I am trying to determine the best pricing guide to go by when trying to evaluate deals on e-Bay and elsewhere. I have been to the PCGS price guide and to the Coin Dealer Newsletter site where they have the Greysheet, Bluesheet and Greensheet. I thought some opinions by the experts on this site would be prudent before buying anything. Thanks in advance!
Actually, ebay itself is about the best pricing guide there is. Just do a search of completed auctions for the coin you wish to know about. I know many folks recommend the Grey Sheet - but there is a small problem with this. The Grey Sheet only list wholesale prices - prices that one dealer is bidding or asking from another dealer. It does not list the prices that you as collector can buy the coins for - only dealers. But if you must or wish to use the Grey Sheet - then add 20% to the listed asking price and you'll be close to what you will have to pay. I would strongly suggest that EVERYONE subscribe to Coin World and Numismatic News. These two coin magazines both issue price guides once a month as part of your regular subscription. The guides are known as Coin Values & Coin Market respectively. The values listed in these guides are not cast in stone and they are not always accurate. But they do provide a general idea of retail values which is what a collector needs if considering a purchase instead of wholesale values. Because a collector can't buy at wholesale - only a dealer can.
I agree. For collectors, auction prices are by far the best way to judge prices. Be sure to check out other auction firms though. Heritage, Bowers, Superior and such. The greysheet is a nice tool to use to judge a lot of coin values at once, but most collectors do not need to have a subscription. More often than not, the greysheet will only lead to confusion.
I have bought several coins off ebay for, and even below, grey sheet pricing. Most do go for 10% - 20% over, but it still a good buying tool for collectors.
The only problem I have seen with checking prices of coins that have already sold, is those prices can also vary. I have seen the same year and grade coin sell several days apart for $10 - $20 difference. There are many variables that dictate pricing on ebay with ending day and time of sale being a big factor. You can average pricing, but that is no different than other pricing guides. I guess the best guide is to research several sources, set your own price and don't pay over that.
It would seem that you have just realized something that I have been trying to teach a great many people for a great many years. And something that has been repeated here ad infinitum - there is no set price or value for any given coin !! There never has been - there never will be. The best you can hope for is a ballpark figure
Thanks to all for your help! What I have been doing so far is putting some lowball bid on a few items of interest and see how a particular coin or set is trending. It seems to make it easier to keep them top of mind in my "bidding' folder. I have been getting a pretty good feel that way but I just bought one issue of the greysheet to give me a little better frame of reference as to where my low bid should be. I also plan to look into some of those other auction sites that Nat'l Dealer mentioned above. I guess there is life beyond eBay?!?
After I consult several pricing references, it always comes down to "how much am I really willing to spend"
Something else you may wish to be aware of - buying one copy of the Grey Sheet is not very helpful. You need to buy 4 issues - one for each week in the month. This is because a single issue of the Grey Sheet does not contain all of the different coin series. One week covers say the first set of series - next week covers another - and so on. Until 4 weeks have passed when all coin series are covered. And by all means - check prices at every auction you can find. Check ebay, TeleTrade, Heritage, Superior, American Numismatic Rarities, Goldberg, Steinberg, Bowers & Marena, Ponterio - just to name a few.
I have been patiently waiting for someone to post useful information regarding world coins, but even the darksiders among those who have posted are concentrating on liteside stuff. Unless there are reliable English language guides, or the collector is fluent in the language of the country of interest and has access to guides in that language, the basic starting point is generally considered to be Krause. But, and this is an important "but", Krause is only useful as a starting point, and not as a final arbiter. Just as with U.S. coins, auction prices realized are key, but because of the smaller bidder base, the fluctuations can be pretty extreme. The annual Japanese Numismatic Dealers Association catalog gives retail values for the Japanese home market, which are generally quite a bit higher than Krause. At last year's Osaka Coin Show many of the dealers were pretty rigidly pricing their coins at JNDA catalog. I saw a similar tendency at the few coin stores I visited in the Tokyo area on that same trip. At the Long Beach Show, on the other hand, although there were few dealers with any significant amount of Japanese material, most of them seemed to be basing their prices on Krause. In my experience Krause is more accurate on common and mid-grade material, overly high on lower grade material, and sometimes quite low on the rare or really good stuff. In the end, it boils down to an individualized decision - which do I want more, a particular coin, or the amount of money it will cost me to add it to my collection; but familiarity with the market is like chicken soup - it can't hurt. One thing that should never be forgotten in buying on eBay, or any other venue where you aren't there to pay for and pick up the coin, is that the "cost" of a coin includes not only its price, but all the associated costs of getting it into your hands - shipping/handling/insurance, and sometimes sales tax. For instance, in California coin sales of less than $1,000 for delivery in the State are taxable at 7 to 8-1/4%, depending on the county of the seller's location. When I am bidding on-line my first step is to set a maximum I'm willing to go for the coin. I then subtract shipping/handling charges and sales tax, if any, to come up with the top bid I am willing to place, either directly in the auction, or through a sniping program. I always remember two things: 1) There is no shame in being back bidder; and 2) Back bidder actually sets the price, as the winner buys for one increment more than the back bidder's limit even if he/she is willing to pay much more. (I once won an eBay item at the 99¢ opening bid, because no one else saw what I spotted in the picture, even though I had entered a max bid of a couple of hundred dollars. )
