I have realized over the years that dealer junk boxes aren't always junk. Last year, I discovered an 1871 Shield Nickel in a dealer box for $4. Since it was corroded, the dealer didn't notice the date. Since it was in a half off bin, I got the coin for $2. I sold it on eBay at an end price of $75 a few days later. If you have any dealer junk box stories, post them here.
I only have 2 reputable dealers (as in with good feedback on google reviews and such) in my area. The rest got major negative ratings on websites like google reviews. One of the two reputable dealers doesn't have a junk box. He doesn't have much of anything except peace dollars at $15 a pop. The other one sells cleaned or damaged IH's at $2 a piece and his junk box is way overpriced! He has a system where you pick the coin and he quotes it for you. I picked out the only barber quarter in the lot (no date) and he quoted me $7!!
I love pick boxes. For ancient coins they truly are a treasure trove. I once found at the CICF an Antinuous coin. For those who don't know he was the boy toy of emperor Hadrian and Hadrian made the whole Roman world grieve when he drowned in the Nile. It was an offstruck slightly and just VG-F, but its a very scarce coin. When I colelcted US coins, I wanted to pick out a set of Roosevelts from junk silver, and while I was picking out the dates noticed tons of BU 49 S's. That is all I knew of Roosevelts that the 49 S was a scarcer one. So I pick out the best set I could, (I think about 46 coins?), and then grabbed all of the leftover AU/BU 49 S coins, so I think I bought about 80 coins. The price was a little more than $25, but the dealer rounded it down to $25 for me. I remember the price since I was wondering at the time why I was wasting $25 on stupid Roosevelts lol.
The two dealers in my area are ripoffs. One of them is a little weird, and the other one is just plain mean. going to a new shop this week.
In 1977, I bought a 3 legged buffalo nickel out of a junk box for a quarter. I wasn't sure it was real, so I took it to another dealer and he verified it. Less than a year later, I consigned it to the dealer I purchased it from and when sold, I got $47.50. Probably the best return on my investment ever.
At Valley Coin in Shelton CT, I picked through a box of proof coins dated from 1956 to 1964. These were all coins from busted-up flat packs. There were hundreds of them to search through. I found quite a few one sided cameos and one really nice 1958 cameo lincoln cent. They were all marked like $1 or $2 each.
My only junk box find was a 1945S micro S Merc dime. It was even marked as such. I bought it for 50 cents. Another customer of the shop found out it was in there and I had bought it and offered me $25 for it, but I declined. Not a high dollar coin, but a nice find for me. Guy~
Nah...it's maybe AU. I wanted it for my set and figured I'd never find another one as nice for 50 cents. Not to say if he'd offered maybe $100 I wouldn't have sold Guy~
I need to start going to other dealers. The one I went to recently is too tiny to have anything, and it is all behind the counter. Only good if you know what you want!
I really want to search my local store's junk bins more thuroughly and see if i can find silver world coins and stuff like y'all are posting, but most of the time it looks like he's picked through them. I have looked through a junk bin at a local show and have picked up some nice BU wheaties and older nickels in decent shape for under $10 though.
i bought a 1908-s ihc for 75¢ many years ago. the dealer thought it was a regular 1908 as the reverse was covered in dirt. a little brushing off and the mm was revealed! not the best of conditions, but for the price, i won't complain.
good deal swish! did you ever sell it? if so how much did you get? as for me, the dealers around here don't have junk bins. just cases with the coins all set up in them. at the monthly show, i seen a few baskets filled with assorted proof and mint coins. i also seen junk boxes but they were behind the counter and didn't have time to search them. this month i will though!
