I have not yet bought the red or blue book or any other book concerning values of coins. What I have done is pulled up a number of web sites that have given their range of values of what they believe certain coins to be worth. First off, are yearly pricing books good since pricing of coins can change frequently and therefore book pricing cannot keep up with online guides. Numismaster.com appears to have a good website that details their suggested pricing of coins. But the website says that the pricing is only for those graded by PCGS . . . and does not say whether it is the suggested price for a retailer, or an EBay experience. Obviously there is quite a difference between the expected value on numismaster.com and what coins are selling for on EBay. The question is whether this pricing 'guide' on Numismaster is only a range or suggested value, and that coins that sell for 1/2 the suggested price on EBay doesn't invalidate the coins value? For instance if a PCGS MS65 coin can be auctioned on EBay for $250, but has a $600 value on Numismaster (or any other price guide), what is the real value? Did I make money on paper on the deal, or is the value what I paid for the coin because a coin is only worth what someone is willing able to pay? Price in a guide book or online resource is a good starting point to determine what a coin might be worth at a given point in time. But I've recently read online that one really doesn't want to pay full listing price, but many use a 70% rule. If a coin has a list value of $900, then someone wouldn't want to buy it for more than $630. I've also noticed that on EBay, coins are often sold at the list price that is 2 or 3 or 4 grades lower than what the grade of coin is. For instance, an XF40 coin sold for a price guide price of a VF20. Is that common on EBay? Is that common at retail or coin shop or show? The price one pays .... lowest price possible for the highest quality goods . . . is important. But for instance on ebay, let's take 20 Morgan silver dollars that have a melt value of $24 a coin. That means the 20 coins have a total melt value of $480. But if you were able to buy those coins for $480, and immediately sell them for melt, you wouldn't get $480. You might if lucky get 90% of melt or $432. But I've found it impossible lately on EBay to get Morgan Dollars for less than melt....even when the condition is unkown! People seem to be paying more than melt value for bad looking coins . . . even I know this with my limited knowledge . . . when they aren't worth more than the silver in the coin. So why do some coins in an auction sell for $100 or $200 less than price book value? Are they deals or just not the 'quality' others are looking for and therefore fetch a lower price even with the PCGS designation? It doesn't make much sense to me that a bunch of terrible looking G coins would sell for above melt, while other well graded coins sell for less than their book value - unless that's the nature of the beast.
First rule I follow as a collector, not as an investor, buy the coin, not the grade or slab. If you like the coin, set the price your willing to pay. What the true value is what you want it to be valued at, just others aren't going to likely agree with you at times. Price guides are exactly what they say they are, a guide. They pull statistics on sales and try to determine a median on such numbers to give an overall value of a particular coin. What you see on eBay is what people are willing to pay, sometimes it's lower than the price guide, sometimes it's way higher than the price guide values it at. Now the second rule, only use the guide to get an idea of what people are willing to buy a coin at the given price, but ultimately the final price if it's you that is buying is determined by you in most cases. When you talk about people buying coins at 70% of their price guide value, these are usually dealers. They deal to make money. It's like taking your stuff to a pawn shop, if the item is worth $1000, why would the pawn shop buy it from you for $1000 to then sell it for $1000? They'd go out of business if they did that, same applies to dealers and what they're willing to pay. As for melt, well, consider them dealers as well, if they gave you actual melt value only to turn around to sell it at the actual value, they'd make no money but actually lose money in labor costs so they wouldn't be in business for too long. Hope some of this info helps.
David - if you haven't yet go to coins.ha.com and register - it's free. Once you have done that then you can use the Auction Results Archive. That will give you real world values on pretty much any coin. And if you take the time to look at those completed auctions, look at the coin, look at the grades assigned, then a whole lot will begin to make sense for you and a bunch of questions will be answered. Of course this going to create more questions too. And you can feel free to ask them all. You will get answers. But in a nutshell, forget price guides, any price guide. Do as I suggested and you should understand why I said that pretty dang quickly
Listen to G. Every collector should be a member (and use) Heritage Auction Archives. They are a gold mine of information for the beginning (and advanced) collector, and most price guides are worthless (some more than others).
BUT, every US collectors should own a copy of the Red Book. Its not for pricing bu the information that is in there. In many ways, the Red Book is the decider of the corpus of US "coins". I know of no greater bargain for a beginning collector than a Red Book. I am not even saying it has to be a new one, go buy one a few years old for $5. Its the KNOWLEDGE, and a handy source of mintages and the like that is valuable. Everyone wants everything online, well I have yet to see any online reference as good as standard references like the red book, Sears for ancients, and the like. Buy the book cheap, and have a book you can learn something from for months minimum as a bedside read. Chris
Good! Because I have to tell you, those books' price guides are off by about 20%, as they were outdated by the time those books were published and released. You'd be better off tracking completed sales on eBay, Teletrade, and Heritage to get an idea of what people are paying for different coins. However, the Red Book is one of the best have as far as coin information goes. Q. David Bowers' The Official Red Book A Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars, by Whitman Publishing is a great book for Morgan information, and you can also learn about VAMS at vamworld.com.
Exactly, it makes a great.. well, guide. You can still get ballpark figures of prices for coins but all the other information is relevant to collecting coins.
Thanks for the replies...but I do wonder about not buyng for the grade or slab. Certainly I would want to buy a coin that is appealing to me, but I also would want it to be appealing to someone else if I needed to sell it. Therefore, having it verified by PCGS as authentic, not cleaned, and of certain VAM or grade probably is important to me - especially as I start out. I've been reading that PCGS is the top trusted grading company with many. What I don't like is the old fashion writing of grade on a white paper holder of coin (with price) because anyone can write anything they like - it doesn't have to be true. That to me is more of a trap than buying a coin because it's been slabbed. I have been to both the VAMWorld.com and Heritage Websites. Will go ahead and register at Heritage . . . so much information I'm a little bit on overload.
Don't worry about trying to learn everything and rush into buying. More often then not, reading, studying and asking questions will save/make you more money in the long run. Morgan dollars have been around for over 125 years, I'm sure there will be plenty around in a few weeks,months or years. A little time spent now will pay dividends in the future.:thumb:
Well that's kind of what we are trying to get across to you. And why we suggest that you do not buy coins until you know a bit more. And even when you have learned everything there is to learn from the Heritage site - you will have still only scratched the surface. But - you would then know enough to really enjoy the hobby
