Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="GDJMSP, post: 3092379, member: 112"]Jay the question and topic you're asking about comes up a LOT ! I think you'd have a hard time even counting the number of threads and posts that have discussed it. And if you tried to read them you'd see all kinds of different answers offered by many different people. But the real answer to your question is kinda complicated. First of all you have to realize that ALL price guides are worthless, meaningless. Not a single one of them is accurate or even close to accurate. As a general rule the values listed in price guides are way too high. And I say as a general rule because it depends on a couple things, first what you're calling a price guide, and second which specific coin you're talking about. For example some might consider the Krause catalogs a price guide, and some of the prices/values listed in there are too low, others are too high. That's just an example of an exception to the general rule I mentioned above. And when you asked - is it a ploy ? Well yes in a way. In other words prices guides have an agenda, meaning there's a reason that they list the prices that they use. They keep them high as an incentive to get the public to use them and to perpetuate their businesses. They tell people what they want to hear in other words instead of just telling them the truth. Now if you doubt that, simply don't believe it's true, and I don't mean just you I mean anybody, there's a real simple way to test it. All you have to do is look at 6 or 8 of the different price guides and look up 1 specific coin in 1 specific grade. And if you do, what you'll see is that they are all different, sometimes vastly different. When ya see that it becomes obvious that it's impossible for them to all be right, or they wouldn't be different. But since they are all different, it is possible that they are ALL wrong. If you do your homework you soon find out that they are all wrong, that they are all way too high. Real world values are almost always quite a bit lower than anything you'll see in any price guide. So what are the real world values of coins, who sets them, and where can you find them ? The answers to those questions are fairly simple but for some they can be difficult to obtain. For others it's quite easy. The real world values for coins are set by coin dealers. And the easiest way to find them is to get access to the electronic dealer markets. Do that and you'll have your answers in less than 5 minutes - for any coin. The real world value of any coin at any given moment is in between the lowest Ask and the highest Bid on the electronic dealer markets. And these values can and do change from day to day. But if you don't have access to those markets then you have to do some work, spend some time and put out some effort. You have to look up the realized auction prices for a given coin in a given grade. And you can only use the major auction houses as your sources. Once you do that you'll establish price range. That range will usually vary, how much depends on how high the number is. If the coin is worth hundreds it may only vary by 200-300, if thousands then 2-3 thousand, and so on so on for maximums. But sometimes it'll be less and the minimums will be much closer. But there's always a range, there is never just 1 single number. The reason there's always a range is because no two coins are equal, even if they are the same grade and both graded by the same TPG, no two coins are equal. One is always nicer in one way or another than the other coin. And because one is always nicer the 2 coins will have sold for different prices. None of that is probably what you wanted to hear but that is the real answer.[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches