. A lot of ebay auctions will say "unsearched by me" which will get them off the hook. They know they have been searched probably many, many times in the past. As for the days of buying them for three cents each is pretty much gone. If you find them for that price, searched or unsearched, it's a good deal. The best auctions list teens and twenties wheat cents unsearched. How does one separate these without searching? I'm having a hard time with that one.
What would you expect to find in "truly unsearched" wheat cents considering that something like 95% of all the wheat cents were struck in the 1940's and 50's.
That is an excellent observation, kind of like the fact that there were far more washington quarters minted dated 1965-1967 than the entire silver mintage of 1932 to 1964, and that less than 5% of all washington quarters were minted 1932-1964?
God I can only imagine how low that percentage is today.. Hmm, some people tell me they only find 1 silver quarter every $1000 in face value so just in circulation (and not in production figures) we can estimate that 0.00025% of quarters (or 1 in 4000) are silver, and that's if your lucky!. So those odds are probably half of that. Somewhere around 0.0000125% are silver There was a thread where on CT member made note that we are the living generation that will honestly be able to say "I remember when I use to find copper cent's in CIRCULATION" due to hoarders like me that window of time is rapidly diminishing! IN OTHER WORDS, PULL COPPER COINS OUT AND HOARD THEM, BEFORE I DO.
As for the "unsearched" teens and twenties, it is perhaps like the process I use for mems. I look at dates and any problems. Next I divide them into brass/bronze and zinc. I don't look for errors or rare dies. So, those teens and twenties were pulled by date only and not searched for VDB, missing D, RPMs, DDOs, etc. I bought a pound several years ago and in it was a 1915 S that would grade MS63RB! It more than made up for the $15 or so that I spent.
I sold a couple of rolls of pre 65 Washington Quarters on eBay when the price of Silver shot up. But the other day, I was surfing coin and bullion dealers to learn that Washington Quarters were either "unavailable" or "out of stock". That made me think I made a mistake. I won't well any more of them. And hoarding copper just comes naturally to me. I keep all of the cents I pull from the boxes. lol How can a person not, knowing they are worth 2-3 times their face in melt alone ? gary
And this is why I have no problem buying on Ebay and have had great success. I am a variety collector and I find that, like you explained, very few sellers search for varieties. I doubt anyone is ever going to come away with a 1909-S VDB, but if you're looking for a tilted RPM with split serifs, buy a roll of 1959-D Cents on Ebay and most of the time you'll find them.
