Anyone buy an unsearched pound of coins from Ebay?

Merc

I thought I'd have some fun and buy 3 pounds of "unsearched" wheats from a dealer on Ebay. Of course he hyped it up with the usual bought 3 tons from an old man, unsearched, selling by the pound, and included quotes from happy buyers. The shipping wasn't too bad so I gave it a try. All of the cents were from 1940 to 1958 in vf to ef. There were no steel cents and only 3 S mints. These things were very well searched. HAs anyone had any luck buying from one of these "unsearched" deals?

Shocker

This is my biggest pet peeve on eBay. IMHO, anyone claiming that they just bought a hoard of 5 million wheats from an old timer, etc... is blowing smoke up your arse. I saw one the other night that said "trunk full of wheats" and showed the picture of the trunk full of wheats. Ever wonder how heavy a trunk full of wheats would be? How could someone possibly move that without breaking it to pieces. Also, if I came across an estate of any quantity, you can bet that I would check the date on each one. I don't believe there is such a thing as truly unsearched wheats (or anything else). Someone, somwhere has checked them over.
I did once buy some rolls of wheats from eBay (not advertised as unsearched) so I could spend some quality time with my daughter and start a Whitman book of wheats with her. There were a couple of teens and so on, but nothing of any real value.
I'd be curious to learn if anyone has purchased unsearched anything and found something nice in the lot.

MacCoin

<< <i>"unsearched" >>

by who?

FatMan

It can't be done.

FatMan

If someone ever makes a find in one of these lots, its not because the lot was not searched, its because the coin was missed.

coppercoins

Well, whether or not these things have been "searched" depends on your definition of the term. I have bought rolls of wheats that were "unsearched" before, and while I didn't find anything that, by date and mint mark alone, even remotely resembled a key date, I have found a number of decent - even a few high dollar - die varieties out of the groups. Not all hope is lost.

I even had one instance where a 1955D DDO#1 and a 1956D RPM#8 came out of the same roll. For the variety uninitiated, that the 1955D with a strongly doubled eye and the 1956D with the complete D underneath the normal D. The two coins together would bring around $20 at auction in VF-EF condition...and the rolls usually come for $2-$3

So...it more or less matters what you are looking for as to whether these are really "unsearched". A good 75% or more haven't been searched for the true gems.

rd5425

Never buy "unsearched" wheats from a dealer on ebay. Try to find other collectors who are selling their wheats. I bought about 500 wheats from a collector who was getting rid of his coins and hadn't checked his wheats since the early 70's and I found some nice coins. I even found a uncirculated 1918-s brown worth about 60 bucks. Good deals are hard to come by but they are out there.

Russ

I bought a pound of wheaties once just because I wanted to drift back to my childhood for a little while. Turned out there was a clipped planchet steelie in the batch that I sold for what I paid for the pound. Even filled a couple of holes in the blue whitman I've had for over 30 years.

Russ, NCNE

ksteelheader

I have found a few in the ones that I bought off of e-bay. The biggest complaint that you see in the feedback about them is about the majority of the coins being from the 50's and 40's. Well, here is something about. The majority of wheats were minted in the 40's and 50's. As for me, I have much better luck with the ones I buy from my dealer....Ken

Striker

I've bought those. As already stated that pound of wheaties was well searched.

Veep

At a garage sale, I bought a little metal box containing about 600 wheat cents for $10. It was more for entertainment value than anything else. I figured that I'd have more fun looking through them than plunking down the money for a movie and popcorn.

The box didn't turn-up any treasures, but there were a half dozen '09 VDB's and several interestingly toned, uncirculated 1940's coins.