Is it a smart thing to buy in hoard or 'grab bags' of collections or partial estates? Or is it something bad? I bought part of an estate sale of quarters from pre-1965 and i found some in really awesome condition. Thanks
I would be suspicious of "grab bags" considering the people listing them know what's in the bags and decide what you get. Normally out of ebay you get what you pay for, so if you pay $3 in a grab bag, you will probably get a $2-3 coin. When it comes to buying lots of stuff sight unseen, it can be risky, you might get good stuff, or it might have been searched. So like I said, you get what you pay for on ebay.
Yeah, I'd stay far away. Read through their feedback. You'll usually find a lot of comments like: this bag sucked, it was all pennies or something similar (with the seller responding, it's a grab bag, etc).
I've taken a chance on a few grab bags and coin lots just to see what I would get. Of course, I was never really surprised...as CoinDude said, you typically get what you pay for and the value of my "unsearched lots" usually matched up pretty well with what I paid. I was pleasantly surprised with the variety a couple of times, and was only completely ripped off on one occasion, but I never got any spectacular deals. I think you go into those things knowing what you're gonna get...and please, for your own sake...don't hold your breath hoping for something worth more than what you paid.
I really don't hold my breath for that stuff either Im really a silver junkie, I have a huge tendancy to hoard silver dollars/halves/quarters. When i look for a grab bag, i also look for silver as the most prominent or the only mineral in those coins, because its less of a risk than buying wheats and trying to fish out a 'good one'. They're not that stupid either, they pick out the valuable ones and sell them on e-bay too.
Here's another question im firing at yall: Where do those buyers who say "HUNDREDS OF BARRELS OF UNSEARCHED COINS" actually get those barrels/coins? give me a link! Im sorry if i don't respond to yall, im goin down to Hilton Head for a family reunion. Thanks for the responses
In my opinion I think when they tell you that they have "hundreds of barrels" of coins they want you to think that they have alot of coins that they dont have time to search through themselves and that there must be quite a variety when in reality they've already searched them themselves. Telling you that there are "hundreds of barrels" is just a sales pitch and its more than likely you'll recieve common dates. Of course, thats just my opinion.:goofer:
Totally agree with that. Most of the time, you don't get more than what you paid for... but sometimes, it happens, that you find nice deals on multiple items (sometimes singles too) from someone who started the auction relatively low... Well you gotta search a while to really find good deals most of the times. Max
About the only time I find it worth it to get grab bags is when I'm trying to find a wide variety of older, but common, dates to fill up series that are nearly impossible to fill from circulation, such as older wheat cents, mercury dimes, etc. For that purpose grab bags are actually a better deal than buying the coins individually. Just don't expect any rare dates, if you find any at all it will be a very rare occurence. I expect grab bag sellers probably intentionally salt their grab bags with an ocassional rarity to generate positive feedback, excitement over the possiblity of finding a rare, make it more believable that it's unsearched, etc. It would be insane to sell a lot of truly unsearched coins if there's any chance of something valuable being inside them. If I found a barrel of wheat cents, I'd be looking at every one of them. Don't believe people who say they don't have time to search them... if there's the slightest chanve of something valuable being in that barrel, believe me, they'll find the time to look for it, lol... But if you're just trying to find common coins to fill a series folder or type set, they're not a bad deal for that. Just realize what you're really getting before you bid.
I"ve bought grab bags before, and they are mostly pretty pathetic. I bought one where that seller was selling groups of slabbed coins, but when I got them, they were just in Coin World Slabs and they all were marked ms-70 or pr-70. It was just an excuse to get rid of some really common coins!
hmmm...i had some luck with grab bags...i bought 10 $1 bids and i got 5+ kennedys that were ms65 and more...hmmm The dealer stopped tho...hmmm :desk:
