Best On Line Price Guide

I am an old coin guy that is a rookie with 21st century technology..... A good friend of mine lost both his parents within three days of each other several months back. His Father apparently had an extensive coin collection. At this point I have no idea if this is old silver pocket change and wheats or a grade “A” numismatic bonanza. I rather suspect the former....... He has asked me to come over and help him figure out what he has which I am more than happy to do..... Here’s my dilemma.... I know many folks equate old with valuable. For that very reason I do not want to tote my Red Book with me. It’s not a realistic selling guide and I want to paint a realistic picture for him. Is there a realistic selling value guide obtainable on line?

 

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Personally, I use the PCGS price guide. However, it's pretty useless unless you compare their values to actual realized sales (the ebays- sort by 'sold listings').

I actually prefer NGC's price guide layout/format, but they just don't seem to do a very good job keeping information up-to-date and accurate. I kept running into coins priced off completely wrong information (like the wrong coin's auction results).

 

And red book prices are just that a guide ,not etched in stone....as I always tell those whom wish my help in a situation as such no matter what you're selling it only worth what another is willing to pay....some may argue some may wait until the next buyer.... but no matter what there's always an asking price...and a selling price.

 

eBay results.

https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices

Heritage results. Numismedia is good for seeing what is more valuable than the others as well.

The problem is just going to be make sure he understands that the grades are extremely important to the value, and only graded coins will bring graded coin prices ect.

Other than that unless you are talking about pure bullion guides are just guides and things will sell above and below them for various reasons so at best they're a ballpark

 

You really have to use a combination of everything. Auction results from eBay or the like and the. Refer to the recent price guides from numismatic news and other publications. Get as many prices as you can and settle on what you are willing to accept. At this point in my jourui rely heavily on prices from eBay, NN and the blue and red books.

 

Since you are looking for a ballpark number, almost any would do, except the Red Book. Any high condition or key coins should, of course, be considered separately. probably many are going to be at melt.

 

While there are numerous price guides from various sources, I find the absolute best to determine actual realistic prices is coin society's guide. It is ebay results over the years, and gives a good barometer of the selling prices on ebay, which is the most typical place to sell coins. Granted, it only tracks PCGS, NGC, and ANACS graded coins, but so do most of the other guides.

The grader's guides (PCGS/NGC) are very inflated and also only for graded coins. RedBook is not a source I ever refer to when determining a price to pay, or a price a coin actually sells for on the open market.
Numismedia is ok for a quick and easy reference, but to me it's like the digital version of the RedBook.

My tied for the #2 spot for pricing are completed auction searches on Heritage and Great Collections. You'd have to sign up for one (or both), but that quick, easy, and free.

So for me, it's http://www.coinsociety.com/priceguide , GC & HA

 

I appreciate that. And I totally get it. What I hope to prevent is damaging a good friendship. An uninformed person holding a shiny Indian head cent may very likely feel he is holding a hundred dollar treasure when in fact it’s likely a five dollar common piece that’s been polished and damaged. And again, until I go see what his dad had stored in his closet I have nothing to go on.... Poor fellow went through a lot of trauma losing both parents in three days and I recognize that this is still a connection with his dad in his heart.... In fact he sent me a note this morning telling me he wasn’t quite emotionally prepared to do this. Something of a relief to me really. But I appreciate the replies and at least have some time now to put together a plan that may give him some knowledge of what he has inherited.

 

Best single price guide is the Heritage auction archives.

However, when I'm researching a purchase, I'll use Krause, NGC, PCGS, Heritage, CDN, Ebay, and anything else I need to get an accurate picture. No single resource is going to be consistently accurate, so I always use at least 3 sources and try to get as complete a picture as I can.

 

I totally agree with @GDJMSP 's post, and it re-inforces why I use coinsociety's guide. They have that coin ('85CC MS63) showing as $679.95, which is closer to HA's sale of that specific coin. If you look at HA's sales of 1885-CC MS63's for this year (2018), sale prices ranged from $600 to $690, which puts the coinsociety's guide almost right in line with the average recent sales on HA.

As with every auction house, and every auction, the sold price of a coin will vary. I find cs's guide to be closest to the average.

Another thing I really like about cs, is that also list varieties (as long as the seller noted it in the listing), so you can even narrow it down more without having to read every coin description. Check out all the varieties they list for the 85CC. If you click on the year/mm in the breakdowns, it goes even deeper, showing what the coin sold for based on who it was graded by (PCGS/NGC/ANACS) and they also have a section for 'Genuine' and 'details'.

http://www.coinsociety.com/search/by_subcat_and_year/744/1885/MS/Morgan Dollar

When I'm looking to buy at let's say HA/GC, I see what the coin sells for on ebay via the CS guide. That kind of tells me what I could expect to sell it for on ebay if I choose to down the road. I also will hover over a sold price on CS, and that gives me the date of sale. I adjust accordingly, depending on the date sold, and any other variables.

 

Absolutely agree with this 100%

 

Plus, you can go to CDN and go to the coin you want, click on a grade, and down below it gives you recent auctions at heritage and other auction sites

 

Because I buy and sell only PCGS or NGC certified coins and mostly at auction, I find the PCGS auction prices realized most useful. Covers both grading services, and you can click-through to the auction website to see pics of the coins if the auction company has such available. You can sort by date of sale, grade etc. Easy to import the data into a spreadsheet if you want to do more with it, like see price trends.

It does have the occasional error. Biggest annoyance is that they often forget to state CAC in the comments column if coin is so approved,. If CAC approval is important, need to click-through to auction companies to check for each coin.

If you are interested in raw coins or coins certified by services other than PCGS and NGC, this website will be of little use.

Cal

 

Awhile back, I asked here on CT how to best get a price guide and most told me to search the "sold" listing results on eBay. While your comment is good for not using online price guide, I didn't see any comment on what people should actually use (in your opinion)...by your own reasoning, even talking to dealers would probably give you the same result (wide spread on the pricing) simple because they'd want to get as much as they can from the buyer.

 

Many on here won't say it because they are dealers, and they don't like an educated buyer as much as they might claim because it is counterproductive to them making more money, but the printed Grey Sheet (not the online one, which is retail prices) is something that is actually very good and lists most coins in most grades before 1965 or later ones that are major errors or varieties.

At coin shows I go to in PA and NY, negotiating using the Grey Sheet is acceptable both at local coin shops and at shows. It is almost expected that buyers will be using that as a baseline despite Grey Sheet really representing wholesale prices. Many dealers even let you look at it If you ask them. But many dealers find those prices as acceptable when selling, at least where I live.

Now if a coin is especially stunning in a certain grade because it is bright, great color, great eye appeal, fewer marks for an older coin, etc., expect to pay a little more.

Red Book is great to learn about the coins themselves and what the major types, errors, and varieties are but tend to have inflated prices.

If there is a particular type and denomination you like, buy a book about it.

 

In re to the CDN greysheet, I have a .pdf open at all times of the series I collect. I reference it constantly when I'm looking online. But, even though many dealers will let you look at it, many will not, so using it at shows can be challenging for some.

Heritage has the current CDN listed in the auction heading, as well as in the detailed description and the Price Guide section of each coin they are offering. I have found that to be invaluable for coins that I don't have a copy of the CDN for. I believe the Price Guide section also is the most current, even if the coin you are looking at was sold years ago, so you're up to date even if it's not a currently offered coin.


Now the trouble is....

The OP is talking about raw coins. While all non-TPG price guides are supposed to be based on the coin, and not the plastic encasing the coin, (almost) all buyers will heavily discount a raw coin from the lowest guide price out there. I think you'll agree that that statement will stand true in 95% (or more) of the coin series out there.

And using guides from PCGS or NGC when discussing raw coins is absurd. They (the TPG's) have a belief that once they grade a coin, it's value goes up, and their guide prices are inflated to reflect that belief. That's why at the bottom of the PCGS price guide pages, you see this:

So where does that leave the OP? IMO, what @baseball21 said is his only realistic price guide available to determine actual liquid values: ebay sold results for ungraded coins.

Is ebay sold results the best guide for everything? No, as we all have already suggested. But, for his purpose, it's going to be the best and only option.

 

Yeah, it's the reason I haven't jumped in to buying coins...I used to rely on PCGS price guide and check the auction results to get an idea of the price of a coin, then I found out about NGC which has different ranges, then I learned about checking eBay sold listings...now I'm discombobulated and gave up trying to figure out how much my coins are worth lol. I'm quite happy checking my change and doing small amount of CRH to find what I like, I can wait buying coins. The only reason I would buy coins is for my daughters 18th bday and I'm working on that. I'm trying to plan going to a coin show, never been to one just to learn how people do it...watch people/dealers negotiate, I probably only buy coins at the show so I can inspect it (hope they allow loupes there) before I buy it. Being that I collect mostly older US coins that are shiny and pretty (almost uncirculated), I'm trying to learn how to spot cleaned coins and I've read some good posts on CT about that. Thanks for the thread!