Pricing Guides for AU

As a casual collector and eBay bidder, I have come to rely heavily upon the PCGS pricing guide. I find it to be quite handy (not to mention FREE).

However, I cannot quite understand why they do not list prices for AU designations; they go straight from EF40 to MS60. Given the often times large disparities between the two grades (40 and 60), I do not understand their rationale. If I am not mistaken, they used to list prices for either 50 or 55.

Are there any other good (FREE!) online pricing services that anyone can recommend?

Thanks! MM

 

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Yes - Heritage auctions and closed ebay auctions. That is more realistic than PCGS price guides. Or at least in my opinion - I find that PCGS is usually high for what most coins are going for.

 

hi! yes,pcgs do list high prices. mark_h has given you pretty much the best pricing source thru heritage, their reference material is free and extremely beneficial. you can compare coin vs. coin w/ pics over many yrs.

 

I know, I use them as a reference, (ballpark figure on lower end coins) and just that. I don't understand at all though why they don't list coins in VF, drives me crazy, lol. But, oh well.

Phoenix

 

Ebay completed auctions are a good indicator of what AU coins sell for, and the CND Greysheet is an inexpensive alternate for coin prices in all grades.

 

Mint Mark, I hope you havent been using PCGS guide to bid as that is about twice real world price. Get a greysheet to see what dealers pay each other. Thats a more realistic view of things. I like to set dealer ask as my bid high.

 

What they said, and WELCOME to the forum another Arizonan, SilverMonger !!

 

Don't. Their prices are unrealistically high. Ignore them.

As mentioned above, look at actual market prices by seeing what others have paid on online auctions. E-bay, Teletrade.com, heritage (ha.com). All free.

Talk to a local dealer. Go to coin shows and ask. Check the greysheet. Use all those sources and come up with an informed guess on prices.

 

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but for many higher grade coins, I am finding the greysheet to be way behind what dealers are demanding. This was very evident at Central States and if that show is an example, I think the trend will continue.

I've also found the greysheet is woefully behind in seated dollars and early large cents in nicer conditions as I have watched these coins for some time (and made purchases using greysheet as a finger in the wind so to speak). I believe it to be true for other early types.

You may have to pay a substantial premium over greysheet for quality coins. I think the advice about checking into historical auction prices is wise as that is about as current as you will get.

 

Of course you will. Quoting from the CDN Quarterly II Newsletter (which contains pricing for SL Dollars):

CDN is telling you that the price for a "quality coin" will be higher than Grey Sheet prices.

When all else fails, read the instructions.

 

If you are using the PCGS price guide to buy coins, then it isn't free. It's costing you a tremendous amount of money by encouraging you to overbid.

 

Hobo - I think you missed my qualifier - "substantial". Thus, not just higher, but lots higher. By my estimation generally, a factor of 1.5-2.0x higher. My main point is that greysheet isn't the bible people think it is for market prices.

 

Try Coin World (monthly pricing guide), not free but it gives a lot of info on different grades.

 

There is no such thing as an accurate pricing guide.

 

I beg to differ. For the coins I purchase, the PCGS guides tend to be the MOST accurate of them all (yet still lacking). However the key words in that statement are "for the coins I purchase".

If you are talking about moderns, what you said is 100% accurate. For nice type coins, not so much.

Respectfully...Mike

p.s. I agree that one should use a number of price guides to gauge the true value of a coin, but ultimately it comes down to a decision -- given a coin, and given an asking price, are you going to pass or play? Price guides deal with averages, and every coin is unique.

 

I'm sure that's true.

Greysheet pricing tends to be closest when we're dealing with "commodity" coins... common date white Morgans, moderns, late date proof sets, low gold, etc...

The more esoteric the coin - high grade, high value, problem-free early type, scarce die variety - the tougher it is to price.

And yes... I agree with you on the good early large cents. Hot hot hot. And the Husak sale only stoked the flames even more.

Pricing is an art and a science.

 

I second Mike's comments. At some point, one must decide to pay to play for the coin one wants. For example, I found a beautiful blue toned PCGS MS64 BN 2 Cent piece at Central States I had to have. I paid way, way over greysheet. I'll be posting a picture soon (assuming I can capture a decent picture) and I hope you'll see why I went crazy over this coin.

 

The corollary to that point (price guides are averages, each coin is unique) is that if one wishes to have "average" coins, then buy coins at "average" prices. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but if one hopes to build a special collection, then using price guides to place values on coins will likely not be a successful strategy.

When I first heard that point, I was very skeptical -- thinking it was a sales pitch of some type. As I gain more experience, I see the wisdom in it, and I hope it helps someone else as it did me....Mike

 

If you ask me Price guides are just for a rough idea of what things are selling at. Although I have to say that I dont follow prices guides for some coins. As I feel some coins are worth much more then stated in price guides and some coins are worth MUCH MUCH less. It realling comes down to how bad you a coin and how easy it is to find that same type of coin again later if you pass on one your interested in. But with all that bla bla bla said. Each coin is unique for the most part, and you should look at each coin as such. IMHO.