Do you trust the prices listed here??

sliderider

I was wondering because I have been buying a lot of high grade material for a lot less than what the price guides here say they are worth. Is there a price guide online that I can consider as gospel as far as accuracy is concerned? It seems fishy to me that I can buy PCGS slabbed coins on ebay for a tenth of the values shown in the price listings here.


Edit: By 'here' I mean the PCGS website. I link to here from there. Some of you may come here directly or link from someplace else.

Sequitur

Hey slide. I would search the forum archives -- this has been discussed quite a bit, lots of good information.

kieferscoins

No price guide is gospel and consider the PCGS guide as a disciple trying to lead you astray. (its usually way off)

Cameron Kiefer

rlawsha

Give us an example and we may be able to help.

Sequitur

Link.

kranky

Some of the PCGS prices are close, others are way off. Depends on the coin. If your coins are nice, the best reference is the Heritage auction archives and Teletrade. If they aren't the type of coins to appear in auctions, consider the Greysheet or the Coin World-issued Coin Values magazine.

Steve27

Most of the prices for moderns are twice what you would pay on eBay, while in other areas the guide is much better. David Hall has talked about improving it several times in the Q&A forum, but even then, it will still reflect high retail (they consider eBay to be wholesale).

sliderider

OK

Example 1

Sale closed for $39.00, Coin Universe price=$350.00

Example 2

Sale closed for $74.33, Coin Universe price=$750.00

beartracks42

I agree with Kranky. There are many different degrees of coins within any grade. Some are PQ for the grade and some will make you scratch your head and wonder how it got in that slab. The best a price guide can offer is a high and low boundary for you to start from, in my opinion. I usually rely more on greysheet plus or minus a percentage versus PCGS guide.




Edited for mis-spelling.

sliderider

I am focusing on PCGS graded coins right now and use a combination of the price guide and the population guide, leaning much more towards the population guide, as my determining factor as to what I should limit my bids to.

rlawsha

You gave two good examples of how the price guide is wrong. Both coins are listed as the highest grade in the price guide. The top tier is usually the price that is off the most in my experience. Whenever I am looking to buy a coin that I am not familiar with as far as price goes, I check eBay history along with Teletrade and Heritage archives. I may even check a few dealers’ web sites to see what they are selling the coin for. Once you get familiar with a series you can use the PCGS price guide as a quick reference. If you are looking at a particular coin like a Morgan dollar and you see that it's PCGS price guide price is the same as something common like an 1882-S you can be pretty sure of it's price. But if you are dealing with the top end of the grade, check other places.

kryptonitecomics

<< <i>I am focusing on PCGS graded coins right now and use a combination of the price guide and the population guide, leaning much more towards the population guide, as my determining factor as to what I should limit my bids to. >>




Sounds like a reasonable way to pursue coins


Good luck with your set!

UncleWiggly

If it's a coin that sold in a Heritage Auction recently, you should be able to check the price on their website. I go check there allot when researching the prices on Morgans.


Jerry

dorkkarl

you'd have to be 95% fruitcake to believe that price guide.

K S

Shamika

Check out auction archives at Teletrade and Heritage. They're more accurate.