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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;PaddyB, post: 1604223, member: 40017&quot;]... Or you could look at it the other way round. Ebay, and other online means of selling, now represent a very large proportion of the whole market place, if not the majority. The laws of supply and demand have free play in such a high visibility and openly competitive environment, so maybe the prices there are more likely to represent the true value of a coin, and it is the traditional dealer (and their reference books) that are now out of date?</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t say I like it, but there are definitely two sides to this argument. Certainly if you have the time and access to traditional face to face dealers, you have a better chance of getting a good price than online. And I agree most BINs online are well over the top, but an open auction without reserve is more likely to end up with a true current value than a reference book.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are of course extraneous blips in the system - recently there was a serious error coin produced by the Royal Mint in the UK(Undated 20p in 2008). Dealers and serious collectors soon spotted it, and the price started at about GBP 120. After a while it became apparent that there were at least 200,000 of them in circulation, and the price drifted down to around GBP 30. Then the press got hold of it, and there were articles in all the papers and on TV. The price went crazy, and one lucky seller realised GBP 7000 for his find. Now things have settled down again and they sell for GBP 50 to GBP 70.</p><p><br /></p><p>Other tilting factors include online over-grading by inexperienced sellers, and also the &quot;money-laundering&quot; effect of dealing in Precious Metals.</p><p><br /></p><p>But the reference books are dependent on information from formal auctions, and if a coin does not turn up for a long time, the indicated prices can be years out of date. I spent 5 years trying to get an 1827 sixpence for my collection, watching both online and traditional auctions, without success. The reference books at the time indicated it was no more scarce or expensive than other dates around then. When I eventually got one, I had to pay about 5 times the suggested price, and now the ref books show it substantially higher than before.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I would say no source of coins has the monopoly on correctness - a coin is worth what you have to pay to get it, or what you can sell it for! But as a buyer or a seller, you can select your market to optimise your chances.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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