Quote:
Originally Posted by National dealer  Another good price guide is auction prices realized. Most online auction firms and regular auction firms list prices realized from their sales. This allows you to regularly look up what specific coins are bringing in the market place. |
Very good advice to look at auction prices realized. Unlike the price guides, the basis of which can be unclear and/or outdated at times, auction prices realized are clear and direct evidence of what a given coin in a given grade brought on a specific date.
In looking at the Greysheet or one of the online or printed price guides, it can be difficult or impossible to tell when the last time the price was updated. Are you looking at a price from this month, or has the price not been updated for several years?? Also, are the prices in these guides based on dealer bids for the coins or are they retail prices? Each guide will be different in that respect and the prices can be very different too.
That said, before I purchase any coin worth over a certain amount, I research the recent auction prices so that I know the general market value of the coin before I buy. I usually will check the Heritage auction archives and the Teletrade auction history, both of which are free after you sign up on their respective websites.
Looking at auction prices realized works great for relatively common coins that trade frequently, but for very rare coins that do not trade frequently or for coins that are very high grades with none graded higher (top pops), you can pretty much throw a price guide and prior auction prices out the window
It then becomes a matter of how bad you want the coin and how much you're willing to pay so that you don't have to wait until the next time it is offered for sale (which may be never for certain coins).
