I am wondering what everyone's opinion is on price guide publications and which do you prefer. Not counting internet searches for completed auctions, etc. I have read the grey sheet, the price guides in coin world, coinage, and of course the Red Book. At a recent club auction I seen people using all different current publications. Just trying to get a general consensus as to which is the most trusted or used in the industry so I can plan on a future subscription. Thanks, David
Where price guides are concerned, my personal preference would be the CDN. I'm not a big fan of the price guides published by the coin magazines. What do you think would happen if they priced coins lower than their advertisers? Chris
My personal opinion of published price guides is they're irrelevant for retail purchasers. The important price guide is what people are paying for that coin now, because they're your competition to buy it. Your "subscription" should be always-open tabs in your browser with Ebay and PCGS Auction Results, be it on your computer or your phone at the show. That said, I realize that not all coins fit this model. Another thing is, I've always felt that you shouldn't extend your shopping reach beyond the number of different issues you can keep a "feel" for in your own head; stretching yourself too far is how you get taken. Then again, I care not a whit about paying $100 for a coin I might have had for $90. If I want the coin, I want the coin.
If you had to absolutely pick one the grey sheet would be the one, but with that said there are a lot of coins you wont ever get at the prices listed and don't expect to get the wholesale pricing either.
I'll bet if you could actually count them over a period of 13 years this question has been asked a thousand times or more on this forum alone. In all that time my answer has always been the same - none of the published price guides are worth the paper they are printed on. With one exception, CDN. And even then CDN is still only a guide that gives you a ballpark number. However, things have recently changed. CDN no longer uses the same method for determining coin values that they previously used, they now have a new method. For decades CDN listed values based on actual, real world prices taken from the electronic dealer networks on a weekly basis. That was the 1 single source for determining values for any given week. But they no longer do that. Today they accumulate pricing information from several different sources and then assign a value to a given coin in a given grade. To me the sources are what matter when it comes to the accuracy, the real world value, for any given coin. In other words, if the source is good, then the value is good. But if the source is no good, then the value is no good. And that's the thing right there, as of yet the jury is still out as to whether what CDN is doing today results in accurate pricing information - or not.
Interesting. I'm thinking the sophistication of their algorithm is key here; you gotta know they're not crunching all these numbers in their own heads. With luck, and they give every indication of being capable of ongoing diligence, even if they're not perfect now they're always striving in that direction. It raises my opinion of their value.
