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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Cloudsweeper99, post: 58686, member: 3011&quot;]kortgawain,</p><p><br /></p><p>Your comment touches on what I consider one of the &quot;core&quot; issues surrounding collecting today.&nbsp; I&#039;ve noticed that there isn&#039;t much discussion of a coin&#039;s &quot;value&quot; among collectors.&nbsp; The WORD value is thrown around a lot, but is used as a synonym for the word &quot;price.&quot;&nbsp; A lot of effort is put into determining the current price, and if a collector can acquire a coin for less, they consider it good value.&nbsp; Whether the collector subsequently gains or loses money becomes (pardon the expression) a coin flip.&nbsp; Personally, I think this is short sighted and incorrect; but probably unchangeable.&nbsp; Collectors will mistrust the prices in the Redbook, and pull up the current greysheet thinking that somehow it provides a better clue to value.&nbsp; But it doesn&#039;t.&nbsp; It&#039;s just another more current price.</p><p><br /></p><p>For example, using the Redbook, the 1886O MS64 is listed at $7,500 and the MS65 at $200,000.&nbsp; Is this reasonable?&nbsp; Does the 65 have a &quot;value&quot; that is 26 times greater than a 64?&nbsp; Can you be THAT sure of the grading?&nbsp; I&#039;d personally rather have 26 64s than 1 65, but that has to do with my concept of value.&nbsp; Going down a notch, the MS60 is $500 so you could own 400 of those for one 65 even though both are mint state coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>My concept of value would take into account price ranges over a period of 7-10 years and some sense of what happened to similar coins in the past under similar price conditions.&nbsp; Value then becomes more of a professional opinion of what the likely future price changes might be for the coin in question, also comparing it to what else can be obtained for the same money and how that choice is likely to perform.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, I&#039;m not a professional and I can&#039;t do this very well (yet) because I don&#039;t have the skill, experience, or judgement. But if I was a professional or even just a better collector, I&#039;d question everthing about the current pricing of coins because much of it makes absolutely no sense unless it is pursued purely for enjoyment with no concern about financial gain or loss.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hopefully this comment isn&#039;t offsensive to anyone and I fully recognize that I&#039;m probably in the bottom 5% of knowledge in this forum (and that might be generous).&nbsp; It wasn&#039;t intended to be.&nbsp; It is only intended to challenge conventional thinking on pricing, value, and the idea of investing in coins.&nbsp; Sorry for being long winded.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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