My dealer wants to charge way above the 2016 Red Book prices on some good and very good large cents. Is that legitimate or is he charging too much?
Red book prices are not law, that's why they call it a "guide". (it's not a good one, though) They are only worth whatever a buyer will pay. He can charge whatever he wants. Doesn't mean he'll get it. Did you make a counter offer?
Try checking out these auction records. After looking at them, you may be able to tell if the Red Book is too low or if he is too high. http://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices/
No. Hadn't thought of doing that. I doubt he'd accept counter offers, though I've never tried. He might have a monthly publication from which he gets his prices, though his clerk talked about auctions, as if the prices are coming from auction prices of similar coins. I would think it would be difficult to price hundreds, if not thousands of coins according to auction prices. That would be a lot of research, wouldn't it?
What I hear most from dealers is that they can't get the inventory to replace what's sold. They all say that finding type coins is getting harder and harder. That said I'm guessing that they are not up to dealing on an item that may or may not bring their asking price.
Any chance that they were rare die parings or varieties? Just going off of the date and condition doesn't always work with large cents.
I talked with the clerk at the store. Her explanation was that the Red Book was not able to keep up with the rapid increase in large cent prices. I do know that large cent prices have increased significantly in the last one or two Red Books. She said nothing about rare die parings or varieties.
Check out this site also http://www.largecents.net/forsale.php - Tom Deck is one of my favorite dealers in large cents. Plus you can look at his collection on the site also. He collects by varieties. Also note varieties will make a difference in prices. There are a lot of books you can get on Large Cents to learn how to get the variety. You can also check http://www.hjbltd.com/ Harlan J Berk. They had a large collection of Large Cents for sale right now. I think they are reasonably priced.
Many here will say the problem with the red book is that it's "outdated" by the time it's released, but the problem is where the prices come from in the first place; meaning, go back the six or whatever months and it was still generally poor then too. There are prices listed in the Redbook that would be fantastic for nice, original skinned, and no-problem material, while for with others it's wholly unrealistic (the latter more often than the former, of course). With that said, "good and very good large cents" does not tell us much, so perhaps you could provide more detailed information on the individual coins. Also, another suggestion for copper pricing (scroll down to the bottom).... http://www.eacs.org/books.html
I didn't write down the prices, but he was charging VG-8 and F-12 prices for G-4 or G-6 coins. The prices just didn't seem close. However, I'll repeat that in the last year or two, prices have jumped significantly in the Red Book for large cents. Maybe they are still on the rise.
I thought that the Red Book was always high like ideal retail. What does the Blue Book and Grey Sheet say about the prices?
I don't have a Grey Sheet. Believe it or not, the median 2016 Blue Book Values in my large cent collection (58 coins) are running at 73% of the 2016 Red Book values. That is extremely high. Perhaps that would suggest retail prices are going to continue to rise.
Keep in mind Red Book proces are based solely on a technical grade. So if a coin grades VG-8, for example, but has unusually nice eye appeal, it will tend to sell for a bit more than the Red Book value.