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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1045563, member: 112&quot;]When I was buying coins here is what I would always do - first of all I&#039;d check all of the dealers&#039; that I normally used. If none of them had the coin I wanted at the time then I started searching basically anywhere, including ebay, just to see what was out there and where it was priced. And because I always received all the catalogs from the various aution houses I pretty well knew what was coming in the near future too. That always included Heritage, but it was also Bowers &amp; Marena, Stacks, CNG, Spinks, CNR etc etc. So I knew what was available or soon would be on the market at any given time. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now this is quite a bit of work just keeping up with all this. But if you want to maximize your dollars for your collection that is what it takes. In my opinion many people don&#039;t out enough planning into their buying. Instead they tend to be somewhat impulsive and just buy stuff as it comes along. And most in my opinion end up paying more for coins than they need to because they don&#039;t exercise enough patience. To me, patience and knowledge are the two key ingredients in putting a collection together.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now keeping up with the market teaches you a ton about pricing and values. You can&#039;t help but learn simply because you are seeing what coins in a given condition sell for to educated buyers on a consistent basis. And the people that are using the auction houses are truly the educated buyers. Do you know why ? Because those people are the smart dealers for the most part. Dealers probably buy 75% or more of all the coins sold in large auctions. And they buy them because most of the time they already have the coins they are buying sold to a customer of theirs. Now that customer most of the time is just another dealer. Dealer to dealer sales probably constitute 80-85% of all coin sales ever made. And once you realize this something else always seems to happen - the lightbulb goes on !</p><p><br /></p><p>You see, if dealers are doing most of the buying at big auctions, and they are. And if dealers are mostly selling to other dealers, and they are. Then where should you be doing your buying ? At the auctions of course.</p><p><br /></p><p>Large coin auctions do something for collectors that gives them an advanatage. It puts them on a level playing field with the dealers because it gives them a chance to buy the coins at the same price that the dealers are paying.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now ask yourself - would you rather buy at the price the dealers are paying ? Or would rather wait and then buy the coin from the dealer after he&#039;s marked up to cover his margins ?</p><p><br /></p><p>That Vess is why you should check, not only Heritage, but all of the other auction houses as well more often.</p><p><br /></p><p>Back to the subject though - the NGC price guide. If you use Heritage to check on prices, you&#039;ll will see the NGC and PCGS price guides every single time. But you will also see actual realized sales from auctions right beside them. Click on this link (just an example, you&#039;ll see the same thing with every coin) - <a href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=210114&amp;Lot_No=26155" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=210114&amp;Lot_No=26155" rel="nofollow">http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=210114&amp;Lot_No=26155</a> - then scroll down and look. You&#039;ll see what I mean.</p><p><br /></p><p>edit - and Vess, those prices aren&#039;t really steals. They are the norm. They only appear to be steals because you are used to seeing higher prices for those coins because of how and where you buy them. Think about that <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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