NGC Price Guide vs eBay

It almost seems to me that multiple price "guides" should be used, with concentrations:

High end - HA, B&M, other high end auction houses.
Middle - Teletrade (also some high end), Greysheet
Low - E-Bay, and Middle items.

Personally, I like Teletrade's system, as it allows you to see the coin sold as well as the most recent sales (and yes, I have bought from teletrade, so I'm not just taking advantage).

In practice, I use greysheet, as that is what the dealers at the coin shows buy & sell from. It is a more practical price for my usage.

 

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On average, ebay final sale prices have been about half way between wholseale and retail although there are exceptions.

 

It's quite perplexing to see how difficult it must be to accurately price an item, given the descrepencies of the information from the various sources. But after reading so many of the comments on this thread, I feel that you maybe should just ask the forum in the "What it's Worth" category. I know that's what I plan to do before selling or offering something. The guys here seem to have the most up to date information available, and they are willing to share their opinions. IMHO

 

Then the best that can be said for ebay is that the pricing is completely inconclusive for most issues. There's no way to know the exact percentage of people who know what's going on and those who don't. We just know there are "many". We don't know that they are the vast majority or how many have a mix of decent knowledge in between.

For modern proofs and commemoratives, ebay is probably a reasonable guide. With those you have more known's, many examples sold, less factors involved.

For anything else, throw in the fact that 10 different knowledgeable people may give 10 different values for the same coin on a given day. And their opinions may change the next day. There is no definitive answer. There can only be guides. And it seems no matter what is printed anywhere, people believe they should be able to buy the coin for X% less than any guide's price.

That's the only consensus we have, which I'm afraid is not very valuable to the OP'er.

Now, I did purchase one copy of the Blue book before and it was shocking. (Supposedly what dealers are able to buy coins for.) Everybody should look at that book at least once and compare with other sources. Maybe people should only buy blue books and go from there? I just don't think you'll find a dealer anywhere who's going to sell anything anywhere near those prices. They're going to laugh at you.

All I know is that I've been to about 8 shows over the past couple of years and the dealers go to a bottom dollar and it stops. You either take it or leave it. If I was supposed to hold out for what some people believe current pricing should be on here, I'd go home empty handed every time. And the shows usually have better deals than ebay, IME.

 

I use the Kenny Rogers/Tom Dwan methodology................

When selling (Rogers): You don't count your money when sittin at the table, there's time enough for countin when the dealin's done.

When buying (Dwan): Bet (Bid) high and scare all of the wannabes off before the flop.

Chris

 

Truth!



all the numbers quoted from Heritage and Teletrade in this thread are likely not reflecting the real price the BUYER paid.

add what? 30% to the numbers?



whereas on eBay you can get tons of past results that more accurate of what something is realistically worth because the eBay market is exponentially larger than all the other coin markets put together?

Those niche markets that certain coin businesses have clients for should only slightly affect the overall values determined by the volume coin businesses (eBay). The price guides maintained by PCGS, NGC and BFD are great to use as bench marks. I use them exclusively, knowing full well that slabbed coins can easily be had for 50% of the posted values and that raw coins can go for full value! Given that I only shop Lincolns, the above is fact!

 

My coin dealers sell me coins for at or under greysheet bid, sometimes ask if it's a rare piece. Not sure what the dealers are like in your area, but from my experience the better you get to know them, generally the better deals they will give you. I've gone to coin shows where dealers have stuff priced at redbook prices, makes me laugh. When I search for stuff on ebay I will never pay more than greysheet bid, unless it's been slabbed.

 

In my area it's a little different. The B&M coin shops charge CDN ask or just over. At the shows the good dealers sell below CDN bid. My fav dealer is always well below CDN bid unless it's a tough coin, then he goes to bid or even ask but never above.

 

You are going to have to explain "add what? 30% to the numbers?". When I buy a coin from Heritage, I pay exactly what it says I paid. The only deviation is I have to pay shipping. What 30% are you talking about?

 

A good dealer will offer you his show price in his store. Sometimes he will tier his prices based on you being a show or store customer (as per some of my discussions with dealers at shows).

A not so good dealer will insist on his store price at a show. Try to pass.

 

In reviewing prices for coin series I collect the NGC price guide seems to be much more accurate than the PCGS guide prices. I am sure that is not true of all coins and all series but the new NGC guide seems to be at least somewhat useful to less knowledgable folks. I use the Heritage auction archives and also ebay completed auctions as a gauge regardless of what has been written. Prices can by high and low on Ebay so when you average it on on coins that sell somewhat frequently it does provide some useful data trends. On rarer items...there just won't be an accurate guide regardless of where you look.