Ebay Bulk coin experience?

i have been looking on ebay for "unsearched" lots that weigh a pound. I know that most of the coins have been searched, but i see on ebay that some sellers charge $17 a pound while others charge a little less; i have no problem paying the money but i would like to get one to try seeing if i get anything good.

does anyone have any experience with these lots?

Mark

 

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I avoid them, especially the ones that say "Unsearched roll, with vdb penny and merc dime at each end". This goes for the bulk lots, I'm pretty sure if its coming from a person who makes a living off eBay or dealer, it's been searched. Maybe I'd be interested if a seller is selling a big jar or bottle full of pennies and it's the only coins they've ever sold (with plenty of other stuff sold with feedback), perhaps if they inherited it, etc. Those are more convincing and likely more willing, but I haven't come across one yet from the one's I did look at.

 

well i think that i cant go wrong with 2 pounds for $16 plus $5 shipping. It is just something fun to do with a family friends son because he has started to get an interest; so its just to have some fun.

 

Well, in that case sure, especially to get kids involved maybe. I just avoid them altogether, most are trying to make money by just dumping a bunch of useless metal that happened to be coins at one point onto people.

 

Mark14

You might try your local coin store. There is a dealer here in NH who is selling 100 coin lots (which I believe would be over a pound) for $12.95. There is a pretty good mix of coins many different size, shapes and countries. Maybe one of your locals has something similar.

 

What type of pound? A troy pound weighs 12 troy ozs, and an avoirdupois pound (the normal one) is 16 avoirdupois ozs

 

Lots on eBay will typically have filtered through junk, while some coins may be nice, they will have no value and are all common.

 

Yeah but a Troy ounce is 31.103 g while a Avoirdupois ounce is 28.350 g. To do the math, a Troy pound is 373.236 g and an Avoirdupois pound is 453.600 g. Although precious metals are normally sold by the Troy scale, I have noticed lots of ads on e-bay that define an ounce as 28.35 g.

 

i ended up buying 2 avoirdupois pounds ( 32 oz.) for $16 plus $5 shipping. i dont mind that it is filtered through junk; its something that we can spend a day doing and i can teach him a few things about world coinage.

Mark

 

I tried it came up with NOTHING. Matter of fact there were only like 3 or 4 dates (can't remember) and each date was from the same mint. It was a really bad experience and turned me off to the "unsearched" or bulk game on ebay". Go to a local small town bank that's what I do weekly.

 

I tend to avoid 'unsearched' lots. But, most dealers have a 'junk bin' or 'reject box' with all the foreign stuff that they don't want to mess with. I've found some gems in there (typically for 5:$1).

 

On the same topic as someone who sells bulk coin, what would someone want to have in a 1Lb bag that would make it worth buying. Put one silver coin, one from the 1800s?
I know Ebay has created its own problem as far as the bulk bag. I cannot sell a "good" bag of coin and expect to get a fair price when there are 100 others selling bags with all common.

 

Save yourself the shipping costs and go to a bank and just buy rolls. Your chance of getting something good is better from bank rolls than from Ebay bulk listings. Plus you are only paying face value. I have found errors, wheats, even Indian heads from bank rolls.

 

i have only bought 1 kilo of supposedly unsearched coins through ebay, i had around 70 U.S lincoln memorial cents amongst them which went straight in the reject bin.

 

Now a days I only buy coins from decades. Otherwise it's too much junk, common dates, etc. I look for rolls with all teens, 20's or thirties. Even then you never know most of those even are common dates/mintmarks. However you can get something good. If fact the last "bulk lot" I bought was supposed to be teen wheaties. At first I was a little P.O.ed it was short two cents from the teens the person had put two 20's wheaties in there. Until I looked at the 20's one was a 29-P UNC with just a small speck of green corrosion and a 24-S that in G-4 is valued at about 80-90 cents. So you never know what you will get or what to expect.

 

Personally I think buying a bag of mixed coins are only good for kids or if you're starting out on world coins. Once you get the feel of what kind of coins you want to get you can usually pick up silver coins for that price. And sometimes even 19th century silver too.

 

You may get nothing, it's just fun to do, I've gradually moved out of doing that, but I think I might get a mixed lot, just for fun. I haven't done it in a while.

 

I think a pound of cents is something like 75 of them. price over $3.50 is getting expensive, I avoid these lots.

 

Lorenzian
I have never bought any of these mixed bags from Ebay but I have bought them from local dealers where I can see into the bag before I buy them. One of the things I look for are bags with coins from many different countries and denominations. I like collecting different world coins. They might not be worth much but I like to collect coins from as many different countries I can. Send me a PM if you have some you want to sell. If the prices is reasonable Maybe we can work something out.

 

Let us know how it turns out.