Price guides

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by theflamingo, Dec 23, 2013.

  1. theflamingo

    theflamingo New Member

    As a newbie to coin collecting, I bought a red book. But I also picked up a copy of coins magazine as well. I noticed that the prices in the book differ tremendously.

    Which should I go by?
    I don't know whats more accurate and I'm very confused.
     
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  3. BUncirculated

    BUncirculated Well-Known Member

    Your best bet would be to subscribe to the Coin Dealer's Newsletter, or the Grey Sheet as those prices will be more realistic than the Red Book and are published monthly, where as Red Book is an annual publication and the prices in the guide section can be as much as 6 months old.

    Many also track completed sales from several online sources such as Heritage, Stacks &Bowers TeleTrade, and eBay.
     
    imrich and ryanlglass like this.
  4. ryanlglass

    ryanlglass Active Member

    I second all that.
     
  5. Victor

    Victor Coin Collector

    I thought the greysheet is published weekly.
     
  6. ryanlglass

    ryanlglass Active Member

    Oh I think that's right.
     
  7. BUncirculated

    BUncirculated Well-Known Member

    It might be, but the point is the prices are updated more regularly than once a year like Red Book does.
     
  8. ryanlglass

    ryanlglass Active Member

    damn, that's the second time I've double posted. what's going on!
     
  9. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    Stutter step when ya hit the enter key, or click post reply. Happens to everybody from time to time.
     
  10. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    You not use either one, nor any of the others. All published price guides, print versions and those found on-line, are grossly inaccurate.

    The Grey Sheet, as mentioned, is as close as you can get to a price guide worth using.

    As for the Red Book being inaccurate because of time delays, that's not the case at all. Yes the Red Book is definitely inaccurate. But the values listed in the Red Book are inaccurate at the very instant they are gathered by the staff because the staff is being given inaccurate values by their sources.
     
    imrich likes this.
  11. geekpryde

    geekpryde Husband and Father Moderator

    Join www.ha.com for free and use their past auction results as a guide. Of course, each coin needs to be evaluated on its own, since aspects of a given coin can inflate / deflate the price beyond the normal price range.
     
  12. rickmp

    rickmp Frequently flatulent.

    In the Red Book, the prices are no less than 6 months old, and even 6 months prior to publishing, the book was most likely wrong.
    Except for the price guide, the Red Book is a great source of information about US coins.
     
  13. 16d

    16d Member

    Completed auctions on the bay place tells me what someone was willing to pay for a piece recently. Guides dont reflect the PM markets. There were a couple months last year when not coins, but early M. Gras tokens & CEC pieces shot through the roof.
    They've settled again, but most slept through it.
     
  14. ToughCOINS

    ToughCOINS Dealer Member Moderator

    The Grey Sheet, but buy yourself one of the bargain offerings. I think you can spend about $16 and get the five sheets (Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly 1,2 & 3) in a binder, instead of buying the subscription, which is rather expensive for a newbie.
     
  15. MadMartigan

    MadMartigan Active Member

    There is actually some really great websites that will give you a good FMV like numismedia, I like rather than carrying around the grey sheet I can easily glance at my phone and see what the FMV is right then and there. I have done that several times to bargain at my LCS and got them to lower there prices, if its fairly close I will just pay the asking price (did that with an 1856 seated dime last week FMV was $2 less than asking so I just paid asking). It's also helped me make decisions before between dates as they might have a coin underpriced and I will go with that even if its a little more expensive.
     
  16. superc

    superc Active Member

    Problem is buyer and seller look at different things when studying Ebay past auctions. You, if you are selling, may focus on muliple sales of somefolks paying $3,ooo for a 19XXz coin, but as a buyer I focus on how many were able to snag one of those same coins for $2. This is possibly why Ebay restricts the past auction data to only viewers who have sold something (or listed something) recently. One good tactic for buyers is to list a junk coin with a starting price of $4,000. It may never sell (but you will be overjoyed if it does), but as long as that ad is up there, u can see (and capture to your screen buffer for future use) the past auction data.
     
  17. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    But you are assuming that the values listed on Numismedia are accurate & realistic. Problem is they seldom are. Numismedia values are almost always a good bit higher than real world values. So no doubt your coin dealer loves you using it.
     
  18. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    Hmmmm - I haven't sold or listed anything on ebay for 10 years, and I can see the past auction data.
     
  19. superc

    superc Active Member

    Under my current buyer account it isn't visible today. Under my selling name, it is right there next to auction, all listings, buy it now.
     
  20. superc

    superc Active Member

    What I would love to see on Ebay is how many times something was re-listed and also what is the hottest coin this week.
     
    rickmp likes this.
  21. Lehigh96

    Lehigh96 Toning Enthusiast

    The problem with Numismedia is that the values listed on that site are the retail values. The wholesale values which can be seen on Heritage's site are pretty accurate for NGC graded common material.
     
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