Churning Coins on Ebay #8 - Buying Large Lots

A popular way to obtain coins on EBay is multi-pound lots, 5 pounds is a common weight. I got my start with these lots.

There are definitely better and worser lots like this out there. I was lucky, when I started buying such lots the seller must have been liquidating an old coin shop’s stock because they sold hundreds of significant, bulk, coin lots over a few months and then stopped. Before other buyers “discovered” this seller I was getting fantastic 5 pound lots for $25 to $30, shipped. There was always some dirty old silver that must have slipped their notice, and a lot of older or “better” coins that I could easily resell for several dollars a pop. The resale of a dozen or so coins usually covered my cost for the entire five pounds

Scores like this are rare. In fact it has only happened to me with that one seller. Typically, I’d say the best you can hope for is a reasonable distribution of countries and periods. What to avoid, and what is probably the most common, is a 5 pound lot consisting predominantly of recent United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Philippines and Mexico. Sure the coins can be sold, but they will be on the very low end of price and probably take a lot longer to move.

I stopped buying lots like this a long time ago, but if you are just starting they can give your inventory some depth and, if nothing else, help educate you about coins.

I will cover some of the things to look for that will signal a possible junkie lot.

• Seeded silver. Some sellers throw some very low quality silver coins on top of a pile of junk to entice the unschooled. The cliché is the large Mexican 1 Peso coin minted from 1957-1967. It is only 10% silver, containing a whopping 20th of an ounce. If I see low quality silver thrown on top of a pile I just move on. It’s not worth my time to dig deeper.

• Seeded old coins. This is a corollary of seeded silver. Some sellers throw on some old coins that somehow wind up in every photo. It’s the same trick.

• Stock/blurry pictures. If the photo is not of the actual lot or so distorted I can’t tell what’s there, I move on. Personally, I think some sellers resort to blurry photos to deceive people into thinking they are an unsophisticated seller getting rid of an old collection loaded with unknown treasures. Stay away.

• Lots of auctions. I take selling many multi-pound lots over a long period of time as a warning sign, not that they are trying to deceive the buyer, but that their massive inventory likely means they are selling more recent, common coins, concentrated with countries that don’t resell well. I’ll usually try and take a closer look at the photos to see what’s there. Almost always the lots are not that useful for a reseller.

• Feedback cues. I will often look through feedback, positive feedback, to find cues left by other coin buyers. While positive, conscientious buyers sometimes leave feedback to let other buyers know about the quality of the lot. For example, “Mostly Mexico” or something similar.

My intent above is not to discredit sellers of low value multi-pound lots of coins, although I do think there are some that try to mislead buyers. It is what it is, so to speak, the literally tons of coins floating out there waiting to be sold in multi-pound lots are loaded with common, unwanted, coins. The purpose of this post is to help you avoid the junk and find the best possible lot you can. Many people buy these lots for their kids, for craft projects, or just for fun. The “junk” lots work for them.

Below are some examples from EBay to help put the principles above in practice. These lots will no longer be available for viewing after a few months, so for readers that are getting to read this late I apologize, you won’t be able to see the examples.

The auction here uses a stock photo. The description text states that the pictured coins are a “file photo”. Personally, I think that if the photo is not of the actual items you are selling it should be made more obvious.

15 lbs of foreign coins

Without a photo the buyer has no idea what’s there, though the listing does state Canada and Mexico have been removed. It’s probably fine for a collector or to amuse the kids, but if you are looking to resell I’d move on.

This auction looks like it has a good mix, but by my reckoning the coins are all common and, if sold singly, would be on the low, slow, end.

4 lbs of foreign coins

Here is an interesting lot I came across preparing this post. It’s 17.5 pounds of coins Goodwill has accumulated from donations. The picture is blurred and pretty much useless in determining what’s there. I have never purchased a lot like this from a charity. What I have noticed, though, is that these coin lots put out by charities always get bid really high. Maybe people are expecting to find gold, or maybe they just want to support the charity, who knows. This auction is still live as of this posting so we shall have to see.

17.5 lbs of foreign coins

This lot looks obviously seeded to me. This seller has been getting ~$10/lb, shipped, for his multi-pound lots. I would never pay that much, even if I thought it was a good lot. All of his lots have the same gimmick, 2 or 3 low purity Mexican pesos, maybe a couple of small mid-purity silver coins, some holed golden colored coin, some buffalos (probably all dateless) and a smattering of older foreign coins sprinkled all over the top. In all of his lots I see lots of Philippine 1 Piso coins lurking all over the place. They may be from an “old hoarder,” but a hoarder of salted EBay lots.

5 lbs of foreign coins

Good luck!