just wanted to ask a pricing question. the red book designates a price value to a coin lets say $400. coinage magazine has their price guide inside and prices the same exact coin and the same condition for $250. does coinage's price reflect current changes in the market, or is its price guide just not very good? thanks, greg
Well, one thing to keep in mind is that the magazines are Montly, while the Redbook comes out in the beginning of the year...
There is not really a single formula that you can use. Sometimes, the data that researchers gather just differs. There are coins that you cannot get half of the retail price guide levels for and there are coins that you can get multiples of the trends price guides for. Sometimes, one guide is closer to the actual value of a coin and sometimes another guide is more accurate.
I've found that finding the average of say 3-5 pricing sources is usually spot on. I get the sum of Red Book, NumisMedia Fair Market, PCGS (sometimes) and Greysheet (sometimes) prices then divide by how many sources. Might sound a bit odd or a lot hassle but thats what I see them end up selling for on eBay or other auction places. Of course there or random factors that toss my method in the crapper - like crazy bidders.
The Red Book as a price guide is useless, Coinage magazine as a price guide is useless - neither one of them reflect accurate prices. None of the other price guides reflect accurate prices either. If you want to know what a coin is actually worth - forget about price guides and look up realized auction prices.
