Gotta love those junk boxes!

mrpotatoheadd

I was finally getting around to holdering a bunch of junk box purchases and came across this one:



Current catalog: $120 in XF.
Paid: 25 cents.



edited to add... excuse the quick handheld photo- didn't want to take the time to set up for one image.

bronzemat

Wow thats a big score alright, congrats!

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Gotta love those junk boxes! >>



Indeed, indeed. You're preachin' to the choir. Maybe even to the preacher.

Amen and hallelujah, brethren.

mrpotatoheadd

Lightning strikes twice...



Current catalog: $150 in UNC.
Paid: 25 cents.

I just wish I could remember which junk box it came from so I could go back and check it out a little more thoroughly.

YQQ

curr4ent cataloge price in G4 $275



paid $ 5 in a dealers junk bin.......
they had NO idea... , got another scarce coin 6 months later....
Not sure how they stay in business..

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>Not sure how they stay in business.. >>

By paying less than they sell for.

LochNESS

There was a time, when I was in grade school, that the junk boxes were the only places I ever looked (because it was all I could afford).

As my budget grew I stopped shopping those boxes. You guys are making me feel like an idiot for dismissing them so easily.

Would you agree that, if a dealer's junk box seems to be well searched and sifted, it's probably not worth examining? and when you come across a dealer whose box is fresh and un-examined, it is then time to plant yourself in a chair for an hour and begin searching?

Or do you simply buy coins in the pounds and do your searching at home on Sunday afternoons?

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>and when you come across a dealer whose box is fresh and un-examined, it is then time to plant yourself in a chair for an hour and begin searching? >>

That's what I do.

<< <i>Or do you simply buy coins in the pounds and do your searching at home on Sunday afternoons? >>

I don't buy poundage anymore unless I can take a quick look at it to see what kinds of coins are there. Too easy to end up with nothing but a big box of 10 cent coins for your trouble.

edited to add... I find I have my best luck at B&Ms where the owner doesn't really care much about "foreign coins" unless they're silver or gold. Nobody can identify every scarce/rare coin in the catalog from memory and some shop owners are less interested than others in looking them up.

edited yet again... the above edit is not a criticism of B&M owners who don't look up all the values of the world coins they buy- just a recognition of the reality of the situation when it comes to buying large world coin lots. It wouldn't pay a shop owner to spend two or three hours checking values of a couple hundred items if all he can sell the the group for is five or ten bucks.

YQQ

I check the boxes for specific coins, dates and then for known varieties.
I also check the low and medium priced albums where coins usually are "graded" and "identified" and in 2x2's.
same dealer where I found the 1892 10 cent, I found this one a few weeks ago...
Paid $ 10.... happily . again they had absolutely no idea...
I now have 2 of them. the first ist not so detailed , but still great.
catalog value??????????? besides my 2, I know of 3 others....
Value??? whatever a variety collector will pay..., perhaps upwards of 500???
what do you guys think?

LochNESS

Holy $#*t.

That's just crazy ... What town did you say you lived in again?

OldEastside

I was 86'sixed from a coin shop in Santa Barbara back in 73' as a kid
for finding cool stuff in the ten cent box, when my cousin opened his
mouth and said Bob will give us 3 bucks for this.( and no it was'nt Ron
Gillio's shop)

Steve

YQQ

not the town live in, it is the city I go to every so often for a "dirty" weekend with my GF. She lives there...
there are 3 Coin shops.... NONE of them know their "a..." from their el;lbow..
will be there next weekend again and hopefully find another treasue
somehow I have to pay for the gas to drive 230 KM each way.....
what better way than with great finds?
wish me luck...

YQQ

picked up this one for $ 350 at one of the 3 local (expert???) coin stores
worth an easy 1K, no other known anI had it CERTIFIED, MS 62.

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>NONE of them know their "a..." from their el;lbow.. >>

They apparently know enough to be running a profitable business, wouldn't you say?

YQQ

yes, very true... BUT they do rip off people who come in to sell their " treasures"
when Silver was $ 38, they offered $ 11 for a dollars worth of silver (80%) coins...
that is what I call RIPP off, or taking advantage of the "not in the Know", usually older , past 70, and usually ladies...
there are a few more which i pickked up there..., but, lets leave it there...
A friend and i did a test... , i shudder, i do not want to say what waS OFFERD....
there is NO law against it.....................

That is how they make their money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOt with varieties...
one of the 3 owners happens to be the current Pres. of the local coin club..........
beats me...How he sleeps...

mrpotatoheadd

<< <i>yes, very true... BUT they do rip off people who come in to sell their " treasures" >>

If you know they're ripping people off, why are you doing business with them?

YQQ

cause it is NOT any of my business.
I get what I am after
and YES, I do know that they do.
witnessed several transactions when going through the junk boxes and albums..
as long as I get what I want, I stay out of it, although, I do not have to agree with it.
what i get is not what they know that they have when i buy it!!!

lordmarcovan

That Loonie error thingie shouldn't count. I mean, maybe it's a good cherrypick, or even a great cherrypick, and I salute you for it, but if you paid $350 for it you weren't junkbox diving.

YQQ

ok, admit that...and agree.
just wanted to show that there are dumb dealers out there who have no idea...

lordmarcovan

Some dealers DO have an idea, or at least an inkling, that their junkboxes and bulk bins contain some goodies, but they don't care, because they just don't have the time or inclination to mess with it.

Those are the kind I like to cherrypick.

And they're the first to say, "Well, good for you. I don't have the time to mess with that stuff."

OnlyGoldIsMoney

Nice finds everyone. I know little of foreign coins.

The best I can manage is buying current British pound, 50 pence and 20 pence coins for 10 cents each. I have found 15 pounds face for an outlay of $3 US in the last six months. They will come in handy when we visit the UK again.

lordmarcovan

Here's my best bulk bag cherrypick for the year, probably. Cost me what, maybe ten cents?



(My photos suck, so I used the scanner to zoom in on the date area.)




(2009 Krause prices)

1960NYGiants

Here's one of many nice finds in bulk Canadian lots for me this year, paid less than $4 cat is about $600:

SYRACUSIAN

<< <i>Some dealers DO have an idea, or at least an inkling, that their junkboxes and bulk bins contain some goodies, but they don't care, because they just don't have the time or inclination to mess with it.

Those are the kind I like to cherrypick.

And they're the first to say, "Well, good for you. I don't have the time to mess with that stuff." >>




What the preacher said.


Also, junk boxes contain a wide variety of material, so for instance, if I'm looking for Greek coins, it doesn't affect me at all if the box has been searched two and three times by collectors of say Canadian and British coins.

There was a guy in Athens' fleamarket who used to sell individual coins from hand made rolls of choice BU silver nineteenth century Greek minors and US silver dollars, also in BU. I have several times been mad at myself for not buying his entire rolls of Greek minors back then, now worth 20 times a piece, but i did get a lot of coins from him, including several Morgans and Peace dollars. The last time I went for US dollars, I was looking for truly choice Peace dollars and I ended up with five-six, at the time (2000) at $12 a piece, $50 for five. Among these last five, I thought I had bought 1922s and 1923s but it turned out that two of the ones that both him and me considered 1923, were in fact 1928 and 1928-s all of which were sent to Anacs and graded 62 and 63 or vice versa, can't remember, and the other three common dates also graded 63.

It's impossible to be a collector and not have stories like that.

HoledandCreative

In the mid 60s, I picked a 1941 Hong Kong cent up for either 15 or 25¢. I have a picture somewhere, before they were digital.