Gathering data for bulk lots

This is a question to all those who have done one:

1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?
2. Did you find any gold coins?
3. How many times have you bought these?

Eventually I will have a representation if bulk is good or not.

I've bought plenty of bulk lots from the local coin shop and it's always worth it, you can have a rummage through the bag and make sure you get what you're after.  The only on-line bulk lots I've bought have been bulk silver lots so you know you're going to get your money's worth.

To answer the questions

1. Yes, the coins have always been worth the price paid
2.  The only gold coins I've found were a couple of those miniature gold coin replicas
3. On-line I've only bought a few bulk lots, but from the coin shop I get one every 2 months or so.

Απόσπασμα: ZuluRaptorSpaceThis is a question to all those who have done one:

1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?
2. Did you find any gold coins?
3. How many times have you bought these?

1. Yes, I would have paid more for all the same coins individually then in this lot. I sold some extra coins so that I got back just over half the money I spent.
2. No, no gold coins were in the lot but I got two small silver coins
3. I have only bought it once from my regular dealer. I bought a 33lbs bag of bulk for $200. But many went into my collection and I bunch have been for swap. I would buy again but I wouldn't buy it from ebay in those "unsearched" lots

1. Yes
2. Yes, 1 gold and a few silver
3. Once (Will again)

1. Yes
2. No
3. A few times

1... The sum value of the coins in the lot is usually less than half of the lot's price.
2... Never gold, rarely silver.
3... I've bought about 75kg of lots since 2009.

I advertise that I buy lots, so that's about the only way I buy coins.

  I have never found a gold coin

 I have only found a few small silver coins unless the seller already knew there was silver and the price was kinda set knowing that.

  For me its been the best way to buy coins, I have bought about as much as Cerulean.

1. Yes, I bought one bag from local coin shop, I know he made me a deal half of the price that he would have charged normally. It was almost all common world coins, but not too many doubles, so worth for me, because I didn't have most of them.

2. Just one Netherlands 10 cent silver coin, he says he always picks silver out, but must have missed this one.
 
3. Once, but will again. I doubt I will buy any bulk lots from eBay ever

1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?
I don't have a lot of money to spend on this hobby, my last bulk I bought for about £5, (got lucky on ebay) but it had over $15AUD in current coins which more than made up for the price on face value, and it also had a couple of pre-1946 UK 1/2 crowns that I didn't have, which was nice.
2. Did you find any gold coins?
lol.    no.
3. How many times have you bought these?
Once every two or three months, if I'm lucky enough with a low bid.

Owwwww. This thread made me go to a coin shop and get 2kg of random world coins. The price was 20 eur. So 10 eur a kilogram. Sure, eBay may be cheaper, but add the postage, etc...
As I said, the guy picks out all silver so I don't expect to find anything like that, but it will be hours of fun for me.  
That makes it the second time buying bulk lot.

Don't forget to give the results for this one!

Απόσπασμα: ZuluRaptorSpace1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?
2. Did you find any gold coins?
3. How many times have you bought these?

1. Yes!!  https://en.numista.com/forum/topic12867.html#p207594  and following replies on there.
2. No. And yes as sometimes find gold-plated; or contemporary forgeries that nowadays have lost plating.
3. Quite a few times last year, though my regular seller does not trade much on eBay these days.

1. yes, I have only lost out on 1 bulk buy and not by much.
2. My 1st job lot which I bought for £50 contained an Indian head Gold cent (big bonus )
3. more than 20

1. Occasionally. I think of it as dollar cost averaging. Google it.
2. No but I've picked up hundreds of silver coins. See below.
3. If my wife is asking, about a dozen. Otherwise many many dozens. Many.

You have to consider the source. I very rarely buy bulk coins on eBay as there are 99% junk which has been picked over thoroughly. If you absolutely must buy online then at least do a little research first. If the seller uses terms such as "unsearched" "estate find" etc. then move along. Check out what items he has sold in the past and what he currently has listed, if you see page after page of coins then his "unsearched" lots are a fake as a politician's smile. Where do you think he gets those hundreds of coins he sells every week?

What you should be looking for is someone who is neither a collector or a dealer. They are not dumb enough to be selling $100 specimen coins in a bulk lot.

I buy most of mine from local dealers, the more ignorant the better. I don't care if they pick out all the big shiny silver coins from a collection they have bought. I'm happy to take the albums of 19th century copper and overlooked silver for a few cents per coin.

Manage your expectations. You are unlikely to find gold coins, they stand out like a peppercorn in a salt mine. Silver coins are a different matter, they are hard to distinguish from copper/nickel and especially nickel coins. I have lots of very nice Islamic silver simply because local dealers are too ignorant and lazy to learn to read the dates.

Okay, spent hours on this lot and that what was there:

431 coins - 33 are unidentified until now (mostly some Asian or Middle East coins that I don't know enough about to figure out what they are or what year), so that means that there was:
398 identified coins.

They divide into:
64 countries (26 countries with just one coin)
The highest amount of coins were from France, Spain, and Italy

From this lot I got my first coin from:
Papua New Guinea
Republic of Namibia
Dominican Republic
Swaziland
Pakistan
Ghana
Trinidad and Tobago

I collect by date and mintmark. From this lot my collection gained 255 coins that I didn't have before (109 types that I didn't have before)

As I predicted, no silver and no gold in it. My coindealer rarely lets any silver, let alone gold, to slip through; he's watchful eyes.

Απόσπασμα: KartWay... some Asian or Middle East coins that I don't know enough about to figure out what they are or what year

The way I look for Middle East coins is convert the numbers into 1 to 9 then use the Search. So this ...

 then go to the Search page
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php
 and in the 'Easy search' tab then in 'Special keyboard' click on Arabic ...

 so value is 2 and year is 1293 on the coin; the result is ...
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=2+1293&c=&cc=y&cn=y&cj=y&ce=y&cu=y&cat=y&mode=simplifie&p=1&e=&d=&km=&i=&v=&m=&a=&t=&dg=&w=&g=
 then from the 10 results it is this ...
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces5828.html
 which from my second image I see ٣١  on the obverse so on that page makes it 1905H as there is also a small H at the base of the reverse. I measured my coin as 18mm so is near enough the 18.5mm.  

P.S. How I look for Asian coins is in next reply >

 Notice on my image of the Arabic keyboard there is at the start of the second row a box with FDFC in it - that is because my computer for some reason does not show Chinese/Japanese numerals. So at work (where on the computer there does show them) I made in my lunchtime one day a page with dates and numerals on so I could work out what to put in the Search, again once converted into 1 to 9 numbers ...

 
 This is the coin at random I chose ...

 so using my page of numbers I see year 49 on one side and value 5 on the other ...
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=5+49&c=&cc=y&cn=y&cj=y&ce=y&cu=y&cat=y&mode=simplifie&p=2&e=&d=&km=&i=&v=&m=&a=&t=&dg=&w=&g=
and this time there are 30 results including this. I measured my coin as 22mm so is correct ...
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces929.html

 On some coins the year etc goes right-to-left and some (like above) the other way. I look for the Date symbol at the end first, so I know which way to start looking; then at the other end are two pais of symbols for the Emperor, which on my coin leaves three numbers 4 10 9 and means (4x10)+9 i.e. 49 year.

 In the Numisdoc are 6 entries in 'Dates & calendars' section ...
https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/index.php?cat=4
which are very helpful - there are Ethiopian / Hebrew / Islamic / Japanese / Persian / Thai pages. There is also the good site created by Numista member 'inscriptor' ...
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic1698.html

Zac great tutorial, we should stick that in numista doc.

  I wish there was a place in the coin age to note where the date and mint mark should be located, some coins are very obscure.

After you've done one or two bulk lots the arabic and asian coins become a lot easier to ID, it all comes with practice.

Απόσπασμα: ZuluRaptorSpaceThis is a question to all those who have done one:

1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?
2. Did you find any gold coins?
3. How many times have you bought these?

Eventually I will have a representation if bulk is good or not.

I say yes they are always worth it, for several reasons: Coins appreciate, Most times they are in good condition, and sometimes a gem pops in:

Amazon- $15.00 (yielded a 1909 J 5 pfennig in Ms60+ condition) ($190.00+)
Ebay- $9.00 (Yielded a few 1900-1915 1 pfennigs) ($30.00+)
Local coin shop- $10.00 (Got burned on this one and got 200 1 pesetas, I was furious) (Coin shop told me that is what I get for buying Junk pieces of Shi* like valueless world coins, very nasty nasty people)
different local coin shop-$45.00 (10 lbs) (Yielded a few silver pieces and some needed countries) ($70.00+)

I have only been burned once, at worst case, I nearly came out even, but that is okay with me, I never expected to get anything fantastic, Just know, if it says unsearched they are lying. Who doesn't check before they sell them, now sometimes accidental silver or gold slips in, but I have still to see this happen for me.

Good luck

~Barnabus

Απόσπασμα: Barnabus(Got burned on this one and got 200 1 pesetas, I was furious) (Coin shop told me that is what I get for buying Junk pieces of Shi* like valueless world coins, very nasty nasty people)

 you didn't look in it first?

Απόσπασμα: redsmithstudios

Απόσπασμα: Barnabus(Got burned on this one and got 200 1 pesetas, I was furious) (Coin shop told me that is what I get for buying Junk pieces of Shi* like valueless world coins, very nasty nasty people)

 you didn't look in it first?

They told me exactly this:

"If you looked inside you would not be surprised later, isn't that what grab bags are for? The excitement of identifying all the coins inside"

It sounded reasonable, and was only $10.00

I called them once I got home with my disgust and said exactly this:

" Hi, I just came in and bought one of your "world 200 coin grab bags" When I asked to look through them, you told me no. I assumed it would contain more than one country, I'd like my money back because this bag has nothing but 1 pesetas from spain"

They said:

"Well young man, I can tell you this: That is what you get for buying Junk pieces of Shi* world coins, didn't you know they are not worth anything at all, only USA currency is worth collecting. We will not give you your money back, you should be happy I taught you this lesson for $10.00" They then hung up on me.

(These people also were selling Silver Eagles at $60.00 each for AU ones when silver was $23.00 ish an oz)

Needless to say I left Bad reviews all over where I could.

Απόσπασμα: Barnabusworld coins, didn't you know they are not worth anything at all, only USA currency is worth collecting.

WHAT THE...

Απόσπασμα: ZuluRaptorSpace

Απόσπασμα: Barnabusworld coins, didn't you know they are not worth anything at all, only USA currency is worth collecting.

WHAT THE...

I was going to report them to the Better Business Bureau, but as some may know. They do not keep anything anonymous and they do not investigate any alleged mis conduct. since in the same day I asked to buy a Paul von Hindenburg reichsmark, priced at $25.00 in case, and when they run up, they said "$79.81 please" I said wait woah! why is that so high, they said oh sorry we do not reprice items as silver goes up, I asked when they were going to tell me this, they said "I do what I am told" AKA Bait and switch hoping people do not notice. When I got ahold of the BBB, they said we will forward your phone number, address, name, and a copy of this complaint to the alleged business so that they may contact you. I told them I wanted them investigated for bad business practices as well as illegal, and they said, oh sorry. We don't do that, we just mediate solutions, and most times the conflict does not get the buyers issue resolved due to lack of communication on the business's part. So I canceled my complaint because I don't want these shady people knowing where I live.

However do not let this discourage you from bulk lots if they are priced right. Think about it this way:

today I buy 100 coins from 1970 and before, when I am 50 they will be worth 5x what I paid at minimum hopefully. I treat my coins as an investment, even though I will never see a return because of my treasure idea, I never pass the chance to snag ANY world coins if priced right. one day they will be valuable no doubt, even ones that have billions made, one day will be worth $, I think to the future.

This company, Barnabus, will soon get what they deserve - closing down. I don't expect places like this to stay in business for long.

Even though common world coins are never going to be worth a fortune, I agree with what you say - to sell a 1pence for 5pence in that amount of years and 10 pence for 50 and so on, is totally realistic. Look at the common world coin prices now. They will never be worth a fortune as I said, but as many of us find saving money for old age hard; it is much easier and more interesting to save up world coins like that.
It is very easy to waste money and take some from your saving account when things are hard, but coins you usually don't bother selling if they are not worth "much". So it is sometimes something vs nothing in savings.
I know investment people say otherwise, but really there is no right or wrong way of saving up - none of us really knows for sure what's happening in world in 30 -50 years time

P.S. Zulu, I will get another one of these lots next weekend or so and I will report back once I've gone through again.

Απόσπασμα: Barnabus"Well young man, I can tell you this: That is what you get for buying Junk pieces of Shi* world coins, didn't you know they are not worth anything at all, only USA currency is worth collecting. We will not give you your money back, you should be happy I taught you this lesson for $10.00" They then hung up on me.

LOL, what a great way to get repeat business.  When I sell online I think about it as "you can only cheat someone once"

1. Partially yes, but lately rather no, because I mostly receive the same stuff again and again -
2. of course, no gold
3. Yes, I'll do it again, but not in the countries where I live and around, but somewhere more distant... if I ever get to Kiwiland, I'll ask you Neil, for your local guy  

In principle I do not sell, but I wonder if anyone would be interested to swap bulk coins for a normal swap, I have kilos of unsorted staff, and I tell you what's in them: mostly after WW2 Central Eastern European countries, mainly Hungary, but also Romanian, Czechoslovakian, Czech, Slovakian, Yogoslavian, Polish etc... and loads of UAE and Turkey.

Απόσπασμα: imrehI wonder if anyone would be interested to swap bulk coins for a normal swap, I have kilos of unsorted staff, and I tell you what's in them: mostly after WW2 Central Eastern European countries, mainly Hungary, but also Romanian, Czechoslovakian, Czech, Slovakian, Yogoslavian, Polish etc... and loads of UAE and Turkey.

 Not a bad plan but the shipping might kill you.

Yes, international post is an absolute killer.  And don't worry Imreh, if you come over here I'll hook you up  

Απόσπασμα: redsmithstudios

Απόσπασμα: imrehI wonder if anyone would be interested to swap bulk coins for a normal swap, I have kilos of unsorted staff, and I tell you what's in them: mostly after WW2 Central Eastern European countries, mainly Hungary, but also Romanian, Czechoslovakian, Czech, Slovakian, Yogoslavian, Polish etc... and loads of UAE and Turkey.

 Not a bad plan but the shipping might kill you.

It is not so easy to kill me, several people tried already...    

1. yes, definitely
2. no, no gold coins, but always there are silver coins
3. I am buying big bulk lots 100- 200 kg each time up to 5 times per year. sometimes I am buying small lots in local flea market or from coin dealer. most of my listed coins are from bulk lots.

Απόσπασμα: muralisI am buying big bulk lots 100- 200 kg each time up to 5 times per year.

Oh, My God!  
So you are having a turnover of one ton of coins per year! That is a great KPI for a hardware store!
Phhhh, Amber-rich Latvians!

Well, yes, turnover is pretty impressive, but I am resorting and then keeping just around 15 kg of each deal for my self. Everything else is going for people who are ordering from me and I am not making any profit of that. However,  it helped me gain my own collection for absolutely free of charge. All what I am doing is swapping coins to get coins I need and also I am selling coins to cover my postage costs and get money to spend it on local flea markets, ebay, etc.

Απόσπασμα: muralisI am selling coins to cover my postage costs and get money to spend it on local flea markets, ebay, etc.

And more bulk lots!

Today I received a nice lot. When i contacted the seller he only sent me low-res photos on which i was able to figure out some German 'Silberfünfer' and a couple of shillings.

When I unboxed the coins all that silverstuff came by surprise.



In that box on the photo are about 148 g of fine silver (mainly from South Africa except 2 coins from Mozambique); above that box are the German coins. The ones on the left side are my favorites (and therefore the coins that I am definitely going to keep in my collection). Besides some Rand and Shillings there is a Kruger Sixpence from 1893 and a Threepence from 1959 with the letters K and G missing.

For roughly 100 € i guess this is what one could call at least a little bargain.

Kind regards

Απόσπασμα: FirenzeWhen I unboxed the coins all that silverstuff came by surprise.

In that box on the photo are about 148 g of fine silver (mainly from South Africa except 2 coins from Mozambique); above that box are the German coins. The ones on the left side are my favorites (and therefore the coins that I am definitely going to keep in my collection). Besides some Rand and Shillings there is a Kruger Sixpence from 1893 and a Threepence from 1959 with the letters K and G missing.

 Thats nice!

Received only my third bulk lot ever today.
Lowest price yet paid at $86.00 for 10lbs post included.
A fist full of little silvers  
One gold coin    a 1945 2 peso, mex.
But very little copper
So yes, rather worth my time and money.
Now I'll have to swap most of these for coppers of greater interest to me.

Απόσπασμα: ardOne gold coin    a 1945 2 peso, mex.

!!!

Απόσπασμα: FirenzeToday I received a nice lot. When i contacted the seller he only sent me low-res photos on which i was able to figure out some German 'Silberfünfer' and a couple of shillings.

When I unboxed the coins all that silverstuff came by surprise.



In that box on the photo are about 148 g of fine silver (mainly from South Africa except 2 coins from Mozambique); above that box are the German coins. The ones on the left side are my favorites (and therefore the coins that I am definitely going to keep in my collection). Besides some Rand and Shillings there is a Kruger Sixpence from 1893 and a Threepence from 1959 with the letters K and G missing.

For roughly 100 € i guess this is what one could call at least a little bargain.

Kind regards

Hi Firenze, that's a nice little haul. Let me know if you want to swap any of your SA duplicates, maybe we can make a trade.

1. Yes. I have primarily bought on eBay, and resell the coins after I have sorted out the lot. I am very picky as to what I buy- look through the photos, and know as much as possible about the lot before buying. I recall a certain seller that listed five lots of coins from different areas. Four of the lots were junk, but one lot had four Canadian silver quarters, almost buried in junk. I planned to snipe it, but missed the auction end- but no-one else bid! The auction was relisted, and I did not miss the following snipe, where I was the lone bidder. :D.
    Phil's suggestion about looking at the other items in the sellers store is excellent advice. I try to get a lot for a certain price (as a general rule, $10 per pound, unless you see something good), keep the coins I want, and then sell the rest- most times I double my money. I make an exception to that goal if there is a lot of silver in the lot- if I break even on that lot, I'm happy (free silver ).
    A few times (maybe three) I have paid more than what I wanted to for a lot- I was mistaken on a coin I thought I saw, or was just disappointed in the lot, but even with those mistakes I have managed to pull out a profit on the lot. Another maybe three times, I have had an issue with the seller- holding out coins that were pictured in the photos, selling fake silver, etc.- each time contacting the seller has resolved the issue satisfactorily, for which I am thankful.
2. No gold, plenty of silver.
3. Maybe 30 lots, ranging from 10 coins to 15 lbs., over the past three years. I have taken a hiatus for several months to let my stock of stuff for sale run down, so no recent experience.

Απόσπασμα: neilithicAfter you've done one or two bulk lots the arabic and asian coins become a lot easier to ID, it all comes with practice.

I would agree. The patterns start to become very familiar. I've been helping some new coin friends decipher them.
As to bulk lots:
1 - Yes, I've gotten a few bulks online, but as others have said, my best bulks have been local shops as well as a site that uses credits, earned from listing your own auctions. Some surprising finds there, I must say, and mostly free shipping.
2 - No gold, but a decent amount of silver, especially the arabic & asian ones, as Neil pointed out.
3 - 5 or 6 times

1. Have the coins in it made up for the price?

I spend about £8 per KG, and usually buy 10kg at a time. Not entirely sure if the coins i am getting are worth the price, but i'm not particularly bothered, i enjoy sorting through them - can take me a few days to fully sort through 10kg, and i would say its worth it !

2. Did you find any gold coins?

Never. I buy them from a dealer, they openly admit to cherry picking, but i still get bits of silver here and there.

3. How many times have you bought these?

Bought about 200kg in the last year. Most of them are common euro coinage, and they just get put back into a big box. I use 2 different suppliers, one is really good for mixture, lots of diff countries, etc. and one of them is pretty much european only but usually has lots of channel island coins. Which i collect.

I would not personally buy any of the 'Unsearched lots" rubbish on Ebay.  and my limit is £8 per kilo.

I have bought lots few times from a local Norwegian coin shop. They have two types of lots a Norwegian lot and international lot, for about 24$ per kg. The first one I bought was a 50/50 mix. And I found there a Norwegian silver 2kr from 1900 in VF for a value of 125$ according to ngccoin. This was just awesome.
Then I bought 3 more lots and found some more silver, but unfortunately less valuable. Last time I bought a lot from them the silver content was very low, so probably someone has sorted those coins and have picked up all the valuable ones.  Then I have stopped buying them.

1. Three out of four times, yes.
2. No
3. Four times.