While my car was getting work done at the garage today, I visited the bookstore and purchased the blue book. Big mistake not looking at it first. I have read the links below and am assuming that blue book prices are the minimum wholesale price that a dealer will offer. The amount of price guides out there is literally insane and I'm assuming that most of them are overpriced. http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t44024/ http://rg.ancients.info/guide/prices.html I have sold a few coins to a dealer recently and received prices much closer to red book than blue book. Why is that? The blue book prices seem way too low, with many prices for proof sets valued far below the issue price from the mint. I do realize that the current economy, supply and demand, and the type and condition of the coin affect the sales price. I'm assuming greysheet prices are similar to the blue book being much lower than the redbook. Why would a dealer be willing to offer a coin at lower prices to another dealer but not a collector? I could understand if it was a large quantity or moving inventory that was hard to sell. Harry
It's probably like the Kelly Blue Book for cars, great for reading or lining a Parrot's cage with, maybe not so good as a judge of the market. Coin dealers all tend to use Greysheet, I have never seen one using the Blue Book. I wouldn't worry about the Blue Book myself, it's just one person's opinion.
This fall I put in a 100 dollar order to wizardcoinsupply and got a bluebook for free with the promo code. To answer your question, the bluebook is quite a bit lower than grey sheet on many things right now but it is definitely more detailed and specific . For one though, the current 09 bluebook is just shy of a year old already and the 2010s will be coming out shortly. As you said, the bluebook is wholesale prices. I was shocked by how low they were too. What a dealer can expect to pay from another dealer or approximately the price you can expect to sell to a dealer. Which is why I'd never sell anything to a dealer in this day and age. Notice how there isn't a lot of mark up on gold pieces but then look at CBHs. Huge mark ups. It is an eye opener. But still a pretty rough guide.
I don't know how you can use the greysheet for everything though. It's so generic. I got one and I wasn't that impressed. I know it's got to be kept somewhat simplified since it comes out so often but I can see a lot of scenarios where it wouldn't be adequate. I mean, Liberty seated halves are only broken down into drapery or no drapery, all lumped together. Other pieces are just broken down to motto, no motto. How does a dealer know what the mark up should be from one to another?
It is called wholesale. The coin is being sold to a dealer for resale. That is how business works. The dealers most likely have an understanding where the dealer who is selling the coin at wholesale will be able to buy a coin from the other dealer at wholesale. No man is an island and no coin dealer is an island. It is impossible to go it alone so coin dealers have to work together every now and then. If another dealer has a buyer for a coin you have (and you don't have a buyer) it is in your best interest to sell it to the other dealer for a small profit and let the other dealer make his sale and make a profit. That way you move the coin and free up some money so you can buy more coins AND make a small profit. Plus the other dealer makes a profit and the collector who buys the coin is happy. It's a win-win situation.
Vess you are only looking at one small piece of the Grey Sheet, sounds like the Type Coin section to me. You need at least 4 issues (2 issues and 2 quarterlies) to be able to look up any individual coin in a specific grade.
