So I've been putting a raw ungraded Liberty nickel collection together for over a year and a half now...I've tried to take it slow when picking my pieces because I'm going with an F to VF set. It can be harder some times, I think, to put a set of worn pieces together that look similar or look like they should be together in a set. I like this grade range because the coins in this range are relatively inexpensive for the amount detail still left in the coin in this range. The more I do this, I'm realizing I also like the more classic coinage to show some wear...its odd I like my more modern pieces to be MS, but the older stuff I like worn. Anyhoo...I've noticed something in the Lib Nic Market and wondering if its just me, or if its a trend. There seems to be a huge gap in the prices being asked for these nickels and what gray sheet ask or FMV, (or any other price guide) says they should go for. And before anyone says, welcome to the game, I get that this is the case for most every coin available out there, but the gap seems to be larger for Liberty Nickels. Why is that? I also see more liberal assumptions as to the grade of a coin in a listing than other coins, compared to most grading guides. Is the Liberty Nickel market enjoying a more than normal increase in value, and the price guides just behind in catching up with that...is it something that's always been there with the Lib Nics?
I thought this was going to be about the gap in my Liberty Nickel collection (i.e. the 1885, 1886 and 1912S) aka the affordability gap!
It's likely that the reason you are seeing this price discrepancy is because you have acquired most of the widely available coins, and are now pursuing mostly those dates / grades which are very difficult to locate. The price discrepancies you cite are not a phenomenon found only in the Lib nickel series . . . they exist in almost all series where there are too few examples, and therefore there is insufficient reporting of price increases from the narrow sampling of reporting dealers to result in upward adjustments to the commonly used price guides.
This is another example of where price guides fail. For Liberty nickels and any of the late 19th century workhorse coins (nickels and Barber dimes/quarters/halves) condition rarity is unique key. I am always willing to pay more (reasonable %) than 'book' for a nice clean XF 1880s-1890s Liberty nickel because they are objectively more rarely seen for sale than either the Unc or less than Fine. I jumped on a very nice VF/XF 1884 Liberty nick about a year ago because I had not seen one before that I can remember that was available for me to purchase. This is a same situation for VF-XF Barber halves. A vast majority for sale at a given time are AG-VG. I'm with you about loving higher grade circulated coins. I generally prefer them over UNC ones.
@Treashunt the specific dates I've been looking at have been 1900, 1902 1904 ,1908, and 1910. Trying to fill out the 201th centry holes first with the exception of the 12 D and S. @bdunnse that too!
