Is it time for pricing guides to mark down common coins?

291fifth

Is there really a market for this kind of material or does it just sit and sit at current price guide levels?

RedTiger

Sure there is a market. At my local coin club, common Indian cents and other similarly low grade common raw coins often get Redbook retail price bids.

The time, energy and labor required to price and sort a lot of the common raw material accounts for some of the pricing. The markup might be 5 cents to $1 on a low grade early teens P mint wheat cent, but factor in the time and the dealer might be making $10 an hour if they can find retail buyers.

Some stuff does tend to trade for below guide such as common clad 1970 era proof sets with average coins. How low do you want the guides to go? The other question is why guides should spend much time updating prices on material that may account for 0.1% of the dollar volume at active coin dealers? Wholesale to retail pricing already shows the very wide gap (eg: wheat cent example above 5 cents wholesale, maybe $1 retail). All active dealers know the typical pricing. What should the price guide show? The wholesale of 5 cents? Come on now. What is the point?

/edit to add: go to any coin show. At many shows, some of the more active tables have low priced raw material at retail prices in binders or in rows of boxes. Many collectors enjoy that kind of low cost entertainment. It doesn't add up to much in terms of dollar volume, but in terms of number of coins, number of new collectors, number of young collectors, there is a lot there.

MisterBungle

"Is it time for pricing guides to mark down common coins?"
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No, I think it's time for price guides to mark down *RARE* coins!!

There're some coins I want to buy!!



~

ricko

No, price guides are just that.. a guide to general value of coins. Actual value may vary depending on the market or the buyer. Cheers, RickO

RYK

One thing I like about the PCGS price guide is that they do regularly mark down coin prices.

Coin price guides are controlled by the numismatic establishment, and it is generally, psychologically, bad for business to mark down prices.

Lakesammman

I trust the folks who are in the market daily to know.

PCGS does a great job, especially on coins that are really just bullion.

The segment that concerns me are the really thinly traded ones - hard to know what they are really worth as the guides have little to go on.

291fifth

<< <i>One thing I like about the PCGS price guide is that they do regularly mark down coin prices.

Coin price guides are controlled by the numismatic establishment, and it is generally, psychologically, bad for business to mark down prices. >>



And that is why the prices of common items tend to be too high. No one wants to see the value of their inventory decline.

By the way, my definition of common items goes far beyond the kind of junk you find in Sunday bourse dealers flip pages.

bidask

I tend to think so...