I have been wondering how the coin books or magazines come up with the way they price. They always seem high. Expecially since you can find coins on ebay and other sites at a fraction of the book value. Do they even consider looking on the internet to see how low some coins are actually selling for. FYI I like to take all comparitives before I set prices, not just the book or magazines.
The explanation for any price guide is printed right on it - all you have to do is read it. They are all pretty much the same. What you will find there is that they arrive at their numbers from realized prices and dealer asking prices. Of course what they don't tell you is that they use the single highest realized price they can find and that dealer asking prices can sometimes vary by as much as 100%. In other words dealer A may ask $100 for a given coin while dealer B may ask $200 for the same coin.
Well, I'm cool with just doing eBay's Completed Listings, and Heritage's Auction Prices Realized, those are my price guides... The books become outdated, quickly, because of silver and gold... They might have a mercury dime in AU condition, lets say common dated, and REDBOOK says value is around $20... Now silver skyrockets, and the value goes up for that merc dime in AU as well... RedBook, and most magazines are just too high, and can throw buyers off... If you go out to go coin shopping, I'd recommend bringing in a little word document, with the recent sale prices of the coin, and condition of the coin, you are looking for, rather than brigining in the REDBOOK, and paying $10 less than their retail value, when really, their value is too high, and you are just paying retail... Redbook helps dealers more than buyers, when it comes to buying, although I do have to say, redbook has helped me immensely understand how to grade coins better... Back to the original question, GDJMSP answered it fine... They look around, and ask around for the highest prices, and use those..
They are precisely what they say they are GUIDES and should be treated as such, way too many people seem to think that if it has a cat value of X then that price is set in stone like the 10 commandments LOL
The prices of coins changes every minute of every day The prices of coins changes every minute of every day, sort of. Like all things the price books are variable, like said just a guide. To be really in tune with what the price of coins is you need to be in it as a business and even then it will depend. There are so many factors involved - the scenario's could fill this entire site to over flow and then some. I really feel for the MBA, Accountant or engineer because they tend to want things completely explained with no grey areas. This would be very frustrating I'm sure if they are in the coin business. If coin A is priced in the Red Book for $100 in AU-58 and for $65 in the grey sheet and then $80 in trends all these prices are correct, for example. The person selling the coin may want $105 but be willing to come down to $95 but then you show him the sheet that says $65 and he will say, and it may very well be true, "I gave over $80 for it because it was so nice and original and looks much better that any MS-62 or 61's I've ever seen". How can you argue with that? Then you pass on the coin and for 3 years you wish you had bought that coin because you have not even seen one like it since. If you found that dealer you would now gladly give him $100 so the price was right all along for that coin - remember all coins are not created equally. The above is only one scenario out of millions (billion) that can occur with the pricing of coins. It ain't Wall mart you'all the trick is to know your coin and take your time - when you need a coin in X condition it is your job to try and know as much as, even a tad bit more than the person selling it. Then you get the price that is right for that coin at that time. I been collecting and selling for over a decade now, (did it in the sixties some also) and still only know about 30% of what more experienced dealers know - if you think you can get your arms around this in 2 years or 5 years you are mistaken - it's like golf, if you started when you were 7 and played it every week until you were 65 you'd be pretty good - that's about the way it is in any hobby or pursuit that has this many variables.
Wouldn't it be wiser, instead of going with the higher price, to average out all prices polled and then submit a number? Seems it would be a lot closer to the true value. rad1964
You may be right but You may be right but the "good stuff" is always going to be more or not available - what does not seem like a bargain now may really be one in a few short years. Take a 1922-No D Lincoln cent in PCGS AU-50. A few short years ago you could get a nice one for $3200. During this time a dealer of my show bought one at FUN for $3800. That's $600 more than bid at that time - he never pays (except for stuff like this) much more than 10% back of bid. Why did he do it? He did for 3 main reasons, 1. it's a hard coin in this grade, very hard - 2. He knew he had it sold or it would sell very quickly for at least $4200. 3. He had a client that was wanting one. When he brought it back and handed it to the customer he did not even ask how much he just said thanks, whatever you got to have on it is fine. Remember it's the good stuff with the variables and everyone wants the good stuff, thats why there's not much of it. That's why after studying you must leave the price guides "in the dust".
