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How do I value coins like this?
MKUltra24
Posts: 655 ✭✭✭✭
Greetings everyone!
Now that my coin collection is becoming more valuable I decided to start documenting the values of the stuff I have in case anything happens to me so my family doesn’t get ripped off if they decide to sell it.
So far I’ve just been listing the values by putting 10% below whatever Greysheet says.
But I’m having trouble with coins like this.
All the price guides I have like Red Book, Blue Book and Greysheet only have the prices for regular 1909 VDBs but not with DDO designation.
So how would I approximate a price for something like this?
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PCGS Coinfacts has summaries of auction prices in each grade. Use their summaries, or look at the auctions and generate your own.
That one in that grade is apparently worth about $300 now.
CoinFacts is great for that sort of thing. If it’s a fairly common or known variety, click the plus sign by the year/mm and it’s probably there.
That coin is pretty easy to price.....A PCGS MS64 like yours just sold on ebay for $500 or make offer. Seller accepted offer so it is something less than the asking price of $500.
bob
Thanks everyone! I appreciate your help
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Nice!
I would love to have a coin like that
There are many out there that you can pick up for a reasonable price
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Thanks Bob! 🙏
What I do instead of putting the current value in my spreadsheet (which I would need to adjust periodically), I just put what I paid. If I paid $1000, it’s not likely worth, for example, $50. They would have a ballpark value. And I also put the date I acquired the coin, which might also help in valuation.
Doing it this way might save you some work.
That’s a good idea and I did do that with some stuff where I had difficulty.
But I also have a lot of stuff I received as gifts from my coin collector uncle and I have no idea what he paid but I can’t just put $0 in the spreadsheet since some of that stuff is worth several hundred dollars.
Like this:
Nice coin by the way 🙂
Thats a good idea, becuase I cant tell you the number of times I have family members come in to sell coins they inherited, found going thru belongings of relatives that pass, and the first thing they say is "I found some or inherited some coins, but I dont know a thing about them, or what they are worth.
For thier sake, i am an honest guy, and even thought I purchase to make a profit, Im fair. And there are several dealers much the same, but there are a lot who are not.
many values are shown on cert verification pages
https://pcgs.com/cert/30670382
I’ve often found those prices aren’t very accurate.
For example I just bought a 1799 Draped Bust Dollar in F12 grade and the coinfacts says it’s worth $1750.
I know I paid a couple hundred under that and the dealer paid $60 less than what I paid.
So if I put $1750 for the value my family would never find a buyer and if a dealer saw that they’d assume I overpriced everything and wasn’t realistic with my expectations.
I’d like to think that if my family took my coins in and a dealer saw they were fairly priced and he could still make a good profit on them he would just say:
“Those prices are fair so I can pay you them for your coins.”
..rather than try to milk it for even more with low ball offers.
Like if he sees a coin he knows he could easily sell for $300 and sees I priced it at $250 I’m hoping he’d just pay $250 rather than try to lowball down to like $200 or $175.
Because if they’re fairly priced it shows the owner knows what they are worth and took the time to make things easier.
According to Daniel (CoinHelpU YouTube channel and owner of Portsmouth Coin Shop in Ohio) the worst thing someone can do after inheriting coins is walk into a coin shop and say:
“I don’t know anything about coins. How much will you pay me for these?”
Setting prices using coin facts is fairly reliable. Selling the coins can be different. Unless offering to a venue with a large base, you must find a) An interested party b) Priced to meet the individuals ability to pay. Selling an entire collection (en masse) often will bring less than individually sold coins. Cheers, RickO
yes, you could use a percentage like 80% - but if you put a value on coins, what happens if estate in 30 years uses those numbers and values have tripled?
You are better off providing your heirs with a list of reputable dealers who can sell your coins on consignment.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
For coins like the ones posted, selling them on EBay or consigning them to Heritage or Great Collections wouldn’t be a bad idea either. It may not yield the same prices that a knowledgeable collector could get from shopping coins around individually, but at least it removes the risk of getting lowballed by an unscrupulous dealer.
Well I figure every couple years I could go through and update everything based on new information.
Hopefully if/when I pass away my family doesn’t wait 30 years from when I’m gone before they try to sell it. 😂
Your estimate of 10% less than gray sheet is way too optimistic.
Getting value out of things like minor double dies will be difficult. Many dealers will allow no premium for such things (and I don't blame them for doing so).
If the people doing the selling of the coins don't know what they are doing they will most likely do very poorly.
99% of my coins are not minor varieties.
If a dealer won’t pay 10% under Greysheet for that stuff then they’re probably a dishonest dealer.
You're doing a good thing. Setting expectations at 10% below Greysheet is much better than what most collectors do for their families, which is nothing. And that inevitably leads to disappointment when they try to sell.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
Just trying to make things easier for my family.
I figure if I paid say $1,000 for a coin and Greysheet lists it at $800 then asking $720 for it from a dealer is a fair price.
The dealer can sell it for $1,000 and still make a nice $280 profit on it.
Most dealers are not dishonest but they need to make a good profit if they are to cover expenses and stay in business.
The coins posted on this thread were not my usual coins.
The coins I posted were coins I was having trouble pricing.
Most of my coin collection is non-variety stuff like this.
I understand that but most coin dealers don’t sell for Greysheet prices. They sell for Red Book retail prices or slightly higher.
If you’re talking about my minor variety 1909 VDB I understand what you mean but most of my coins are not coins like that. That’s why I had trouble pricing it in the first place.
If you look at the post I just posted after your last reply you’ll see the stuff most of my collection consists of. Just normal non variety/non error coins.
A dealer can still make a good profit paying 10% under Greysheet and selling for retail price.
As long as your heirs know you gave them a starting point and have the ability to get a few opinions/offers when the time comes, they’ll be just fine.
If you give them a start of 10% back of greysheet and they get paid 10% back of that, they’re at least in the ballpark and not getting 10% of what they actually should.
Agreed.
The coins I’m most concerned about are the ones with precious metals.
For example my 1932 MS63 $10 Indian Head Gold Eagle has almost 1/2oz of gold. (0.48 troy oz to be precise)
But I only paid $800 for it because gold was much lower when I bought it.
Now if a dealer paid $800 for it he would literally be paying like 20% under melt for an MS gold coin.
Heck last month I was going to sell it and APMEX offered me $1,004 for it.
Who knows Gold could go even higher.
So it’s hard with coins like that where a dramatic rise in gold price could dramatically increase the value of the coin due to precious metal content alone.
On the PM ones can you say spot+$100 or something like that?
I know a lot of them have a somewhat stable adder over melt.
Yeah that’s a good idea.
I’ll write that along with the kitco website to find the spot price.
I also wrote down to get quotes from APMEX since they pay decent prices.
I bought my $10 Indian Head Gold Eagle from them for $840 back in 2015 and last month they quoted that they would pay $1,004 for it.