I'm wondering what price list(s) you use to value your U.S. Coins. I am currently trading off between the Red Book of U.S. Coins & Coin World's Coin Values Price List. My entire collection currently is run on the Coin World Coin Values Magazine. I have also noticed that the PCGS Price Guide is being used more frequently by collectors, but what I dont like about it is that it doesn't list the values of VG and VF. Some of you, I have read, use the Grey Sheet coin prices. I'll let this article run until I have 10-20 answers or more to decide which is most popular to use for valueing my collection. Thanks a bunch everyone.
I tend to use Coin Values with the knowledge that I should pay less than that for most stuff especially at shows and local dealers. In other words, I use it as a guide. Unless the PCGS site has been improved, my impression of it has been that it is unrealistically high in most cases for the stuff I collect. Don't know much about the greysheet. Does it list all grades for raw collector coins or is it mostly for the types of coins found in slabs?
Personally I don't use any price list or guide - none of them are accurate. If I want to know the value I look up every individual coin in auction records.
My price guide is what I'm willing to pay or sell at....I do try to research the item by Online auctions.....cheaper than Gray Sheet or anything else Stu It list prices in BID and ASK....in raw shape....and yes its all grades.....G-MS67 I think in most cases....I've only gotten a few copies of the GS so I could be wrong. The Blue Sheet is for NGC and PCGS graded coins. Speedy
price list bullion related price list are not accurate. because it fructuated every day and every minute. you must know how to calculate. for other coins. the dealers or whoever like to sell to me at a lowest price that i am willing to pay. that is the final price. price list from magaziness or books are outdated. because by the time you buy the book and the time they gathered the price and print it. it might be a year a so time gap.
Most Definintely look for prices under Grey Sheet whenever possible; that only seems to be common sense, but Speedy-to go by more gut than a hand-held reference can be quite a risky venture. You should always have something on hand to go by when purchasing a coin or coins.
Gotcha. I have seen a couple of copies of the greysheet but have never really investigated them much so I wasn't sure. Thanks.
ALL price lists have become useless lately. I used to just go by the Red Book for an ESTIMATE of value. If I wanted to evaluate my coins for insurance purposes, I would add about 20% to the Red Book prices. If I go out to buy a coin at a coin show, then there is no price guide, only what I am willing to pay determines what a coin is worth. Most dealers at coin shows always pull out the grey sheet around here and if the coin has a price on it, I walk away. To me that means that they are going to give me a song and dance story about how the coin had the price put on a long time ago and am I lucky because right here in the grey sheet it says................ I've never sold a coin so don't have the faintest idea of what I'd use for an evaluation if I did.
If the question is about how to VALUE the coins instead of how to PRICE the coins, then something like the greysheet is probably the worst method that can be used. It is basically a guide to what you will receive in a distress sale, if you have to sell NOW. One weakness I've noticed in collectors [being more of an investor myself] is that they don't really make a distinction between price and value, usually believing they are the same thing. I usually start with the Redbook prices over the past 10 years or so to try to estimate a range of value in good and bad coin markets and high and low gold and silver prices and inflation. Once I fix a likely range of value for a coin, only then do I bother to examine recent auction prices to see if the coin is selling closer to the high or low end of the range. If there is something ususual or special about a coin that invalidates past pricing and permanently changes the supply/demand relationship [such as the discovery of a previously unknown supply of that particular coin], then this method won't work. If you absolutely have to have a coin and you have to have it now, or if you absolutely have to sell a coin and you want to sell it now, you're going to get the auction price which may be higher than, lower than, or approximately equal to the VALUE of the coin. But most people seem to disagree with this approach, so feel free to ignore it.
True---but I'm able to keep a good amount of info in my head and so the coins I'm looking for I can remember the prices for the grades I'm hunting... Like a 1950 PF66 Franklin will be anywhere from $400-$550....luster and cameo and such play into that....if I see one for sale in that price range I know I'm not going to overspend. Many coins like that are in my head and most of the time I'm pretty near the right price. When I find a coin at a show I don't know I ask for the Gray sheet and look it over....other wise I wait till I can view some ended auctions and get an idea for value...then that is booked in my head for later use. It is risky....and I'm sure I have messed up at some times...but if I like the coin and I feel the price is right...that is all that matters. At shows at such it is a pain to carry about books and such if you can remember such details of coins you are hunting in your head....the show I go too is about 2 hours away....so on the way there I refresh my mind and read about the coins I'll be hunting...I go over the prices I've marked down and then when I get to the show I'm pretty much ready! Speedy
I personally use an Exell worksheet at list several different values/prices Red book, PCGS, Coin Prices and Completed auctions. I enter and update this about every 2-4 weeks for insurance purposes... and it makes me feel good.. Some go up, some go down but mostly I am just glad I have the coin..
This I think is the best method to get and average (not to high -PCGS/Red book- not to low -Grey Sheet-). Personal right now I use: Red Book, PCGS, Numismedia, Hertiage Auction Relized Prices and one other that I can't recall right now...but this I think is the best way to get a true value of a coin.
Ultimately the value of any coin depends entirely on the particular coin. However, as a source of information in pricing a coin I feel the most valuable reference to be Heritage auction archives. For non-modern coins, the PCGS price guide is more accurate than it is given credit for, IMHO. The greysheet is also a valuable pricing data source. As a collector, I rarely require more than those three sources (and my own eye) to value the coins I buy and sell...Mike
Just make a list of as many price lists as possible, use the forulas in Excel to add them all and then divide by the number of lists to get the average. However, that would mean adding all the different conditions, of all the different denominations of each organizations lists and where some don't agree with a condition, you would have to improvise. For example if the Red Book lists shows a XF20 and the grey sheet shows a XF50 you would have to average it into a XF35 I guess. Then if you are using 4 different lists and each one had a different XF rating you'ld either become a mathamatician or go nuts. Now if you need such a list for about 20 different types of coins you would be about 500 years old when it's completed and by then coins will no longer exist. This averaging systems of making your own price list is great for someone that has nothing to do or a math student looking for a project for extra credit. And when done, if possible, and you go to coin show to buy a certain coin and show the dealer your list and demand he sells that coin to you for the price on your list, don't be surprized if you get a good laugh and are told to take your list and ..............
