If the 2006 Red Book is being issued in May - are their prices intended to be a speculation for values in 2006, or current at the time of printing? I wonder, because I'm thinking about a story I heard once about a certain date morgan that was considered somewhat rare - then a whole bunch were found in a bank vault, and it made the prices drop significantly. If this process were to repeat from June to July, wouldn't the Red Book feel somewhat sheepish, if their 2006 prices weren't even close at the beginning of 2006? I'll grant that, already, they run higher than actual market, but with so much advance printing time, it would seem they must do somesort of speculation. What about Gold? A lot of the common dates trade at bullion+x%. If the gold market took a dive in november, which could easily happen - wouldn't these pages of the Red Book worthless or misleading?
As long as you're aware of when the values were tabulated, the Red Books can be informative. For example, if the gold market takes a dive in November, and you know the values in the Red Book were compiled in March, you can at least get a feel for value relative to other gold coins. In a short term determination of value/cost, the Red Book probably doesn't have the value it once did, but if you're trying to determine a trend (i.e. gold dollars have risen x% in the last few years), it can be helpful.
I bought my first Red Book in 1960 - from that day til now I have yet to see their prices be accurate.
Opps Never mind, the next post answered it for me. I guess if ya like em buy em, or pay for grey sheet an hope to fine a deal.Eh Very few deal!
