It seems that, now, you need to PAY just to SEE auction prices at acsearch.info Before, just signing in would give you access to prices for sold listings at numerous auction sites. Oh, and check the prices: 160EU = 180USD for 2 years.
What? Where? Why? Who? I have no idea what this site is that you mention, but there is no reason to pay for it. The Heritage archives are free (the largest coin auction firm in the world), as is CoinFacts. Those two should get you most of what you need.
I sorta saw it coming. Since I use the site almost every day, I ponied up for the 1-year membership. Still much, much cheaper than Coin Archives.
Sales of ancient coins, hammer prices from all the major and not-so-major auction houses. Acsearch is a great resource for market analysis if you collect or deal ancient coins. Paying for it was bound to happen.
You paid? Well, you wouldn't be doing it unless there was some value in it for you. I won't be paying for it. It IS very unfortunate, though. I used it to get hammer prices for contemporary World Coins.
A very unfortunate change, though one that I feared would be coming. At least viewing the coins is still free, and the prices realized can often be found elsewhere (though with some work).
They deserve to ask for compensation for using the site. It's a lot of work to run and maintain, and offer improved content for such a site, and sites like CoinArchives charge MUCH more for a Pro membership. Alternatively, if you don't want to pay, you can register with all the various auction companies and sift through results yourself... or pay the higher BP when you buy from firms like Heritage that "don't charge" you to access their archives. It's just a matter of perspective and how much information is worth if you want to save money bidding and buying coins at accurate market prices.
I'm a dealer, so yes, it is valuable to me to keep my finger on the pulse of the market. After currency conversion, it works out to $8.16 per month, which doesn't seem too bad, especially since I quit smoking a few months ago and I'm currently saving about $8 a day.
Yes Heritage is free, and for years so was acsearch, (as was CoinArchives). The difference between the two is that Heritage only shows results from Heritage auctions, acsearch showed results from all auction houses in the US and Europe. And not just for ancient coins, but US and world coins as well. Thus it was much more comprehensive than Heritage. Though most who used it did so to research world and ancient coins. And it was the last, comprehensive, free source to do so. For years I have recommended 3 sources for researching auction archives, Heritage, Coin Archives, and acsearch - all were free. Now Heritage is the only one left that is free, but as I mentioned limited to only their auctions, which cuts out most of the information. Honestly I don't blame them for charging just like Coin Archives decided to do a few years back. But I sure am sad to see that change.
That should tell people something, enjoy Heritage while you can. Chances are at some point it will go pay for use as well.
On the other hand, the PCGS Auction Archive is now free, and the entire Heritage archive is just a subset of it. If Heritage chooses to move to a subscription model (frankly, I'd starve to find the money to pay if they did; it's the single best teaching resource available to me), we'll still have the raw grade/price/timeline model from that site if not the high-res imagery. This is a difficult topic. People deserve compensation for long and hard work - and nobody can deny the process of collating so much data is long work - but in most cases the information being collated itself is in the public domain so all you're paying for is someone doing the legwork for you.
