When you view coins that are being auctioned or even fixed price listings would you like to see price guide values ?
Good idea. It can’t hurt to see the price guide values. If somebody absolutely wants to have a coin, they can disregard the values.
I usually know what I'm willing to pay so the price guide doesn't guide me much. Sometimes, I just see it as a marketing ploy.
Too many other factors to consider when you decide what you personally are willing to pay. and eye appeal vary, price guides don't take into account other things. plus whos price guide is it. they (publisher) may be biased, or use past auctions before the market changed, who knows.
I love Busties as much as the OP but honestly who can keep the price guide values for all the years, major varieties and grades in mind? Every time I bid on a bust half, I have to check the price guide value anyways to be aware of the current retail value of the coin. Now bust halves were just an example. What about all the other US coins? Non-US coins?
I seldom buy coins from online auctions, so the price guides don't really help me much. I mostly buy tokens and you seldom see a price guide for tokens. I didn't vote a yes or no because neither really applied to me. It may be helpful for some but not so much for others. I can't remember ever buying a coin specifically because there was a price guide. The Red Book and the grey sheet, they're just guides. May be helpful to some, but if you look up previous prices sold for a specific coin, that may work better, jmho.
I think it would be useful,as long as "the user " understands it is just that a guide. Not gospel. ....now I do use guides that I believe to be current on pricing on items esspecially that trend upwards or key coins. I'm a firm believer that certain words or terms should be defined to newbies. We tell them buy the red book....but don't reinforce the term guide. Thus new or YN's take current pricing to be fact, and to that now knowing anything about grading. So a well worded disclaimer added would be advisable.
When I am interested in purchasing a coin. Whether it be via auction or a direct purchase the very first thing I do is look at several different price/auction guides. As an old guy I tend to lose my place when I have multiple search windows opened. To me, yes this would be helpful......
When Heritage sells a coin they provide the values from basically all the price guides - all lined up in a row. And they do so in their auction archives as well. Problem is, all price guides are worthless anyway, in regard to the real world value of the coin, so it doesn't really matter.
I prefer seeing comparable sales over a price guide, but will look at price guides if nothing else is available. CoinFacts is my go-to. A single price guide in an auction isn't going to take the place of that. As a cynical buyer, I'm going to be thinking the guide is optimistic.
When I see a price guide value listed it usually tells me that the coin will most likely sell for less than that. If it's a coin I'm interested in I'll compare the coin with those sold in previous auctions. If it's a clearly outstanding coin I may consider bidding over price guide. For example, there was a Barber quarter being auctioned that had fantastic luster. I compared this coin to similarly graded examples that sold in previos auctions and none were even close as far as luster and strike. I bid over price guide and still didn't win.
It can’t hurt to provide various guide values, despite the noteworthy shortcomings of the figures. Mix them with auction sales figures and you might decipher a fair figure. Then again, maybe not.
