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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 7353820, member: 68&quot;]A lot of the 1973 mint sets that are seen are picked over.&nbsp; But it&#039;s not nearly as large a percentage that have been checked as some might believe.&nbsp; This is because most mint sets are destroyed enmass by wholesalers and their suppliers. While many sets are destroyed one at a time to get a nice coin or a variety and this practice leaves behind substandard sets, far more sets are destroyed thousands at a time having no effect on what&#039;s left behind. </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s been true for many years that sets that dealers keep in stock are picked over but the simple fact is there are very few people who have picked over these sets.&nbsp; Until the mid-&#039;90&#039;s the incidence of &#039;70-S sm dt cents remained level at 10%. The incidence of nice &#039;73 Ikes was still about 3%.&nbsp; There was almost no cherry picking before 1980.&nbsp; Even today a great percentage of dealers &quot;don&#039;t have time&quot; to search the mint sets that come in. Now days most will at least check for varieties but they hardly search each individual set for Gems.&nbsp; There is some knowledge required to search the sets and few dealers have this specific knowledge.&nbsp; Even searched sets it&#039;s not too unusual to find important coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>If you look at sets where heirs take them in like the corner coin shop you might be surprised what you can find.&nbsp; Back in the day I&#039;d sit in a shop for hours and go through sets.&nbsp; The dealers liked it because I&#039;d fix their sets and make sure each was complete and in good packaging.&nbsp; I&#039;d buy a few nice sets at premium prices leaving the packaging.&nbsp; It is nearly as rare now seeing someone look through sets as it was then.&nbsp; Of course one of the reasons is that in the old days the sets were expensive.&nbsp; A 1973 mint set was over $100 in today&#039;s money and one couldn&#039;t afford to just buy them.&nbsp; Now days many sets can be had for face value.&nbsp; Even the &#039;73 set which normally isn&#039;t tarnished is less than $10 and the two nice Ikes can be wholesaled for $8. </p><p><br /></p><p>Be forewarned though before you sink any money in trying to make a profit that large percentages of mint set coins can&#039;t be wholesaled because they are ugly.&nbsp; Also large percentage of some dates are tarnished.&nbsp; The coins in the 1975 set wholesale at nearly $12 and the sets can be found for $4 each.&nbsp; Do the math before you try to find 40,000 sets to buy.&nbsp; And herein is another problem.&nbsp; In the old days it was easy to find large quantities of sets but most of them have been destroyed now. You can&#039;t find 40,000 sets.&nbsp; You&#039;ll have a little work finding 40 sets.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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