Best On Line Price Guide

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Randy Abercrombie, Mar 2, 2018.

  1. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    CDN Exchange which used to be known as CoinPlex has been closed to anyone who isn't a dealer for a long time now. It is not an option even if someone is willing to pay the 100+ dollars a month. Even if you created a numismatic company just to qualify it has to have been in existence for over a year if you're a no name before they will let you join
     
    Randy Abercrombie likes this.
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  3. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    Perhaps so, but that isn't the only one. Individuals can still join CCE- I just checked. Used to be a member myself. And I've never been a coin dealer.
    http://www.certifiedcoinexchange.com/

    And unless memory serves me wrong there are others as well.
     
  4. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    Well... A date has been set. I'll be helping my buddy sort his dads collection Sunday afternoon. I'll report any exciting finds here.
     
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  5. John Skelton

    John Skelton Morgan man!

    So when I go to a coin shop, or even a coin show, and I see a coin in a slab, I am trying to determine what I should pay for it based on what? I would expect a slabbed coin to cost a little more than raw because of the cost of grading, but I don't know. I go through coins I have and look at PCGS auction prices for value because I figure that's the going rate for that coin. What about Heritage? I just signed up for the Hotsheet from CS, so how helpful is that? And is a coin worth more graded than one in a 2x2? I recently bought a Morgan that was in a 2x2 and may have overpaid.

    I am so new to this. I'm going to my first coin show in July in Missouri and it will be a great learning experience, I know. I am learning some about grading, and what to look for in coins. I am not ready to sell, won't be for a year or two, and will probably only do it through a coin shop just to establish a relationship with a dealer.

    I do think if the coin is what I'm looking for, I should worry about paying too much, but I'm willing to pay for the enjoyment of having the coin and being able to handle and admire it. I'm going to be filling holes in my collection, but that won't be my only objective.
     
  6. Beefer518

    Beefer518 Well-Known Member


    Best advice for you at this point as a newbie, is buy slabbed, until you can get a good grip on being able to confidently grade a coin yourself.

    The price paid for a coin in or out of a slab *should* be the same - the price is in theory the price of the coin, and not the plastic that comes with it. However, in my experience, sellers will price a raw coin and a graded coin very similarly, but are much more willing to negotiate on the raw coin.

    The only difference between a coin in a slab and a raw coin is that someone has 'permanently' attached a number grade to the slabbed coin, whereas a raw coin, the grade can (and usually will) change from one person to the next. Does that make the slabbed coin's grade correct? No, not necessarily, but it has become an accepted assigned grade, and you typically won't be paying MS63 money for a coin that may be an AU58. IE, if the coin is slabbed as a 63, you'll pay 63 money, and get a coin accepted to be a 63, sight unseen.

    If you're filling holes in an album, and you're new, go cheap. Don't try to fill that album with coins that are MS, as that's where you'll probably end up overpaying.
     
  7. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    That very question is why price guides exist. Put another way, most people are in the same boat you are - they have no idea what the real world value of a given coin is. And that includes a lot of folks who consider themselves experienced and some even advanced collectors.

    To know the real world value of a coin you have to know the market. And that's not a simple or easy thing to do. And it is why dealers spend a ton of money subscribing to the electronic coin markets - so they can learn the market and check on any coin at any time. Do that for a period of years and you get to learn the market. After that you still have to keep up with the daily changes.

    About the best thing that a collector can do is to watch and study all of the realized prices from the major auction houses. Doing this gives the collector a rather wide price range for any given coin. To learn how to narrow that range down you have to first learn how to judge coins. You can say grade coins if you wish but judge is actually probably the better word because what you have to do is compare the coin you are thinking of buying to other coins like it that have previously sold. The reason this is so important is because no 2 coins are ever equal, even when they are graded exactly the same and by the same TPG.

    Say you've got 2 Morgans, both the same date/mint, and both graded 65 by the same TPG. It is not uncommon for one of those coins to be worth hundreds, and maybe a thousand or more, than the other coin is.

    Reality is very few people can do this, fewer still take the time to do it. And that's why most rely on price guides - which is arguably the worst thing they can do.
     
    John Skelton likes this.
  8. John Skelton

    John Skelton Morgan man!

    I'm not filling holes in an album, just trying to complete a series. But if I can negotiate a price on a raw coin that would command a higher price if it was slabbed, then I guess I should go for it, rather than the slabbed you recommend, right? Should I have negotiated the price for a 1898 O Morgan that was priced at $55 Unc in a 2x2? I didn't, but now I wonder. And thanks for your advice.
     
  9. John Skelton

    John Skelton Morgan man!

    Sounds like it takes quite a bit of time and research. Good thing I'm retiring in a couple of months!
     
  10. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    Only if at least one of two things is true. 1 - you know the seller well enough that you trust him. 2 - you are confident in our own abilities to (a) know if the coin is a problem coin or not, and (b) to grade the coin correctly.

    If neither of those things is true then you should not ever consider buying a raw coin.
     
  11. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    I reported here that I was going to help a freind evaluate his fathers collection today. Well, I been at it all day. I promised an update. Below is a breif hint of the task that I am undertaking. Thought y’all might enjoy the photos anyway. Inventory will likely take a few weeks.

    C637D025-744B-4DAE-A9BB-D2E1F4043D32.jpeg 187F5A76-C695-4FC8-A09B-84814870F562.jpeg 389ABC45-7D6A-4110-9FB6-D9DF1354C04D.jpeg
     
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  12. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    And the photos above were after I gleaned out over 1500.00 in state quarters, Gold dollars and Jefferson nickels for him to carry to the bank.
     
  13. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

  14. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    His banks going to hate him so much lol
     
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  15. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    I once went through an inherited collection for a friend that was so large it had to be brought to me in a pickup ! It weighed over a thousand pounds. Took me months to do it.
     
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  16. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Thought maybe it was that Canadian Gold Coin...
     
  17. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    One thing about my friends inherited collection keeps coming to mind..... Somewhere along the way I entirely missed this whole Cheerios coin phenomenon. From what I have been able to glean it seems to me the Sacagawea dollar seems to hold some extraordinary value when attached to the Cheerios card...... There were several Cheerios cards in that safe with Lincoln cents attached. Do those cents hold some additional intrinsic value as well?
     
  18. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    As a collectible, a novelty, yeah some I suppose. The thing that makes the Cheerios Sackys valuable is that they are a scarce variety that can only be found in the Cheerios packaging. The cents are just ordinary cents.
     
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  19. Randy Abercrombie

    Randy Abercrombie Supporter! Supporter

    You mean.... The US Mint produced a unique strike simply for inclusion in a breakfast cereal box? Am I reading this right?
     
  20. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    LOL ! No, the mint did not do that. It was purely accidental. The whole thing was a pre-planned promotion for the coins before they were ever released. They were minted using dies that were produced when the mint was still getting production dies ready for use.
     
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