Realcent.org

A few years back, copper was over $4 per pound, and the brass penny had a metal value above three cents.

Does anybody know if brass pennies were selling for higher prices back then as well? I got into coin roll hunting in mid-2015, and all I've seen on eBay is about 30-50% above face value.

Additionally, were nickels ever selling above face value on eBay when their metal value was over eight cents?

I'm partly wondering in order to determine whether I should sell my coins soon or hold them for a higher payoff in the future (assuming copper prices rise).

I suppose the same sort of question is applicable to old Canadian nickels that are 99.9% nickel. I have over 1,000 of those as well.

(Apart from numismatic-collectable dates) US nickels have never sold above face because you can still buy boxes at face.

I don't know what the RC record is for cent re-selling. I seem to recall a few members that had regular local customers that were paying >2 cents per copper cent, but the more typical re-sale price for sorted copper cents was in the 1.5-1.8x range shipped.

Canadian pure nickel 5 cent pieces have a more consistently high value.

2007 and 2008 were the good years

I had a couple regular buyers that netted me exactly 2 cents each after shipping/fees

I've been over a ton a couple different times but life just happened and I needed the cash other places

same thing with nickels

cashed in the few boxes I had left

this seems to be the absolute worst time to sell your sorted copper

depending on how much you have and whether or not you need the cash, I'd say hold them for the foreseeable future

Contrarian view: Hold and sort more.

Many real cent members bought .999 Ni Nickels at 10 cents each from me back in the day. I also traded for silver spot to spot. I will not sell them for less than 10 cents as it think my sorting time is worth more than that. I still look for pure nickel from time to time and when I reach $100 I bag them. was getting better than 10 cents a nickel at http://www.coppercave.com

Thanks for the information! It's good to know that resell values were higher in the past and that higher prices in the future will translate into more profit.

"Hold and sort more."

This is what I shall do. I put $23.00 of brass pennies in each box, and every time I get up to $23, I feel like I've upgraded my paper cash to real money - a solid long term investment that is backed by the government.

Also, to my knowledge, there's no good substitute for copper in terms of electronics and wiring. I would think copper prices will improve in the future. I'd also be surprised if nickel prices remain this low given their historical fluctuations.

PennyPincher wrote:

Also, to my knowledge, there's no good substitute for copper in terms of electronics and wiring.

Actually, a substitute for copper in some circumstances is aluminum. An example is in the manufacturing of electrical conductors. Aluminum conductors are at times an acceptable substitute to copper.