Hi guys, I am coming here with an advanced question today. Do any of you closely follow price trends year over year of a certain coin's grade and tend to value the grades with the greater volatility more than the more conservative price changing grades? PCGS has a great price list on their website that gives a green or red arrow based on whether that price is up or down from yesterday. I used to analyze price and value areas when I traded in the currency markets and found certain areas that were generally more volatile than others made better places to trade. I would think the same applies in coins. Buy an MS65 Morgan that goes up and down in value much more than an MS63 which is more a slow mover. Thoughts on this?
What you're asking about is done by a few, but only a few. It entails a great deal of work and that's why only a few do it. I used to do it, but no longer. There are several ways for the average person to keep up with what's going on though. One is to just read the coin mags, such things are mentioned in them on regular basis. But it requires regular reading over a period of time and a good memory before you become acquainted with the authors so you can recognize hype from true market trends. Then there are the Coin Indexes. Coin Indexes These are very helpful in seeing the general market trends. But they are not very specific, so the key there is general. If however, you take the time to study those indexes and see exactly what coins it is that make up the market baskets, then you can get a much better idea of what is going on and how to narrow down those trends to reflect more specific areas. But again, it takes some work. Then there is also the Grey Sheets. If you subscribe and study them on weekly basis, and you have the memory for it, you can readily see the trends for specific coins in specific grades. But again, it takes some work, and a bit of money. For information costs, knowledge is power and knowledge aint free. Unless you get it here
Yeah I know it's a techincal question that I brought with me from trading but I figured a few might do it. How did it work out for you overall? Did you make money off it if I may ask?
LOL ! Not laughing at you, just at the question. You see, only a fairly new member would ever ask ME such a question. That's because anyone who's been around here for any length of time knows that my mantra is that it is a waste of time to try and make money in coins. Coins are probably the worst investment on the planet for the vast majority of people. Only those with extensive knowledge, not only of the coins themselves, but extensive knoweldge of the coin market should ever even attempt it. And even from among those, only a small percentage will ever succeeed. There is one and only one reason to ever buy a coin - and that's because you like it. One should never spend a dime on a coin unless it is done with money that you can afford to throw away. Because the odds are like 9999 to 1 that you will lose money on the deal. So to answer your question, no. I would never even TRY to make money with coins. I know better. So the next question your probably going to ask is then why did I do it, considering all the time, effort and work it requires ? Easy answer, so I could answer questions from people like you.
I sort of kind of do that all the time. Way, way back when the Red Book first came out I sat down with it and made a list of all my coins, by type, date, mint mark, grade and then the price from the Red Book. About every other year I update that listing using the same Red Book but the latest issue of course. Although I purchased every issue, I only used every other one for this pricing. Eventually it started to get rather long as the original was all on one page. After several years it became several pages and also every 3rd or 4th year. I kept all those and still have them all from 1947 to present. Don't know why but sometimes it's nice to see how smart I was way back then, same as now. After many years someone invented a computer and now this same list is all on Excell. Still once in a while I sit back and compare all the different prices over time.
