Thoughts on Ebay Coin Rolls

[ShinyPackRat]

I was curious if anybody here has much experience with buying "unsearched" coin rolls from Ebay or Amazon. Is this ever worth doing? It stands to reason that just like anywhere else in life there would be some legitimate deals as well as some scummy folks... but would like to know the general consensus.

 

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[FormerTeller]

caveat emptor

 

[LooseChange]

I was curious if anybody here has much experience with buying "unsearched" coin rolls from Ebay or Amazon. Is this ever worth doing? It stands to reason that just like anywhere else in life there would be some legitimate deals as well as some scummy folks... but would like to know the general consensus.

I would put the odds at 100:1 that rolls showing an ender are assembled.

 

[TwistedT]

I believe there are a "few" threads in here about that already.

do a search to find them.

in my opinion - waste of time and money!!!

 

[Slingshot]

P. T. Barnum said....

 

[ShinyPackRat]

Seems like the general thought here is that they're almost always a scam or overpriced.

My two cents: I have gotten a few rolls of pennies in pasts months out of curiosity (and fully accepting the likelyhood of a total loss). Some rolls are complete wastes (nothing but circulated terrible 50's), while others I have pulled beautiful uncirculated early wheat dates(1910-30) or indian heads out of. I guess it is just luck of the draw, similar to getting a box from the banks. Haven't found any key dates in ebay rolls, although to be fair I wouldn't expect to find them in bank rolls very often either. I'd say most of my best pennies (visually) are from ebay/amazon rolls. Now, whether they were worth the price I paid... couldn't even guess. I have no experience in grading/valuing coins of any denomination.

That said though, I wouldn't be prepared to guess at what my ratio of "success::failure" might be. I'd imagine it probably doesn't look great.

FormerTeller: I had actually never heard 'caveat emptor" before. Made for some interesting reading when I looked it up, thank you.

 

[smokeythecat]

Overpriced, yes. Scam, not really, you do get the coins.

 

[scruggs]

Try it and see, good luck.

 

[port ewen ace]

you can pull the trigger---- there is always the "feedback" slam or a call to EBAY if the glove does not fit

 

[Icewing]

While most are presearched rolls with mostly coins from the 40's and 50's, there are a few legitimate sellers, but you really have to spend a lot of time reading their reviews. Positive feedback means nothing, you have to read what people report having found.

 

[BuffaloHunter]

Most of the time they are searched. I did buy 20 rolls a few years back and got a 1909 s VDB.. Worn, but sold it for a nice little sum. I doubt there are any more unsearched shotgun rolls left.

 

[ShinyPackRat]

Well, it's certainly true that coin collectors and/or hoarders have been around for a pretty long time. Even if the Ebay/Amazon seller actually didn't search the coins, it stands to reason that there is a good chance *somebody* probably did at some point or another. Who knows who might have looked at those coins before the seller got a hold of them.