I was looking at coin prices the other day and something doesn't seem accurate about the price guide I use. This question has probably been asked before, but what is the best price guide to use? I thought about ordering grey sheets, except they probably would get thrown out by my mom or dad. Is there any others that are pretty accurate? Thanks ahead of time. Here is the I use. http://www.bestcoin.com/united-states-coin-pricing-guide.htm Phoenix
The best price guide you'll ever have is realized auction prices. But any guide is just a guide - the prices are not carved in stone. Heritage is a great source for realized auction prices - it's free to sign up and it's always there - nothing to save or worry about being thrown away. For that matter you can download the CDN Grey Sheets and not worry about anything being thrown out.
Phoenix: I usually use the grey sheet for pricing, especially when buying. Try to buy at or about bid, unless the piece is especially scarce. But, there are stupid prices all the time. A dealer recently told me about a Fine-12 1909 O Barber quarter that the seller wanted four times bid. Sure the piece is very scarce, but... he was asking for XF prices. So, there are always stupid prices. Be careful.
The best thing I've found is to average prices you find on the internet and a few books or mags with prices. I make list of the coins in question, list a price in the extreamely outdated 2007 Red Book, add the price from the PCGS web site, add a price from Millers Mint web site, a few other miscellaneous web sites if they list the coins I'm interested in and then average the prices. This appears to be a lot of work but that is what I carry at coin shows and if a dealer has what I want in the price range I've averaged, I may even buy that one. It appears that there are more and more web sites with coin prices poping up and they vary quite substantially so for me the averaging system is the way I go with.
Cool thanks all. Thanks for letting me know what I needed to know. Know do a little research and maybe pay a visit to my local dealer this weekend... Phoenix
