Should I be pulling out pre-81 cents?

This auction was for 1550 pennies (or there about) and went for 20 dollars. That is just not much of a return. Plus, shipping that many he didn't charge enough and will eat into his profit as well. I personally don't save all the coppers, only the well struck ones or ones in really good shape.

 

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I recently dumped mine. I bought several nice York PA obsolete notes in the last Schingoethe sale and used my stash to help pay for them. I used the coin counting machine at a local bank for 4 days in a row and ended with a total of $822. I now know the tellers at that bank alot better. At least every cent I saved went to my collection.

 

Only if you search them for die varieties or

Only if you search them for die varieties, the coins are BU or need a door-stop or boat anchor.
They will never be rare, they are not rare now, look at the mintage's and think about those numbers if you can - the world abounds with them.
I pay 1 cent each for all circulated memorial reverse one cent coins pre 1982 or not and am able to have banks calling me each week wanting me to come and get them for face value 5000 at a time.
You may fool with them if you want but your great grand children will still be getting them in change if we have change at all by then.

 

I think that the pre-82 cents will be worth 100 to 200 percent more someday soon. Just look at the silver dimes, quarters, and halfs.

 

Currently is it illegal to melt cents and nickels. And it is illegal to export the coins to be melted. If you're saving bronze cents hoping to profit from their melt price you'll have to wait for the laws to change to cash in.

 

That's true, I read somewhere it's a 250,000$ fine if you are caught

 

It is my opinion that common coins will follow the instrinsic value of the metal. It has happened already with the older silver coins. It will someday happen with the copper cents. I would never consider throwing my babies into a hot cauldren.

 

Go to coinflation.com -- updated every trading day.

The pre-'82 penny is now worth 1.54 cents in metal value.

 

How about old pieces of jewelery, such as rings, hammered from US silver Coinage? Illegal to own?/Make?

I'ld think that the expense to smelt would negate any profit margin anyway from non-noble metals anyway.

Ok-I'm off to build a solar foundry for when the laws change. Then the overwhelming number of melted cents could restore value to my Lincoln's.

 

Legal or illegal doesn't matter in an absolute sense. In other words, if the value of copper gets to the equivalent of 5 cents for each penny, those pre-1982 pennies will be worth more than 1 cent EVEN IF it is illegal to melt. Maybe not 5 cents, but 3 or 4 cents because someone will buy them.

Over the past five years, I probably have $70 face in pre 1982 pennies - that's rifling through pocket change and asking for the occasional roll at the bank or Walmart. I've got $70 that I dont' miss and can always cash in. They're all rolled and it takes zero space.

Pretty soon I won't need to put sand bags in the back of my truck in the winter.....

 

http://realcent.forumco.com/topic~TOPIC_ID~9164.asp

 

I've been saving pennies for nearly 50 years. I have a g'zillion of them. The copper ones are now worth $0.016 in metal value. I've made 60% interest on them. Unfortunately, I've probably averaged about 20 years for the average copper penny, which is only about a 3% investment. I've done better in the stock market even after 2008. On the other side, I have found some rare pennies, some mint pennies, and other pennies that are worth more than the $0.016. It probably adds up to a 6% ROI. Furthermore, I never have to worry about Uncle Sam nailing me for the ROI, which gains me another 30%.

 

Should have put them up for sale instead. Would have gotten $900 in a heartbeat. "fair value" is probably at $1200.

 

I think you're right. I see wheat penny roles go for 5 times their face value at auctions all the time. I will usually bid to 2.5 times face value but 5 times is out of this world.

 

I did think about putting them on ebay but when I looked at the time I saw some copper lots but they weren't getting any bids. I needed the cash to get my lots so I just did the easy thing. I'm sure there was a better way but I wanted those notes in my hands as quickly as possible.

 

If you have time and space to waste. There's 10's of billions of them out there. I only bother looking for key early wheat pennies. There isn't much worth while after the 1940s.
I got an 82 in change the other day and mentioned to the wife, "Hey cool, look, an 82 large date." She just rolled her eyes and I threw it in with the rest of my change, to be cashed in for coin show money at a later date.

Paying "almost" double for pennies? Yeah, the old copper pennies are worth about 0.015 cents in copper. If you can get that for them and then take out ebay fees and paypal fees and try not to get burned on shipping. No thanks.

 

The problem with ebay is that the market for these items is very small. Typically small number of sellers and small number of buyers. Recently, a "strong hand" posted huge amounts of copper pennies for sale to get exposure for the market, and it drove down the prices of the pennies. Supply >>> demand. Typically before he listed his items, the pennies were getting 1.5x - 2x face.

If you were looking to sell these things, you'd probably be best off selling to other "hoarders", who would be willing to pay you more than face.

 

It looks like he made a 5.49 profit until you realize at minimum he lost 2.95 in listing, final value fees and paypal fees. And I doubt he 5.00 covered shipping 10 lbs unless he went the cheapest route.

So essentially, for his time creating that listing, collecting the pennies, packaging it up, driving to the post office and sending them off, he made 2.54. I guess some people can get excited over that.

 

The listing posted in the OP probably wasn't the best example because his listing ended at the same time as the "strong hand's" listings. I tried finding older listings before he posted his listings, but ebay doesn't save older listings. For the completed acutions I found, the price of the items that sold is still decent, especially given that the price of copper is still low, and the sheer amount of listings that went on ebay within the past month.

Of these listings, I did try to pick from the older of the listings that ebay saved.


$1000 face sold for $1400 + $138 shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-000-ct-Lot-95-Copper-Pennies-1000-Face-Cents_W0QQitemZ250438203012QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_US_Individual?hash=item3a4f47b684&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A14%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

$15 face sold for $30 + $5 shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Pounds-Copper-Bullion-Pennies-1959-1982_W0QQitemZ270398676761QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_Bullion?hash=item3ef5045f19&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A14%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

$75 face sold for $120 + $10 shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/50-lb-bag-of-95-copper-pennies-for-bullion-hoard_W0QQitemZ300318507235QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_Bullion?hash=item45ec60c0e3&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A14%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

$75 face sold for $120 free shipping

http://cgi.ebay.com/Please-L-K-50-lbs-95-Copper-Pennies-1959-1981_W0QQitemZ230346260353QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCoins_Bullion?hash=item35a1b4ff81&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A14%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

 

You mean this?

http://realcent.forumco.com/topic~TOPIC_ID~9081.asp