Advice for buying wheat pennies on Ebay?

I decided to start on my collection journey by simply buying bulk wheat
pennies on Ebay. Well, not so simple after all! I don't understand the
lingo- I am collecting just for me, not as an investment, but I figure wheat
pennies of all sorts might have *some* increased value over the generations?
I plan to pass these down to my kids one day, and plan to gradually keep
acquiring wheat pennies. As a beginner (well, had some wheat pennies as a
child but a relative took them), I don't know the lingo so I can't go
through a lot of wheat pennies and pick out the more valuable ones. At this
point I don't care so much--I'm just wanting to accumulate a variety of
dates especially teens through 30s, but honestly, any wheat pennies are ok
by me. I'll learn and look for more value later.

But it's not so simple as Ebay is loaded with all kinds of sellers of wheat
pennies, even people selling individual ones, etc. Can you guys give me just
some general guidelines to keep me reasonably, well, not ripped off? I am
not new to Ebay and I simple don't purchase from sellers with low feedback
or a lot of neutrals or negatives. I am very new to buying coins on Ebay. I
prefer to Buy-It-Now than to bid. And at this point I just want to fill my
collection of wheat pennies and maybe have some fun one day learning more
about them as I go through them looking for those of more value but again,
I'm not going to think it a big deal if I get rolls of later dates, as long
as the price I pay is fair for that. All wheat pennies are desirable to me-
I just need some advice/tips about making sure I am paying an ok price or
how to spot shady coin sellers.

I spent quite some time looking through Ebay's BINs on wheat pennies. Some
lots are quite pricey. A lot of sellers sell by the pound. One seller was
selling by the half pound and claiming that would be about 70 coins, and
they would be earlier dates. Is there a general guide to know what a fair
price is to pay?

So how about this, in general:

How much should I expect to pay for a roll (50) of wheat pennies that are
considered low value and later dates? A pound?

How much should I expect to pay for a quantity of wheat pennies advrtised to
be unsearched, but all early teens and 20s- if the auction is for 70 coins,
unsearched except sorted by date, what should 70 early date wheat pennies,
but no claims of particularly valuable coins, go for?

If I decide to try a seller who sells in larger bulk, such as more pounds or
those bank bags- what should I expect about price? Is there a way I can
determine by quantity of pennies, what the highest price I should probably
bother with would be? Is there any general rule of thumb at all, such as one
wheat cent is worth approximately 3 cents, or 5 cents, etc?

Tips appreciated. I am starting this with my kid, I am not picky right now,
I'll learn how to be pickier and go for value later, but I want to prevent
paying too much for junk. I am also going to look around on some web sites
or perhaps look for books, just looking for expertise from seasoned coin
collectors. Can I ask this question then---the wheat pennies with the LEAST
value, the most common wheat pennies-- what are they worth in comparison to
one cent? Are all wheat pennies worth more than one cent today? A friend
(who is not an expert at all) told me she thinks all wheat pennies are
actually worth more than one cent/regular current pennies.

I really appreciate any help...thanks...one gripe I have is about the cost
of shipping. I've seen auctions that seem reasnable except for the shipping-
some of the shipping costs seem way out of proportion to the amount of
coins. $10 to ship a few rolls? Even *I* know better!

BTW if it matters, I intend to pass these down through my family, no plans
to try to resell them in my lifetime. If this makes a difference in how I
should collect or what I should look for. I gather that some collectors
won't settle for common coins..

By the way, is there some implication of untrustworthiness in someone
advertising their wheat pennies as "unsearched"? Some sellers put up notes
that their auctions are not junk like lots of unsearched auctions, implying
(?) that other sellers might be taking the valuable coins out and unloading
only the common coins, and claiming not to have looked through them?

1 more question- I'm almost tired of looking through Ebay for a good price!

If a seller has a huge lot, 100 rolls or whatever of unsearched assorted
wheat pennies from an estate sale and is selling them for $2.05 a roll with
$10.95 shipping (!!!!), and says there are no additional shipping charges
for additional rolls..............I think the most I'd want to buy right now
would be 12 rolls (600 pennies). Total would be between $35-36. Is this a
good price for 12 rolls including shipping, it averages to $3/roll. ? But
that's $6.00 of wheaties for approx. $36, and let's say they're mostly
common, so this would be paying about 6 cents per penny. They would, if
common, be worth about 2-3 cents, so in that light it doesn't look like a
wonderful deal. But on Ebay I can't find much cheaper. Is this standard?

I promise, this was my last question on the matter. :-)

"blue" wrote in message
...
By the way, is there some implication of untrustworthiness in someone
advertising their wheat pennies as "unsearched"? Some sellers put up notes
that their auctions are not junk like lots of unsearched auctions,
implying (?) that other sellers might be taking the valuable coins out and
unloading only the common coins, and claiming not to have looked through
them?

Unless the rolls were put together before 1959, there is no possible way
that they could be "unsearched." That word is one of the biggest bogus
sales schemes there is. Even if they were, I was around in 1958, and by
then, there were precious few scarce coins in circulation that would have
gone into any "unsearched" lot of Lincoln cents.

Occasionally a seller will say that he has "salted" "certain" rolls with
S-mints or even semi-keys, and provide bogus testimony from bogus buyers
(Steve reported finding the 1912-S, while Patty was the lucky finder of the
1914-D). Another common ploy is to claim that the seller's bag of wheats is
unsearched, but that a "sample scoop" showed early S-mints, etc. He may
even state that he has added a 1909-S VDB to the bag to make things
interesting, and that some very lucky individual will get it. I happen to
know who that very lucky individual will NOT be, don't you?

James

"blue" wrote in message
...
1 more question- I'm almost tired of looking through Ebay for a good price!

If a seller has a huge lot, 100 rolls or whatever of unsearched assorted
wheat pennies from an estate sale and is selling them for $2.05 a roll
with $10.95 shipping (!!!!), and says there are no additional shipping
charges for additional rolls..............I think the most I'd want to buy
right now would be 12 rolls (600 pennies). Total would be between $35-36.
Is this a good price for 12 rolls including shipping, it averages to
$3/roll. ? But that's $6.00 of wheaties for approx. $36, and let's say
they're mostly common, so this would be paying about 6 cents per penny.
They would, if common, be worth about 2-3 cents, so in that light it
doesn't look like a wonderful deal. But on Ebay I can't find much cheaper.
Is this standard?

I promise, this was my last question on the matter. :-)

Any claim by sellers of bulk wheat cents as to what will or won't be found
in their lot or what grades you will find indicates that the cents have been
searched or gone through. It is inconceivable that sellers who have even a
passing familiarity with coins would not have checked what they put into
their bulk lots to make sure they didn't accidentally include a more
valuable date/mint, or even an Indian cent or two. There are several things
collectors might search for in a bulk lot. Minor varieties is one of them.
So it would be easy for a seller of "unsearched" cents to claim that he had
not searched them for these varieties (but had indeed searched through them
for better dates and higher grades). After all, it was the seller who put
this accumulation of cents together from whatever hoard he might have had,
so he should indeed know what's in there. I doubt anyone puts one of these
lots together by scooping cents out of a bin with no idea of what might be
in there. At one point, he probably accumulated a large amount of common
wheat cents, checking the date of each one that went into the pile. A claim
that you will find coins from the teens and twenties indicates that they are
either low grade examples or that he has "salted" the lot with a few early
coins that he couldn't otherwise sell individually.

If you're intent on going the bulk cent route, your best bet might be to
determine from others (maybe here) who has been a reliable source for this
type of thing in the past-- and who hasn't. You might as well start off
with one or two bulk lots, just to see what you get and where you want to go
from there. If you really get the wheat bug, before long you may be wanting
to sell a bulk lot or two of your own from the extras you accumulated. I
mean, how many VG-F 1944 cents does one really need?

Good luck.

Bruce

"blue" wrote in message
...
I decided to start on my collection journey by simply buying bulk wheat
pennies on Ebay.

Try your local dealer. My local dealers are currently selling bags of 5000
wheats for $150.00 which comes out to 3¢ a coin. You don't have to pay for
shipping, you have instant gratification and you help your local economy.

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 03:36:54 -0400, "blue"
wrote:

But it's not so simple as Ebay is loaded with all kinds of sellers of wheat
pennies, even people selling individual ones, etc. Can you guys give me just
some general guidelines to keep me reasonably, well, not ripped off? I am
not new to Ebay and I simple don't purchase from sellers with low feedback
or a lot of neutrals or negatives. I am very new to buying coins on Ebay. I
prefer to Buy-It-Now than to bid.

I'm not sure how you can get ripped off unless you buy a coin that is
over-graded, altered, or counterfeit. You are setting the price you
are willing to pay for the coins. In auction format you set your
maximum bid. In BIN format you determine if you are willing to pay
the stated price. You are setting the purchase price by your bid or
order.

The value of the coin is what you decide to pay. You may decide to
pay a price that wouldn't allow you to re-sell the coin at a profit,
but that's not being ripped off. You may decide to pay a price that
is higher than other people would pay for the same coin, but that's
not a rip-off.

You're starting on a hobby - from what you said - and not a business.
Pay what you think the coin is worth to you and don't look back. No
one's judging your buying acumen. You're going to take all of the fun
and satisfaction out of the hobby by worrying about being ripped off.

I spent quite some time looking through Ebay's BINs on wheat pennies. Some
lots are quite pricey. A lot of sellers sell by the pound. One seller was
selling by the half pound and claiming that would be about 70 coins, and
they would be earlier dates. Is there a general guide to know what a fair
price is to pay?

It's tough with bulk purchases, but searching for past sales (check
the "Completed Listings Only " box in the advanced search feature)
will tell you what the going price has been.

How much should I expect to pay for a quantity of wheat pennies advrtised to
be unsearched,

Personally, I don't think this means anything at all. The seller is
claiming that *he* didn't cherry pick, but he can't say that the coins
weren't cherry picked before he got them.

I really appreciate any help...thanks...one gripe I have is about the cost
of shipping. I've seen auctions that seem reasnable except for the shipping-
some of the shipping costs seem way out of proportion to the amount of
coins. $10 to ship a few rolls? Even *I* know better!

Most people would agree with you. I would ship "a few rolls" in a
Priority Mail flat rate box and charge $5.00 for S&H. ($4.05 postage
plus a contribution to my reserve to self-insure) I'm not going to
bother with parcel post and have to find a box and weigh each package
when I can get free PM boxes and know the postage amount in advance.

But stop looking at S&H as a figure. A listing with a minimum bid of
$5.00 and S&H of $10 should be viewed as a $15.00 listing. If you're
willing to pay $15, bid. Consider that the seller could have offered
free shipping and used $15 as the opening bid. You pay the same in
either case.



--


Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL

On Mar 25, 3:36?am, "blue" wrote, in part:
I decided to start on my collection journey by simply buying bulk wheat
pennies on Ebay. snip

I spent quite some time looking through Ebay's BINs on wheat pennies. Some
lots are quite pricey. A lot of sellers sell by the pound. One seller was
selling by the half pound and claiming that would be about 70 coins, and
they would be earlier dates. Is there a general guide to know what a fair
price is to pay?

remainder snipped

This is the part I was looking for in your post. A pound of wheat
cents is worth $1.46 FACE. Few folks would pay more than 2? each for
sight unseen, searched or unsearched, graded G4 or better wheaties.
Meaning you're being generous offering $3.00 for a pound of cents.
Shipping three rolls of cents hits the Priority rate ($4 something).
So you end up paying a drop dead minimum of $7.00 for coins you'd
probably find in roll searches.

Personally, I wouldn't buy wheat cents in bulk from anyone on the net,
just because of the shipping. If you want to buy in bulk, go to a
coin show and browse around. I'm sure there are any number of dealers
who would be happy to let you pull 150 cents from their wheaties bowl
for $3.

Jerry

"Bruce Remick" wrote

Any claim by sellers of bulk wheat cents as to what will or won't be found
in their lot or what grades you will find indicates that the cents have
been searched or gone through. It is inconceivable that sellers who have
even a passing familiarity with coins would not have checked what they put
into their bulk lots to make sure they didn't accidentally include a more
valuable date/mint, or even an Indian cent or two.

This makes so much sense, as I had suspected. Most sellers claim to have
received such a huge lot they "don't have time" to go through them, with a
few even claiming they "can no longer see" such small writing as the dates
on coins. Feh!

There are several things collectors might search for in a bulk lot. Minor
varieties is one of them. So it would be easy for a seller of "unsearched"
cents to claim that he had not searched them for these varieties (but had
indeed searched through them for better dates and higher grades). After
all, it was the seller who put this accumulation of cents together from
whatever hoard he might have had, so he should indeed know what's in there.
I doubt anyone puts one of these lots together by scooping cents out of a
bin with no idea of what might be in there.

One such sellers claims to have looked through 2 cloth bank bags from an
estate sale of 4 *million* wheat pennies, saw a few decent ones, then bought
the *entire* multimillion lot, and IS scooping them out of a barrel. I don't
know what to think...the seller seems not to be a coin collector but to have
some knowledge of them (other past auctions are not coin related from what I
saw, and feedback is good, I don't recall any negatives or neutrals. This
seller is selling them by the pound without looking at them- supposedly. I
find that whether by role or pound, the cost seems high on ALL the many
auctions I've seen! And all make the disclaimer that they make non
guarantees of finding anything more than common coins. They also ask if you
do find something of note, to put it in their feedback, and indeed, you do
see a few things. I am not so concerned with finding very valuable or rare
or error coins at all--I'd merely like to get hundreds of wheats for fair
value. I'd love to be able to buy, say, 1000 common wheat pennies , and
supposing they are "worth" 2-3 cents each, pay about that- and at least not
pay 10 times what they will ever be worth!


If you're intent on going the bulk cent route, your best bet might be to
determine from others (maybe here) who has been a reliable source for this
type of thing in the past-- and who hasn't. You might as well start off
with one or two bulk lots, just to see what you get and where you want to
go from there. If you really get the wheat bug, before long you may be
wanting to sell a bulk lot or two of your own from the extras you
accumulated. I mean, how many VG-F 1944 cents does one really need?

Good luck.


Thanks for the advice. I'm intent on going the bulk route because it does
not do to buy a single penny at a time and pay all that shipping. You might
say I want to hoard as many wheat pennies as I can find, and am not seeking
rare or valued. I am sure that after getting plain wheats gets old, I will
become interested in value and that'll also be at a time when I have more
money to spend on looking for valued coins. Right now I just want wheats, in
ok condition-- meaning, I'll take anything as long as the face isn't so worn
you can't read it, but I am fully aware of the condition of most wheat
pennies so not concerned about grade. I'm not that picky except about price.
I want to pay a far price, not be ripped. Let's say this- what if I DON'T
ever want to sell them? Then you'd say, well, they are worth then what I am
*willing* to pay for them. I'm not willing to pay exorbitantly for common
pennies, but I am also not trying to cheat someone out of getting a fair
price for their wheats, I know they do have some value, even if just 2-4
cents. And I appreciate someone might want a reaosnable profit.

Get this----someone is selling those 1943 (?) war wheat pennies that are
steel. I believe the price is 99 cents for 3 pennies, which is supposed to
include one from each mint. The 2 mint letters and the one that left off the
letter. Shipping is $1.25. This is THREE pennies. I inquired as to shipping
charges if I bought more than one lot of 3 pennies. . I KNOW it can't
possibly cost more to add just 3 more coins to the mailer. So I asked simply
how many lots I could buy before shipping increased. I asked specifically if
I could buy 5 lots for that shipping price. That's 15 coins instead of 3. I
was told that ANY more than 1 lot and shipping costs increase. !! That's
absurd. I know they would eventually cost more to ship, but come on....does
it cost more to ship 9 pennies than 3? And then there's the fellow charging
$2.05 per roll with a shipping charge of $10.95 for one roll!!! Shipping is
supposedly free for any further roles though, so that could be reasonable if
I wanted to buy 12 rolls.

"Tony Cooper" wrote
But stop looking at S&H as a figure. A listing with a minimum bid of
$5.00 and S&H of $10 should be viewed as a $15.00 listing. If you're
willing to pay $15, bid. Consider that the seller could have offered
free shipping and used $15 as the opening bid. You pay the same in
either case.


Right you are. I have already been doing this but it has been making the
prices of the pennies come out still more than I'd like to pay- well really,
it's an issue of my budget. If I had so much extra money to toss about, I
wouldn't mind as much. Wheat pennies should be pretty affordable especially
when I don't want valuable ones, just anything. I'll look for more value
later when I can spend more.

I guess I should clarify my thought on being ripped off. I feel an auction
is a ripoff to *me*, when they are vastly overcharging for plain wheat
pennies. I don't believe in a seller knowing so much about the value of
wheat pennies, claiming not to search a half or full pound lot of them. So
it doesn't wash with me to see people selling them for , say, a roll of 50
pennies (unsearched, no claims of grades and valuable coins) selling for $15
plus shipping. That's a ripoff to me. I don't worry so much about being sold
fake common wheat pennies. But it feels like a ripoff to me to think of
spending $50 just to acquire 200 pennies, you know? I kind of assume I'll be
buying common pennies, and I use 4 cents as an estimated value, so I think
of 200 plain wheaties as being "worth" about $8 (when they probably aren't
even) but I am willing to consider that, and say that I would be willing to
pay no more than 6 cents per penny. Most of the auctions I am seeing are
pretty badly priced to be starting a plain colleciton off of--now, if
someone already has a collection and is into the thrill of searching and can
trust some sellers as honest and really may find a valued coin in there, I
can see the price being ok, it just doesn't seem ok to me to start by. I
keep searching trying to find a better deal more in line with my pricing
thoughts (again, on plain, common pennies). I might have to stop looking at
the BIN's and consider bidding? I am going to look for a local
dealer...actually, one of those Ebay sellers IS local to me, I may inquire
as to whether they have a brick and mortar store. Maybe I'd feel better if I
could negotiate with them, without shipping and handling--the one local to
me is the one who has millions. So maybe they would be willing to sort some
and sell them to me *knowing* what they're parting with? I may check.