Guys I have been looking at my Blue book prices and my Red book prices and continue to be amazed. I live fairly remote where the local dealers dont have very much competition in dealing coins and numismatics products. I rarely get to purchase anything below Redbook Value and usually pay a few dollars over that for nice Morgans, Peace , and Liberty Halves. I consider myself a fair grader and try to buy slabbed Morgans as well. So I quess my question is since there is'nt much room for haggling over the price with my dealers am I overpaying drasticlly,is the dealer profit margine minimal to retail, or is the market strong enough to support the take it or leave it type of dealing I encounter? I never buy unless I am pleased and happy with the price mind you but I was curious if anyone out there experiences the same issues.
My local dealer has little competition as well but I have developed a good relationship with him so have been able to get some decent deals. I also try to go to shows in the region, which of course gives you a greater selection and often better prices (and you can see the coins in hand). There is always the internet if you are OK without seeing coins in hand first. TC
eBay is the answer. It is a good indication of market value based on supply and demand and determines the fairest price in my mind. I only buy from good feedback sellers and I've yet to be burned (400+ transactions). JasonB
First thing you want to do is forget, completely forget, about using the Red/Blue Books for pricing. If you want to check values on coins- use the Heritage web site and check realized auction prices. Of course if you are buying raw coins, then that will only help you if you can grade the coins accurately yourself. With slabbed coins, you'll do OK. To answer your question though, give us an example. Pics of the coin in question and what you paid.
Comps are good for comparison, But just because one person will pay that Price doesnt mean someone else will and vice versa, I learned that lesson At the fun action!!
Thanks for the advice and I am seeing the error of going by the Blue and Red book for prices. If I have time tonight I will get a few pics of some of my purchases. Thanks for the response guys.:smile
I live in an area where there is high competition and dealers will have no problem telling you to take it or leave it. There's no substitute for viewing coins in hand, assuming ebay determines FMV is ludicrous.
I think maybe alot of dealers are moving there merchandise over Ebay thus connecting with a larger buyer market.Therfore why sell to a local guy hunting for a good deal. Makes sense and money if your a seller I guess.... Guess im just cheap lol.:kewl:
Dealers will dump problematic coins cheap and/or on ebay and hold on to PQ examples until someone comes along that values them. 100 coins of the same grade are not equal. A cheap person will wind up with the bottom 20 examples.
? You can buy any grade coin you want, from MS-70 to culls, damaged etc. A cheap person can buy cheap coins, yes, that's true. They could also buy a one of a kind, top pop.
If you are buying top pop you are drastically influencing the market and FMV. "One-of-a-kind" doesn't historically correspond with cheap, which I'd roughly define as an attempt to pay less than other able and willing buyers will (not neccessarily at that exact moment) pay.
My point to the original post was if your local dealer is high and not flexible because he doesn't have much competition, look to eBay for better prices. I shop with dealers and with eBay and I find the eBay prices consistently hard to beat. Of course, you have to be smart and not overpay there also.
Spreadsheets help but most of the time they can't be broken down enough to indicate value of premium coins with low populations. For instance Lincon cents typically look the same at AU 58 and below and spreadsheets are somewhat useful, But they break bown once coins show MS detail. Sometimes I will gladly pay multiples of price guid values if a particular coin is exceptional. Example: 1909 s Lincoln cent 66BN pop 3. NGC price guide shows 720.00(and they never give out that technical grade unless all the stars line up) but if any example is ever offered for sale it would easily bring more. I also think "nice technical grade, but that coin is dull and uneventful" and I wouldn't pay bid for it. Usually I will buy an exceptinal coin at any price if I feel I won't see one for sale for many years. But it always boils down to buy the coin not the slab and usually toss the price guids out the window.
Mine was very basically that there's a hesitation to pay what you would if the coin was in hand, all things equal. This hesitation corresponds to the lower prices you describe as "hard to beat." There's a hesitation for obvious reasons discussed over and over again on this forum. Only very trusted sellers' auctions, IMO, are close to FMV. But these people attract buyers that will pay FMV, not cheaps. Hesitant able bidders lead to lower FINAL auction prices and force a dealer to oftentimes withold from listing, lets say the better of two coins, unless he or she is really in a bind.
