Bedrock

Hi guys,
what is the most used price guide in coin collecting?

i know when collecting sports cards everybody used "Beckett"

what is the standard for coins?

thanks,
Dino

TheNoost

greysheet

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tmoneyeagles

This hobby can't compare to the sports card's price guides (I know, I've been a collector of sports cards, or was a collector for 10 years)

This hobby has
The Redbook, which gives retail values, and is usually outdated pretty quick

PCGS Price Guide, which gives retail prices for PCGS graded coins, but many people use that as their main price guide, which is not right, I don't believe having a coin in a certain piece of a plastic makes it worth more, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Numismedia, is a better price guide than PCGS, in my opinion, and it is what I use to value my coins, with a good combo with completed listings and going prices of course

Another thing we use for values, is the current going prices, using ebay's and heritage's completed listings, gives us an idea, of the value, and also the price they sell for, and we can compare the prices realized to the redbook/pcgs/numismedia price guides

Now in coin collecting there is retail value, and wholesale value
Greysheet, Blue Book, and Numismedia and Coin World, all have wholesale prices, and it is generally what a dealer would pay for the coin.. This is what you should try to pay, wholesale, anything less than retail is okay, but close or under wholesale, is GREAT!

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http://www.tmoneyeagles.webs.com/

hontonai

And T$ has only hit the highlights of US coin valuation.

For the rest of the world there are

• the 5 phone-book sized volumes of the Standard Catalog of World Coins - more or less accurate for some countries, wildly inaccurate for others
• Individual country guides like Charlton's Canadian, the Japanese Numismatic Dealers Association Catalog, etc., also generally accurate only to the extent of relative value, and
• several of the guides mentioned by T$.

For all significantly valuable coins, US and world, the best and most accurate guides are realized prices at major auctions; and for more common coins realized prices at Ebay and other online auction sites.

Bottom line, you can't appraise a coin collection just by grabbing a universal reference book and looking up the individual pieces.

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ecichlid

Either this statement is worded incorrectly or just plain wrong. Coins encased in PCGS or NGC plastic typically commend a premium. This is fact.

Other than this small piece, very good advice.

kanga

I'm a collector.
As such I don't expect to get coins at wholesale prices.
But at the same time I don't expect to pay published retail prices.

My main pricing guides are the greysheet and Coin Values.
I look to pay a price that's about halfway between the two.
The greysheet is pretty consistent, but sometimes the Coin Values prices seem way out of whack.
When that happens I look at some or all of the following:
- PCGS Pricing Guide
- eBay results
- Teletrade results

On rare occasions I'll try(?) to figure out Heritage results.

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There are 10 types of people: those that understand binary, and those that don't.

GDJMSP

Sorry, but it isn't fact. Among knowledgeable collectors the slab is meaningless in regard to the value of the coin inside it. And they will pay no more for it because it is slabbed than they would if it was raw.

Now among those who either don't have the ability to judge the coin for themselves, or don't trust what ability they do have - the slab does give them reassurance regarding the value of the coin. And they will usually pay more for the coin slabbed than they would for the same coin if it was raw. But this not because they feel the coin is worth more, it is because it saves them the money they would have to spend to have the coin certified if they bought it raw.

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ecichlid

Yes it is. It doesn't matter how you feel or if you are part of a group that I happen to feel I belong to as well. In general, PCGS and NGC slabbed coins go for a premium over their unslabbed cousins. A coin is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It's not worth what you are willing to pay for it, unless you are the top bidder. Ask a handful of national dealers and they will tell you the same thing. Do you think it's a coicidence that that a popular member of this board has not one unslabbed coin on his entire price list that is not slabbed by NGS and PCGS? http://www.markfeldcoins.com/inventory.html This is not coincidence, it's smart business.

900fine

There is no pricing standard for coins.

Pricing coins is an art, just like grading coins (and for similar reasons).

The closer a coin is to being a commodity, the easier it is to price. For example, consider ASEs. Basically, they're a commodity for these reasons :

• There are millions of 'em
• anybody can get one any day of the week
• they're all the same (or very close)

Sure, I know some make a big deal of 69 vs. 70. But for any given issue, there's a reliable price for 69s and one for 70s.

In classic US coins, you can get close to "commodity" status with many series. Common date Morgans, for example.

Close... but no cigar ! Morgans show why coins aren't commodities. Not all MS65s* are created equal ! Some are better than others and command a higher price.

Take it to an extreme and consider very rare or unique coins. Where is the pricing guide for those ?

One place to look for prices are auction records... but even there, be very careful. There is significant "scatter" in prices for a number of reasons.

One major reason for uncertainty is small sample size. The rarer a coin is, the fewer data points you have, and some are old.

So the bottom line is take in data from every source imaginable and use good judgement.




* of the same issue

Ahab

I did not pay a premium for any of the slabbed coins in my collection, actually paid less. I buy the coin not the plastic.

tmoneyeagles

Yes they demand a premium, but if you just buy the coin because it is in that certain piece of plastic, then you my friend are wrong.
I buy mostly slabbed coin, as I am working on a morgan registry set.
If you can get the same looking, or better looking coin, raw, then pay a premium over getting it graded, AND you have no intention on getting the coin graded, then you save money, and you get an equal/better looking coin for a lot less.

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http://www.tmoneyeagles.webs.com/

tmoneyeagles

Yes, indeed it is smart business.
NGC and PCGS are THE MOST RESPECTED grading companies, and demand a premium, OVER OTHER SLABBED COINS.
When it comes to coin buying, you buy coins and not slabs, that is how it works.
If I can find a nice ANACS morgan dollar I'd be alright sweet, but I might crossover at NGC, for two things, to see if ANACS over/under graded it from my or NGC standards, or so I can add it to my registry set

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ecichlid

Agreed! I buy a mixture of raw and slab. I generally crack out slabbed coins because I like to see coins in an album. I wouldn't do this if I wasn't confident in the grade assigned or was going to turn around and sell the coin in the near future.

I used to frequent the PCGS forums only, but I was getting a little tired of the kool-aid being served there. This is a nice change of pace, although I still particpate in the PCGS board.

tmoneyeagles

On the PCGS forums this is the message I get there is always the same "PCGS THE BEST, AND THEY NEVER OVERGRADE COINS"

Which is BS.
All grading companies over/under grade, it is fact.
If a coin is graded MS64, and it appears to be a MS63, why would I buy it? I wouldn't. But a lot of people on the PCGS forums would, because it is in a PCGS holder, and that means it has to be right.

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Leadfoot

Wholesale (sell) - Grey Sheet
Retail (buy) - PCGS Price Guides