The folks digging through boxes of inexpensive circulated coins at shows....

MGLICKER

....seem to have a passion and urgency that is missing from the plastic and sticker crowd.

Agree or disagree?

Nap

I don't think they have more urgency. They seem to have all day. They are more likely to hog a table and less likely to make a sale.

Maybe they wear their passion on their sleeve.

Barndog

smoe people spend thousands of dollars as a result of such searches. One man's trash...

MGLICKER

<< <i>I don't think they have more urgency. They seem to have all day. They are more likely to hog a table and less likely to make a sale.

Maybe they wear their passion on their sleeve. >>



You are probably correct about the urgency......unless they just drank a large soda.

Should probably have just stuck to passion.

ctf_error_coins

I recently paid $175 for a very cool silver error. The guy I bought it from said he found it in a junk box for a couple of bucks, and told me after I purchased it.

We were both extremely happy with the transaction. Huge win/win situation.

TomB

Disagree.

GotTheBug

.

commoncents05

I will say it is certainly interesting walking by someone like Coleman Foster's or Kirk Kelly's tables at shows.

-Paul

ms70

Pickers of cherries!

Walkerguy21D

<< <i> I will say it is certainly interesting walking by someone like Coleman Foster's or Kirk Kelly's tables at shows. >>


LOL - Not quite what I envisioned when I read the OP's thread title....bit I guess still fitting!

AMRC

I tend to take out the junk trays at the smaller shows, and am always very impressed with the folks that spend long periods of time going through it. Not sure I have that same level of focus on anything I do coin related.

WTCG

For dealers the profit margin on the junk box coins is often much higher than for slabbed coins. The junk box diggers may or may not spend more than the slab collectors but they will park themselves at a table for a much longer time.

TwoSides2aCoin

Anybody digging through inexpensive circulated coins at coin shows is a coin geek. Who else would do that ? Only geeks. Wear that title proudly.

joeykoins

<< <i>Anybody digging through inexpensive circulated coins at coin shows is a coin geek. Who else would do that ? Only geeks. Wear that title proudly. >>

winky

I say buy a nice coin and enjoy it all the way home. Be proud not a stick in the mud.

Veep

I'd say that many of the junk box diggers have a wonderment and perhaps naivete that I used to have. Now that I think of it, I kind of miss that feeling, but that toothpaste is long out of the tube.

Jinx86

Most of my purchases have been made from box digging and full set buying. Thats where my best finds always come from. Hard to cherry pick a coin in plastic with all eyes on it.

Walkerfan

I don't think that their passion or urgency is more that the plastic crowd. I do think that they find some good deals for the money from time to time, though. But good deals can be found in plastic sometimes, as well.

19Lyds

Maybe

but then

Maybe they are cherrypicking?

Or Maybe just blindly filling holes?

coinkat

Boxes can contain more than inexpensive circulated coins...

CoinRaritiesOnline

<< <i>....seem to have a passion and urgency that is missing from the plastic and sticker crowd.

Agree or disagree? >>



Strongly disagree.

mustangmanbob

I have found some absolute treasures digging.

I dig through foreign junk boxes looking for 1800's coins that I use for the coin collecting merit badge for Boy Scouts. Nothing expensive, just old. Also, if I can find some LARGE coins or WEIRD shaped or minted with a hole in it. I also will gladly buy 1 euro or 1 pound type coins for 25 cents each as I travel to Europe a lot. Even the 1 mark coins if they are cheap enough, as a friend has a church mission in Germany, and he takes back all of the German coins I find, and trades them in for Euros.

One of my favorite boxes, at a large coin show, was actually a wooden treasure chest. 25 cents / 6 for $1, IIRC. I started through it, and found a Barber Quarter. Then another one, then some Barber halves, then a couple seated liberty dimes and quarters. The were also some Suzy B's in the box. I pulled out maybe 25 coins, and the guy said $4. No problem.

I told a dealer about it, and he went back, and found a seated liberty half.

Another box, when silver was north of $40, were 50 cents each, IIRC. In the box was a stack of the 1970's French 10 Francs (about .7 ounces of silver), and a couple 50 franc silvers. The dealer said he did not care about foreign coins anymore.

I then looked at his "trash" foreign binder, and found maybe 15 more silver dollar sized coins, but those were $2 each.

Timbuk3

It's fun for a lot of people. I've been guilty of
doing the same. Don't spend a lot of time
doing it, just curious to see what they might
have !!!

pocketpiececommems

I guess if the dealers didn't want their tables clogged up they wouldn't have a junk box. Junk boxes are just plane fun to look through. It's like fishing in the river "you don't know what you are going to catch."

ebaybuyer

I don't think they have more urgency. They seem to have all day. They are more likely to hog a table and less likely to make a sale. <<<<< I agree with this guy. ive walked by more than one dealers case where there was a "treasure seeker" using a 10" diameter 70x lens he could see into the future with, mulling over a tub of 25c each coins and literally covering the dealers cases to view every last piece. I suppose it never occurred to him that the dealer cant make any money if no one can see his inventory

19Lyds

Havi9ng just completed going through a 1,000 coin bag of IKEs, I need to ask, what's the difference between searching junk bins and rolls or bags of coins?

leothelyon

<< <i>Havi9ng just completed going through a 1,000 coin bag of IKEs, I need to ask, what's the difference between searching junk bins and rolls or bags of coins? >>



Your thinking is.....a bags of coins is what ends up in a search bin. lol

Barberian

Junk boxes are always fun to dig through. I almost completed a Canadian large cent collection that way, getting some nice high grade specimens too. You never know what you're going to find...like this coin/love token for $1.



Are junk box diggers more passionate? I doubt it. I just think they are getting in touch with some of the fun of collecting that they had as kids.

WildIdea

I've been to small regional coin shows where after an hour, that was all that was left to do....

ricko

Those individuals are the true, old style collectors....still having fun 'finding' coins.....and enjoying the hobby. Cheers, RickO

justcollecting

I don't see much difference between the rich man and his auctions and the poor man and his junk boxes. When I was a young man I enjoyed fishing the local trout streams. They were small streams that had to be stocked annually and every year I couldn't wait until the first day of trout fishing. Usually you had to get up early to get a spot and the fishing was elbow to elbow, but I enjoyed it none the less. One year I had some friends offer to take me trout fishing in the mountains of Pa. so I went. The streams were large, lots of small tributaries that held small brook trout. You actually had plenty of room to yourself and there may have not been another person in sight. The fishing was fantastic.Then I went back home. Fishing those local waters was never quite the same after that. I see alot of similarities with coin collecting.

Longacre

Although Longacre does not like to dirty his hands with junk boxes, I find that it is not only the searching, but also being able to physically handle the coins. Holding a piece of plastic is not the same.

cladking

<< <i>Although Longacre does not like to dirty his hands with junk boxes, I find that it is not only the searching, but also being able to physically handle the coins. Holding a piece of plastic is not the same. >>



With many dealers the rarest pices are the onverlooked ones in the junk boxes and
with the cheap coins. Dealers put almost anything in these boxes. They'll cut up Russian
mint sets and put rare '72 issues in them, and they'll toss oddball coins, tokens, and medals
of all sorts into them. If you can tell the difference between a common Chuckee-Cheese token
and a scarce Mr Presidents coin game token then you can just clean up in these boxes. Of course
it's best if you also have a radar to home in on the scarce items.

MGLICKER

<< <i>Although Longacre does not like to dirty his hands with junk boxes, I find that it is not only the searching, but also being able to physically handle the coins. Holding a piece of plastic is not the same. >>