Hello - I am looking for a reliable site that lists current retail coin values (not certified). I was looking at Coin World and Numismedia but they are not keeping their prices up to date. I would appreciated any input on this. Thanks!
I use USA Coin Book. They are current but on the high side, more retail than wholesale. USA Coin Book - US Coin Values and Prices - Buy and Sell Coins Online
If the coin is worth more than several hundred dollars, certification is built into the price. The raw price is something under that. Even if you predict the slab grade, there are grading and shipping fees to be paid.
Simply put there aren't any - not a single one. None for raw coins and none for slabbed coins either. Your best bet is to research yourself what realized auction prices have been. Use realized auction prices from major auction houses. And while others may disagree, I would recommend you do not use eBay.
I 100 % agree no guide will work that way. They call them price guides not price specifics for a reason. Having said that, everyone needs somewhere to start from, and though it may not work for you here is mine. I start out looking for the general price range on Numismedia. This usually tells me right out of the box if the coin is way out of my price range. I have to make my own adjustments for in between grades like VF30 or XF-45 by adding two prices and dividing by what i think is best (150 + 300=450 divided by say 2). I next look up 3 prices. It is easiest if not a details coin to do this by using Heritage archives. Get CDN, PCGS guide and NGC guide. I then try to find at least 3 sold prices from the past 2 years on Heritage and Great Collections. I do not purchase very many raw coins but as i do with all coins i put together a composite price and adjust to meet my opionon of the coin. For raw coins I then deduct the cost of sending a coin in for grading. hope this helps. james
I use that and NGC coin guide as well. They are good for ballpark prices. But I see stuff go for way less and others way more quite often. Sometimes it is very frustrating when it comes to VAMS and mint errors, little to no guidance at all. I don't use Greysheet because there is a subscription fee.
There was a time when it could/would give you the actual wholesale Bid & Ask in the electronic dealer market. That started in 1960 and was that way for decades. But some years ago they changed things, now they don't just base the value on Bid & Ask, now they include various people's opinions on what they think a given coin is worth. The end result is that they are not a whole lot different than the other price guides.
I was "a much smaller fish" when the dealer teletype operation was going. I was looking for coins like a 1795 half dime and couldn't find any. The Internet did not exist then, and it was harder to find coins than it is now. I asked a dealer if he could find a 1795 half dime for me on the teletype. He told me he could, but that I might not be pleased with the grading. That seemed to be the issue then before third party grading existed. ANACS papers became the first that got wide acceptance. Given the grading, I'm not sure how accurate the Grey Sheet numbers were then. I can tell you that the numbers for early copper on the Grey Sheet were always too low under the previous owners. As a dealer I could not buy any of those coins at the Grey Sheet numbers which made me wonder what good were they and what was the source. I know I didn't answer the question, but I'm not so sure the Grey Sheet was better then. I did find the half dime eventually. This is my second one. It came from England from one of those "little old ladies" with a change purse full of coins. I bought it from the the late Billy Paul back around 2000. Billy frequently went to England on buying trips to purchase British coins. Billy told me he sent this in a couple times to get it into a Mint State holder. It always came back as an AU-58. It probably spent too much time in the old lady's change purse. I think Ms. Liberty needed to powder her nose to make Unc.
I used to enjoy those shows, it was the QVC of coin collecting. Those guys could sell snow cones to Eskimos.
I totally agree with eBay and there are many naive folks that use it as the baseline. My frustration with the Numismedia listing is that for raw coins they don’t list prices for some specifics like full split bands on mercury dimes, full head Standing Liberty Quarters, etc. also, for lower grade silver coins, they list retail prices below the silver content price. I guess I would like to see more recent updates overall, and perhaps requesting too much, but with recent algorithm technology this should be feasible.
It takes a lot of time and effort to keep the entire available coin market values up to date like you're asking. Greysheet attempts to do this and they even put out a weekly video on youtube that talks about price fluctuations and the market in general. I surely don't know about every available source and what they're doing but it seems Greysheet is putting the most effort into staying up to date compared to any other source. But as others have said the digital version requires a subscription. I usually just buy their $40 magazine once in a while to get a recent snapshot. Maybe buy two or three a year. Sometimes one month old. Fulfills what I need. NGC tries but again there are so many prices that some things don't get around to getting updated for years. Some are up to date. I don't know how well PCGS keeps up. I find the historical charts interesting.
I am afraid I rarely purchase raw coins anymore and when I do it is only from dealers I have known for a long time. You bring up the subject of varieties and particular designations such as full bands etc. I think every collector has to make his own assumptions when it comes to derivations from the general. The truth is, as far as I can tell, the popularity and or the availabilty of a coin plays a huge role. I bet you can get very specific when dealing with common date Morgans. In fact, even rarer date Morgans probably change hands so often you can build a pricing profile with dozens of price examples. Start talking about VAM'S and I bet things thin out. Start adding thinks like proof-like, or attractively toned and you are back in the mud with the rest of us. Personally, I rather appreciate that coin prices are fluid and sometimes vague. That is often where opportunity lies. james
I don't understand the "raw coins" aspect - is there something on their site specific to raw coins? Everything I see on there is based on a known grade. Do you have an example of a coin listed below melt price? I checked a couple common Morgans and the G4 prices are $33, which seems about right. NGC shows the current melt value as $29.59. My recent auction purchases have often been very close to the Numismedia price. That might be a dog chasing its tail though, since I think a lot of bidders use it to set their bids.
