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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ewomack, post: 4747837, member: 15588&quot;]The entire topic of value quickly becomes almost philosophical because of the numerous variables, such as reasons and situations, that exist between people and so-called &quot;things of value.&quot; Though I have no definite answers, I&#039;ve bought and sold collectibles enough to know that they <i>never</i> have a single &quot;definite&quot; value - value is more amorphous and dynamic and it always seems determined from within some kind of range or context.</p><p><br /></p><p>Typically, <i>not always</i>, when someone asks &quot;how much is a coin worth&quot; they usually, again <i>not always</i>, want to know &quot;how much could I sell it for or should I just spend it as pocket change?&quot; For someone with little or no knowledge, a price guide will at least give a <i>general idea</i> where the coin in question stands. If someone finds themselves holding a 1916-D Mercury dime given to them from a grandparent, any standard price guide will quickly tell them that they have <i>something</i> of &quot;value&quot; and at least let them know that they shouldn&#039;t throw it in the change jar. Depending on many variables, they may later become disappointed that dealers don&#039;t offer them the same figures quoted in those price guides, but they at least know <i>something</i> and are less likely to sell a 1916-D Mercury for $2 (which an unscrupulous dealer might attempt). So in some contexts price guides are not <i>completely</i> useless, though they are by no means not without serious flaws. But people without other resources need to start somewhere.</p><p><br /></p><p>Adding in auction prices, I&#039;ve seen these vary greatly for the same object, both in and outside of coins. Some people realized $10 for something while others only realized $5 on the same auction site. To take an example outside of coins, when I recently went to sell a collectible statue that I paid $50 for almost 20 years ago, I looked up auction prices for it on the Internet. These varied non-linearly from $60 to $300 over a range of 10 years up to the present. Its value seemed almost random over that time period. So what should I sell it for? I didn&#039;t know, but I had a general range, so I started an auction at $70 and ended up getting $175. Why did someone else, only a year before, only get $60 when I made almost three times that amount? It&#039;s almost impossible to tell. It depends on how many bidders you attract for an item and how badly they want that item. If only one person had bid on the item, I probably would have walked away with only $70 minus auction fees. Some of it comes down to pure luck and situation. So what is the statue&#039;s real &quot;value?&quot; $175? $300? It&#039;s definitely worth something because it sold for far more than I paid for it. But based on that experience if someone asked me &quot;what is this statue worth?&quot; I would have to say &quot;somewhere between $60 and $300 based upon the quality of bidders that happen to show up when you put it up for auction, but it could also go above or below that.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Coins appear to have less varying values, but I&#039;ve seen great variations even there and auction results seem to almost always depend on how many bidders show up and how badly they want the item. You may auction an item that went for $100 even a week before, but your auction only gets $60. But if a price sheet says that the particular coin should be worth $100 and you only received $60, then what is &quot;the value?&quot; Obviously, condition and other subjective factors also play a part here, but in the end no one really knows the &quot;value&quot; of an item because the situations and people involve can vary so widely. From what I can tell, and I claim no expertise on this, value seems to be derived partially on past data (including guides and auctions), but also on timing, situation and circumstance. Something that hammers at $100 today could hammer for $50 a week later. Value, as such, is never guaranteed and can sometimes fluctuate wildly and unexpectedly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Though, again, a 1916-D Mercury is unlikely to suddenly plummet in value, but circumstances over time will definitely effect its value, such as disposable income of a population or economic conditions. But lesser known, or more common, pieces seem subject to far more variability. In the end, when selling something, even coins, I&#039;ve given up on trying to determine the &quot;value&quot; of that thing and instead tried to determine the minimum return that I would let it go for. Would I be disappointed in selling it for less than $20? Then I wouldn&#039;t start the auction at less than $20. I would also determine the best ending date and time for that auction. Auctions that end during the day in the middle of the week tend to attract fewer bidders than those that end on Sunday at 7:00 PM. There are so many factors. In the end, it&#039;s good to keep in mind that buying anything considered a &quot;collectible&quot; comes with a certain amount of risk. What banks state on disclosures for investment accounts also applies here: &quot;may lose value.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>I think this clip, though it deals with a valuable stamp, says a lot about the variability of &quot;value&quot; as the dealer sells a stamp for vastly more than its catalogue and auction values. In the end, the dealer knew the context, the people involved and how badly they wanted the stamp.</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]WtabQnm1t8I[/MEDIA][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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