How much could I expect to pay for ....

SamThompson

for a large lot of standard circulated Wheats? say $1,000 of face value. I am talking a non-ripoff price, whats the most i should pay? or better yet whats the most i should offer a dealer?

ziggy29

Assuming these are typical, mostly late date wheaties, I wouldn't offer much more than three cents each, if that. If I knew more about the lot (that there were a fair number of uncirculated pieces or many before 1940, et cetera) I might adjust upward. But I'd assume 1,000 VF-XF 1956-Ds unless I knew otherwise.

MadMarty

Most dealers buy for 2 cents each and sell for 3-4 cents each.

coinguy89

I see em in buckets for 10 cents each.

ziggy29

Speaking of which, this kind of ties in to the "hoarding Ikes" thread in that time has shown how horrible an "investment" hoarding Wheaties was.

Let's pretend it's 1960. Figuring these "obsolete" coins have got to be worth something some day, you put them away whenever you receive them. Hey -- even in 1960, for many folks, how hard was it to throw a few cents a day aside? So you save maybe 2,000 wheaties in a year -- just twenty bucks a year and about six cents a day. You do that for, say, five years when a market spike in the mid-1960s has more people doing it and wheaties are almost gone from circulation. So by the time 1965 arrives, you've given up and stop trying.

Now that's maybe $20 a year for five years. Not much. But you have $100 worth of Wheaties (face value), 10,000 coins. Today those 10,000 coins are worth maybe $300. Maybe.

What if you invested $20 a year at a relatively modest 7% a year (you could probably do better)? If my quick spreadsheet math is correct, you'd have $1,722. The actual stock market return is probably closer to 10%, even with the lousy returns in the last four years. Using 10% as the bogey, this becomes over $5,500.

Maybe hoarding obsolete coins made in the mega-billions isn't such a hot financial move after all. Heck, to this day, unless it's in better condition than other late date Wheaties in my collection, I spend them as soon as I receive them. It's not worth the space it takes to hoard them, and there's always a chance that someone else finding one of them could spark their interest in the hobby.

SamThompson

Yea thats about what I thought. I would pay $2,000-$2500 right now for a lot of 100,000. even if they were 40's and 50's mostly. People on this end love wheats.

granddad

A local dealers pays me 4cents apiece for unsorted lots. If I sort, 40-50s at 3.2c, 30s at 5c, 20s at 7c, and teens at 10c. Hope that helps.

Louis

coppercoins

I'm a buyer all day long at 2.5c each. I don't much mess with anything higher than that unless they truly are unsearched, which is about as rare as hen's teeth.

By the way, I really am a buyer.