OK, wasn't sure how to describe or title this but as the story goes... I typically am chasing silver, 'in pocket at spot' is my goal, which has its ebbs and flows in actual achievability, so I have dipped my toe into the numismatic pool so to speak, looking for value buys (auction wins) on pre- WW2 wheat cents (primarily). I have been using the value charts listed on jmbullion, which states it uses the red book values/information for its data. The lowest 'rating' shown on the charts is 'good'. Now, some descriptions I've seen of 'good' is basically if you can make out the date and imagery for what they are. So looking for a little help on of my thinking is correct.
Red Book G-4 Good-date worn but apparent. Lines in wheat heads missing. Full rims. VG-8 Very Good-half of lines in wheat heads visible. F-12 Fine-wheat lines worn but visible. I'd give it an F-12
So my judgement of their description of 'good' seems to be reasonable. I got this coin for $23. As long as I can reliably trust the charts, it'll keep me occupied.
Red Book prices are known to be a bit high on most coins. I use auction results to set a value. https://www.pcgs.com/auctionprices
Idhair, Which auction price do you use? The hammer price or the price after the commission is added on?
I was hoping to get some sort of a discussion about this in general. I like the 'best of the best' too, but sometimes the $$$ seems hard to justify the speculative nature of the hobby, hence my looking for what I would call value buys. If the charts can be deemed somewhat reliable, one could, with a good eye of what is rated at least "good", and you can get "good" (or better) coins for say, half, of the Red Book 'good' pricing, you are way ahead. Unlike silver where the underlying pricing is always bouncing around, I'd imagine there aren't too many dramatic changes in the cent and nickel pricing overall, except creeping up. I guess what kind of spurred me was winning this coin at what I thought was a really good price in a sense, so easily. Hell, if you told someone I know that I'd spent $20 on a penny, they'd swear you were lying right off the bat, it's that out of my nature. But heck, if I can just hit the auctions and feel fairly comfortable/confident that I'm not overbidding on stuff, you could almost make a living flipping coins...LOL
@jb10000lakes your coin looks to be a VF-20/25 BN to me. As for your question to @ldhair about what price to use--use the Hammer Price, as the Buyers Cost will--depending upon the Auctioneer/Venue--vary from say 10% to 20%, which for higher value coins can get into some serious money and therefore skew the "value" that you obtained versus what others feel is a good deal or a losing proposition. Another driver in your decision is IF you are going to have a TPG grade it, then the total cost to you should include what your outlay would be for shipping (both ways), insurance (if warranted), and grading fees. In the printed Red Book the prices are good for a guide, but are not current to the market, although some online resources do use the Red Book for their pricing. May I suggest a better example: Based upon what you paid, $23 (I will assume from eBay), and the PCGS Price Guide for a VF-25 (benefit of the higher range) being currently $55, you might think that you got this coin for under half market price, but, that PCGS Guide Price is for a slabbed PCGS coin (whose owner had paid the aforementioned costs for grading). You could use eBay itself as a guide for a slabbed VF-20 or VF-25 graded coin, OR, for Seller Identified Self-Grading as that grade, IF you trust their description and photos (you DO need to know how to properly grade coins before assuming that the coin that you will receive is accurately represented). For graded coins, I use Great Collections as their auction results for graded coins (and sometimes, although rarely, they have raw coins that they have also auctioned) IMO, are more representative of what a seller can expect to obtain (an Auctioneer noted for honesty, minimum cost, high visibility, and excellent sell-through) in a market to coin buyers. Here is a link to their Auction Archives for the 1924-D, which shows the coins in Grade Order: https://www.greatcollections.com/Au...arto=&af_s_keywords=&af_gd_min=1&af_gd_max=70 and note that the hammer price for a VF-25 ranges between $25 and $55. BTW, if you want to see a coin's HIGHER Auction or Sale prices realized, you can go to PCGS Coinfacts and see the results for NGC; PCGS; and eBay (if you check the Box "Show eBay".
