Any thoughts on the best price guide to use for graded coins? I've been using the standard catalog of world coins 33rd edition. Great resource but no info on graded coins. I see a lot of nice graded coins on eBay and need something to compare the prices to. Thanks in advance!
Are you talking about U.S. coins or World Coins? Thankfully the whole grading price jumps haven't hit most World Coins unless it is someone trying to market them to Americans.
There are no good catalogues with up-to-date pricing for world coins. You can get a general idea from Krause, but they aren't terribly up-to-date. The only way to is to look at auction prices from places like Heritage, Spink, Goldberg, or other auction houses. It's easiest if you specialize - look for prices for a few coins you are interested in, and keep track of those coins. Not sure what you're looking for but if you are looking for "The Repository Of All Coin Knowledge" it doesn't exist.
Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought but since I'm still relatively new to this I thought I'd ask.
I'd go a step further and say there is no price guide one should use for any coins - world or US. If you want to know the real world value of any coin, then as already suggested take the time to look up realized auction prices. For world coins there are 2 good websites to do that, websites that make it a whole lot easier for you. But sadly, neither of them is free anymore. https://www.coinarchives.com/ https://www.acsearch.info/ However, what you spend for access to both, is easily recovered by the money you save when buying just 1 nice coin
That kinda depends I guess. Based on personal experience most coins you find there are going to have been priced higher than that. But the knowledge you gain from using the sites would absolutely help you when buying coins of any price. So in the end, only you can decide if it's worth it of not.
I realize that many shun eBay, but it does have a ton of history and volume to dig through if you are willing to put the time in by creating accurate searches. If so, this site is a work in progress and will analyze the last 200 eBay auction sales to come up with an average, and also links you to a page you can drill down to the details on the eBay sales history site itself. It's free currently, and like I said a work in progress. Not sure what I'll eventually do with it, but as I use it for myself, I am refining it and finding it promising, if not already a good extra tool. Try it if you like, and any suggestions are VERY welcome... http://uscoinval.com/ebay-sales-history/
