hey fellow collectors, during my daily search on ebay i noticed various postings of people selling large british pennies, austrailian pennies, and thai baht for what i deem as rediculous prices of 4 dollars for the pennies and 10 dollars for the thai baht. i have a 1903 large british penny, a 1943 large austrailian penny, and numerous thai bahi in 1, 5, and 10 denominations. could anyone tell me the value of them cuz the prices on e-bay seem a little far-fetched to me. Thanks, Tony.
also i just noticed italian lire sellin for curiously high prices, i have 100 and 500 lire coins from italy so if anyone knows the true value of them could u please let me know. Thanks, Tony.
Ebay is not the best place to look to see what prices are. Sometimes they are all over the place. But if you don't have a book, I'd suggest finding a library that has it and go reference these (assuming you know the grade of each coin you have). I don't think it's just possible to give accurate prices on the coins you mentioned without seeing the coins (thru pictures) or knowing the grades. Pictures need to be obverse and reverse, too.
It depends on the dates too of course. A British penny from 1964 isn't worth the same as one from 1864. On eBay though, look at the completed auctions and see what they sold for. That's a better indication than the asking price.
Yeah, and even then you need to take the prices with a grain of salt. The major problem with using EBay as "market prices" is variability in grading, attributions, and lack of knowing participants. A "market price" assumes the grade is correct, the attribution is correct, and both the buyer and seller are knowledgable. Ebay fails on nearly every count. I would say a Krause book, or prices asked by dealers at a show, would be more indicative of a true market value, though both of these have problems as well. Chris
I think I've talked about this on here before with people, but I think the argument could be made that the eBay value is essentially the market price, because that's what they're selling for. I have some coins that Krause says are worth $5 and I can put them on eBay at a starting bid of 99 cents and get no bites, but another coin that Krause says is worth $1 goes for $10 on eBay with 15 bids. EBay can be a much more accurate appraisal of what the real demand is for something. To be more specific, I'm working on a set of modern Mexican coins, and one that I need is the 1973 one centavo. Krause lists the value at about $2, but I've checked eBay for months and no one ever lists one. Finally there was one listed, and it ended up selling for $13. So who's right about the value? EBay or Krause? Even if buyers on eBay aren't knowledgeable, they still need to be factored in. There are unknowledgeable buyers at coin shows too. Some people pay the asking price when buying a car too, and others bargain for an hour.
a coins value is best determined by the market prices being paid. by market prices i mean dealers as opposed to ebay and other auction sites...........
Well considering I have bought $1000 worth of coins for $100, and $50 worth of coins for $150, which is the market? I bet you could put together a coin that has sold, in the same condition, for $5 one day and $100 the next, (I have literally seen this with roman coins). Which price is the "market"? This is why auction results, and auction, are troublesome to determine market levels from. Ebay is just accentuated since most sellers lie about the grades, making comparisons almost impossible since I believe you have to have a coin in hand to truly grade it. Photos can too easily be manipulated or distorted. If you are not positive the coins are the same grade, any values are meaningless. Your example of a common coin you cannot find for sale does not mean its worth a lot. I looked for a coin in every major catalog and every major show for two years once and finally found it for sale for $80. It was not a "rare" coin, just not for sale. Like I said, Krause and dealers have problems with using them too. Mainly both list common issues too high, and Krause lists rare coins too low. But, given all of the "noise", I think its the best compromise to use, but always keeping in mind its simply an estimate. I bet you some guy with a few rolls of those 1973 centavos would love to believe they are worth $13 a piece, but I bet you if he tried to sell more than 1 at a time the price would crash to $1. There is an old saying, that Ebay is like a lake miles wide and a foot deep. Edit: As an example a seller was selling a coin book on Ebay once. It was new and listed at $40. He sold them individually at first, getting above $20 the first few times. Then they started going down each auction down to $4. Then he posted x6 auctions, and these went for $20 initially, then down to $10 or less. They were great books, and I bought about 10 auctions x6, and put them away. Today that book on Ebay goes for about $10 again because he stopped selling them there. Ebay is not good with volumes of specific merchandise, its good for different types of merchandise.
http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/World-Coin-Price-Guide.aspx Is a great place to get values for coins
You make good points, Medoraman. I guess the lesson I would take away from it is that Krause is good to find the mintage numbers and get a general idea of the value, but keep in mind that just because the book gives that value, it doesn't mean you can buy or sell the coin at that value. EBay is good to see how the demand and value is trending, but is not an absolute indication of the value either. I think most people should know better than to pay any attention to a seller's grade on eBay. Look at the photos, read the description and grade it yourself. When I list my own coins on eBay, that's how I approach it. I'm not going to try to give it a grade, because that just opens me up for someone complaining after they receive it. But to the original poster's question, there are a lot of people who list on eBay at way inflated prices. Sometimes I think they're just someone who inherited or found some old coins in the attic and are just guessing they're worth because they are old and have no other basis for their prices. I was looking at another auction site that was not eBay, and there was one seller with a bunch of world coins listed, and he was asking $100 for each. They were all common, modern coins worth less than a dollar apiece. The important thing is not to bid on a coin on eBay impulsively - have an idea of what it's worth. If nothing else you can search completed auctions and see what similar ones are selling for so you're not the sucker who's payin $100 for that $1 coin.
All very good points sir, I agree. Again it comes back to knowledge. Those who have more will get better deals. Those who don't will get fleeced unfortunately. You also make a great point there is no one place to go and get the answer for a value of a coin. You want to know a trick? The best collectors I have ever met had their guidebooks just TRASHED. They started with the guide book, used it thoroughly and memorizing it, and then used it to make their own notes as to rarity and values. It was this personal information that enabled them to be great collectors, and it is this knowledge that earned them money and enabled them to form great collections. I wish I had the discipline to follow a series and take notes like that, but I get too distracted by the lastest "pretty". Chris
A coins value is determined by a buyer and seller agreeing on a price. The value is instantaneous and is not the absolute basis for succeeding transactions though it does tend to influence future transactions to the extent that other prospective buyers and sellers are aware of the previous consumated deal. Since eBay and Heritage Galleries, --for instance-- offer sophisticated methods of learning prices realized on their respective sites, and since most transactions at the dealer level do not, I would say that the auction houses actually provide a more accurate appraisal based simply on the accesibility of data on past transactions.
It all sounds like good advice. What I'm getting from all of this is that "experience" is what matters most. Like a well trained and experienced craftsman at his trade.
it all deopends on where you live really, in the uk generally the demand is for british coinage and they usually command the best prices, whereas in the states the same can be said of usa coinage.........if for instance i were to sell my vast collection of british coins from celtic to 2011 then i would realise a far higher price in london than i would in new york because of the demand from the buyers on the day. but if i had a vast collection of usa coins then they would be sent to new york to earn top dollar, hopefully that answers one part of the question.
Please read my comments here - http://www.cointalk.com/t193151/ Then I would ask you to read this thread - http://www.cointalk.com/t118776-12/ - Yes, it is quite lengthy but in that thread you will read something (written by me) about the value of a given coin in a given grade. And what you will find is how greatly that value can vary. Now granted, it is US coins being discussed in that thread. But the same thing is true when it comes to world coinage. And oddly enough, even though that thread uses coins of significant value as examples, when it comes to the values of common, everyday, world coinage in a given grade the differences in those values are quite often even more exaggerated.For example, a given coin in XF may one day sell for $12 and the very next day that exact coin in XF may sell for $60. So which of those values would you use for your coin ? Do you see what I mean ? Earlier in this thread moneyer said - " a coins value is best determined by the market prices being paid. by market prices i mean dealers as opposed to ebay and other auction sites..........." And when it comes to common, everyday world coinage he is exactly correct. For if you go to try and sell your common world coinage when you need the money, a dealer is going to be the person buying it. You aren't going to have time to try and sell off collection of common world coinage to private individuals on ebay when you need the money, you are going to have to sell your coins and sell them now. And a dealer is going to be your only recourse. Thus what the dealer will pay you is what establishes the true value of your coins.
What you said here makes a lot of sense, but of course the Catch 22 is that you need to get experience somewhere. I am still probably on the novice side of the scale, but I know a lot more now than I did a year ago, and that just comes from looking through world coin bins, seeing what shows up a lot and what doesn't, watching auctions on eBay and seeing what things sell for, looking coins up in Krause and learning the rare dates, and so on. I've probably made a lot of dumb purchases but I keep my buys low-value so at least there isn't a lot of money at risk. Hopefully some day I will feel more like an expert. For now I just know that I know more than I did last week.
