Coin Price Lists

Oh I readily agree there are exceptions Burton, but I was speaking, questioning, in a general sense.

But if you do the test that I suggested, what you find can be revealing. For example, Heritage will almost always have lower realized prices than ebay does. And the Grey Sheet can be higher, lower, or spot on, to what you find on Heritage.

 

Most price guides are far more reliable for common coins than for scarce and rare ones.

That is because the transactions of common coins are so frequently reported by the limited groups of reporting dealers, whereas uncommon coins do not cross the counter of such a small sample size of dealers with frequency adequate to accurately reflect changes in market price for those items.

.

 

Well in 2009 prices for modern stuff were in the middle of falling off a cliff -




- so yeah, you could say they've changed. Look where they were in Dec. of '08, and where they were in Feb. of '10.

As to your question what's the price ? Yeah, I know of the difficulty when trying to find prices for common stuff. And by your own efforts you are of course aware of that. And as evidenced by the chart above, the time factor definitely matters, sometimes a lot. So to be any good, realized auction prices need to be fairly current. And by your own efforts you couldn't even find any on ebay, not for the coin you want.

But if you use the Grey Sheet correctly, and single copy does not allow you to use it correctly, for a single copy will not have the prices for all grades, but you can find a current price. Which you could not do on ebay, or Heritage.

To be able to find a current price in most grades in the Grey Sheet you need several issues, all the weekly issues for a given month and all the quarterly issues. That is because not all coins are even listed in each weekly issue, nor are all grades listed in each weekly issue. But if you have everything, it will be listed in one of them. So with these common, but thinly traded, coins that you can't find, the Grey Sheet is usually your best option. And if you did that I think that what'll you'll find is that the current price for the coin you want is somewhere around $10, give or take a few dollars.

But there is a cost to be able to do that. And when you are looking for $10 coins most people won't spend those dollars because it is more than the coin is worth.

Now all of that said, if you pick a coin that is liquid, one that trades all the time, and you check the prices in the manner that I suggested, what I said above will be true. Can you find coins/examples like the dime you want where it is not true ? Sure, of course you can. But that still doesn't make the general premise of my comments inaccurate.

 

I didn't think that you did, I figured it was just one of the coins you want.

As for Numismaster, it is a valuable resource that I have recommended since its inception. But it is after all nothing more than the online version of the Krause catalogs - which are notorious for being worthless when it comes to coin prices.

But that link you provided, that isn't Numismaster, that's Numismedia, a completely different company. And that 67CAM you found on ebay for $16.95, Numismedia list it at $45.00. And if the PF67 CAM version has sold recently for $16.95, it's a pretty safe bet that the straight PF67 would be around $10.00.

As for the availability of the coin, yes it would be expected to be hard to find one. But that's because hardly anybody would want one in that grade, or even bother submitting one in that grade. For coins like these, most collectors want at least a CAM if not a DCAM.

But I'm not trying to argue or debate anything Burton. I'm merely trying to provide information to you, and others, as to how they can go about finding the most accurate pricing information they can find. That's all.

And if you really want a current Grey Sheet price on '59 PF67, ask @ToughCOINS, I'll bet he can find it for you.

 

. . . you funny guy, Doug.

Okay, if you take literally what I wrote as being applicable to all common coins, I guess that pricing is indeed not reliable for them all because pricing is actually not available for all dates, in all grades, in all guides.

I guess I'll backpedal a little to make you feel better, and rephrase my position . . .

When pricing is published in price guides for the applicable grade, the pricing for common coins is generally more reliable than is pricing for uncommon coins.

Why? Because common coins are virtually commodities, and uncommon coins are not.

- Mike

 

I wasn't differing with your opinion on the matter Mike. I merely thought that one of two things would be true. 1 - that you would have all the Grey Sheet issues and could look for us. Or 2 - that you might use CCE and could look there, since that is the source for the Grey Sheet.

That's all I meant buddy.

edit - but if you can't, no worries